Russian reading skills. teaching children.

[Lara Ravitch]

In regards to inspiring children to read Russian, I agree with several posters who have pointed to the value of a peer group that values Russian language and literacy. There are, of course, many ways to establish such a peer group, including sending a child to visit with family and friends in Russia, attending Russian activities with other Russian-speaking kids on weekends or after school, etc. 
My personal favorite, of course, is sending kids to Lesnoe Ozero, the Russian language immersion camp in Minnesota, of which I am the director. The nice benefit of this environment is that the heritage learners (like the child in question) mix with kids who are learning Russian as a foreign language, so they benefit from being in an environment where having good Russian (and actually being Russian - wow!) is the height of coolness. We also have a very strong curriculum for both pre-literate and literate heritage learners. We have family programs, too, for those of you with the littler ones, and I have to say that as a parent of a toddler who I'm trying to raise bilingual, it's amazing to see the difference in his Russian after just two days of hanging out with the super-fun Russian-speaking counselors and other kids. 
I'll stop the reklama here - feel free to contact me if you are interested

Lara "Лара" Ravitch
Dean, Lesnoe Ozero
Concordia Russian Language Village
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