Download an interactive tool to help your family include 15 minutes of reading every day

What is your child doing over spring break? Why not help them develop a love of reading and improve their literacy skills by reading aloud for 15 minutes every day? HISD has partnered with the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation, Houston Hispanic Forum, Literacy Advance of Houston, Region 4 Educational Service Center, and the Houston Public Library to develop a fun, interactive way for parents and children to incorporate 15 minutes of reading into their busy schedules every day.

Download the tool below and print it out, stick it on your refrigerator, and every time you complete an activity with your child, mark it with X, put a sticker on it, or have them color in the box.

English flyer (.pdf)                                          Spanish flyer (.pdf)

You can also share photos of you and your child in action by using the hashtag #Discover15 and #Literacyby3 when posting on social media. Select photos will be shared by the Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation and on HISD’s social media channels.

Independent reading and reading aloud are important strategies of the district’s Literacy by 3 movement. Reading aloud for 15 minutes a day is critically important during a child’s earliest years of life, and reading aloud through the elementary years has been shown to instill a love of reading. In a recent study, researchers found that not only does reading aloud throughout elementary school expose children to more complex words or stories than when they read alone, but they are also more likely to read more books independently in later years.