Books are an essential part of a home, but did you also know how versatile a single book can be and can add to your family in a variety of ways beyond reading it one or two times?  I recently heard this explained through the term: CPR or Cost Per Read.  It is appropriate too, considering how VITAL books are to children’s development.  Essentially, this concept, which is not actually new, helps us to see each individual book through multiple lenses.  Each book can be read and used multiple ways and times!  Let’s think about book a child might learn to read with:

Additional Use #1:  The first read, an adult may read to the child, with interactions discussing the characters and what they did and why they did it.

Additional Use #2:  The second read, perhaps the adult reads most words, but pauses to let the child join or read independently some selected words that he or she can decipher using phonemic knowledge or the context and experience reading the book before.

Additional Use #3: After a few reads the child may take on even more of the independent reading.

Beyond these simple acts of reading, you can also expect your child to gain new vocabulary from the book as he reads it and listens to it multiple times.  Words that were new, become more firmly understood, and you may even hear your child test out some of the new vocabulary words- especially if you model using some of them as well!

This can be applied to so many more books too! Not just in the stage of learning to read. Picture books have much to glean over becoming old favorites- helping children learn and understand the basics of a story arc and how most stories are formed.  They grow in their ability to predict and evaluate as well as understand cause and effect.  All essential parts of so much more in learning.  Independent readers will return to favorite novels that they felt connected to characters.  They too will grow their vocabularies (have you learned a new word from a books??) with each reread, notice depth and themes that might not have been apparent to them in a previous read due to their own age or experiences at the time.

Are you starting to think of the possibilities? Can you think of some books that have aged with your children and been used over and over??

Let me know on Facebook at m.me/kaitlynclair OR at kaitlynclair@gmail.com what books have really made the CPR list at your house!