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Harding students pack in reading for the summer
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
A reinvigorated Parent-Teacher Organization at Harding Elementary School wants to ensure children don’t backslide in their learning during the summer.
They mounted a fundraising effort and bought backpacks and books for Harding children to read this summer.
“A lot of kids just play video games or watch television,” said Terry Wilkie, PTO president. “That’s not doing anything for you.”
Parents need to encourage their children to read — and to read with them, he said.
Anita Chin, PTO secretary, agreed.
Helping children learn takes work from both teachers and parents, she said.
The group raised more than $1,700 — $1,500 from companies and organizations and $200 from parents — to buy the Scholastic books.
Children who wanted to participate in the reading program paid $3 with the PTO covering the remainder of the cost of the books and backpack.
“Each child gets four books,” Chin said.
The PTO became more active in January, and this marks the first year for the school’s summer reading program, she said.
Wilkie hopes it becomes an annual event.
His grandson, Tony Wilkie, 7, a second-grader at Harding, says he enjoys reading.
“It’s fun,” he said.
Kindergartner Ayonna Patterson, 6, selected “Bathtime for Biscuit” as the summer selection she most looks forward to reading. Biscuit the dog is featured in several books that Ayonna has at home, said her mother, Jolene Newsome, PTO treasurer.
Daily reading is a requirement for kindergartner Ja’Kayla Martin, 6, and third-grader Ja’Kyra Martin, 9, according to their grandmother, Geraldine Allen.
Ja’Kyra has to read 30 minutes per day and sometimes deliver a report to her mother about what she reads.
“Wherever we go, we take books,” Allen said.
Ja’Kyra likes to read chapter books and her current favorite is the Junie B. Jones series.
“She’s a first-grade girl,” Ja’Kyra explained. “She gets in trouble in school.”
Fourth-grader Treshaunti Brown, 9, first selected an autobiography of Bessie Coleman for her summer reading.
“She was one of the first people to fly an airplane,” she explained.
Coleman was the first black female pilot.
Treshaunti’s grandmother, Traphena Brown, said that when she’s at home, Treshaunti likes to read her children’s Bible and write summaries about the stories.
Third-grader Joseph Boylen, 10, likes books about animals and stayed true to that in his selection of “The Amazing Book of Mammal Records” for one of his summer reads.
His mother, Ann Boylen, said she’s been encouraging Joseph to read.