One Helena family is getting creative with reading at home while kids are away from school.
7-year-old Blaise Randash is taking time each day to read to his “pets” — including a piglet, silkie chickens, rabbits and more.
“It's good for Blaise to practice reading and constantly be reading,” said Blaise’s mom Susie on FaceTime today. “And it's also good for the animals, because he gets to spend time with the animals, and they like the attention too. So it's just kinda something we kept doing. We have a lot of animals, and a lot of days at home.”
Blaise is in the first grade at Hawthorne Elementary School. Susie said his librarian teacher encouraged students to read to pets or stuffed
animals...and the Randash family happily obliged!
Blaise’s favorite book to read to his animals is Bad Kitty.
He reads one book each day to a different animal, including one piglet.
Susie said the piglet was initially unhealthy, and they thought it might not survive. But she’s gotten healthier since Blaise started holding and reading to “Shirley Temple."
“She is really cute,” said Blaise.
Typically, Blaise reads with his “Book Pal,” Mr. Bob, at school once a week. Since schools are shut down, Susie said they’ve been sharing photos of Blaise reading with some of his new book pals — all of his animals!
Susie said she hopes the photos of Blaise and his animals can encourage other families to keep reading at home while making it fun and reach out to people they’re not seeing right now.
