Reading to Kids with JHRTS!

The JHRTS group at Reading to Kids

Saturday morning I headed off in the drizzle to Los Angeles Elementary School, only a ten minute drive from my house. It's towards downtown, and just a little south of me. It looks very much like the elementary school just a block away from us here on Abbey Place. When I arrived, there were no kids. Just a crowd of adults, clutching coffee, grabbing bagels, and sitting down to study picture books.

Yes, picture books.

See, we were all there, over 100 of us, for the Reading to Kids program that happens every second Saturday of the month, year round, at seven public elementary schools in the downtown Los Angeles area. It's a program aimed not just at getting kids to learn to read but to love to read. We were there to engage them and entertain them and make them want to read a book all on their own just for the fun of it. And even though the kids wouldn't arrive for over an hour, we had to prepare. We'd be on our own for an hour and twenty minutes, with our group, a book, and some craft supplies. And the rest was up to us.

My partner Drew had volunteered before. Just once but that made him a veteran, even earned him a special destination on his badge. He knew the drill. And then there was me, and a bunch from the Junior Hollywood Radio and Television Society (JHRTS), and we were eager. So eager.

We were assigned our groups. Drew and I got three little boys, all 4 years old and in preschool. All varying degrees of learning abilities and interests. And off we went. We splashed in the puddles as we made our way to our classroom. We gathered around the table and wrote our names on our name tags. It was ok if your name didn't fit, we squished in the letters below the first line. The we set off on a picture walk - we looked at the book and we wondered what the story might be about. Our book was The Lonely Octopus and we counted fish and talked about eels and ran our fingers over shark teeth in the pictures and we got up to do crab walks.

My kindergarten materials

That was a big moment for me in the day. We came upon some crabs in the book and I spontaneously asked the boys if they knew how to walk like a crab. We all knew how to pinch like one but no one else knew how to move like one so we hopped up and bent our knees and scooted around the room looking completely silly.

And it was perfect.

There are those moments when you completely lose yourself to what is going on in front of you. All around you. Saturday morning was one of those moments. I'd signed up for the volunteer activity for two reasons. One, because I like kids, I like reading to kids and I thought it would be a fun way to spend a few hours. But the second reason I'd signed up to volunteer was to network. I joined JHRTS in January at the urging of a friend who's a member. He plied me with stories of industry mentors and engaging panels and screenwriting contests. I couldn't resist. I paid my money and joined up. So far I've been to a couple of events, and met a couple of people but am still finding my way in the large organization. And I figured Saturday would prove to be a good opportunity to mingle with some like-minded industry folks. And I wasn't wrong.

I met just about everyone in our group and talked about working in the business. We shared stories and exchanged info and did the usual small talk. But it was a chance to really engage with a few people. I liked it. So much more than I liked the Happy Hour I attended last month. The atmosphere was perfect for chatting and then moving on. But more than at a normal networking event, I felt at ease at the school. I was on familiar territory. And the people I engaged with and I all had more common ground to discuss than just the usual what do you do. And it was a chance to be silly. And what can be better than that?

Under the sea - clownfish & shapes!

After crab walking we moved through the book. Then Drew read the book while I listened to tiny whispers and pulled legs off the table and got hugs. And when the lonely octopus twirled, we got up and twirled. And when she shook her arms, we got up and shook our arms. And it was perfect.

For that hour and ten minutes I didn't think about my phone. I didn't worry about how to explain that I'm a writer but you've never seen anything I've written. I didn't worry about looking the part or saying something I'd later think was dumb. I got to read about octopi and teach a four year old how to use scissors and make sure the glue sticks worked. We didn't worry about the kids all making the perfect craft or writing their Os just so as we might in school. We let each boy pick a project and let them go. One boy had me draw a clownfish for him to color and cut out. Then he added shapes and seaweed. His masterpiece was perfect. Another drew a realistic shark and cut it out and had Drew attach it to a tube of paper to make a puppet. And the last little boy loved the way the coffee filter we found in our craft box felt and we cut out a fish and some waves to glue on to it. All so different, all so much their own visions.

And when we handed each student a book to take home and lined up to head back to the cafeteria for dismissal, I couldn't help but smile widely. Reading can be so much fun. It can spark a creative force that was never present before that book was opened and the pages were read. It can inspire art and forge friendships. It can cause dancing and hugs and learning. How great is that. Seriously. How great?!?!