Spring is officially here! This season of renewal and growth offers an engaging time for young readers to learn all about plants, gardening, and taking care of the world around them.

Don't miss these 13 children's books with Black protagonists all about gardens!

Eight-year-old Isabel is growing the greatest treasure, an oyamel tree. Every autumn, an amazing transformation happens, turning Isabel’s tree into La casa de las maripositas - The House of Butterflies.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama takes an idea, brings it to life, and inspires a nation. Read about how she and others built a big and wonderful garden, in the White House with no prior experience.

Growing food in soil so depleted from years of cotton production had people in rural Alabama struggling to produce. Thanks to the help of Dr. George Washington Carver, some farmers and school children learn how to restore their soil, rediscover the necessary balance of nature, and grow delicious foods for their communities and families.

A dad takes two old potatoes that his daughter finds in their cupboard and tries to grow new ones. As these new potatoes emerge, Dad and daughter adjust to a new life together facing change that is not that easy to deal with - divorce. 

A book of garden poems inspires Lola to build a garden of her own. After choosing her plants from the library, she and her mom buy seeds to  make her garden. They have planted the seeds, now they have to wait for the growth. 

Jayden is set out  to show his mom the nature he sees, in the city. He has the help of his friend Mr. Curtis to plant seeds for a community garden. This garden brings the community, neighbors, and Jayden’s mom together.

Marley comes up with a grand idea to make getting new friends easier for her and her siblings. after a recent move from Jamaica to Delaware. She coordinates an outdoor concert until bad weather disrupts her plans. Read about how her neighbors show up and stand out with their help. 

​Mackenzie is fed up with being taunted by her classmates about her “unruly” hair. She gets help from her neighbor Miss Tillie, who shows her how to care for her care for her beautiful hair.

​Based on a true story, Tony Hillery works with some restless youth at an underfunded school to turn a vacant lot into a beautiful farm. Years later, with support, thousands of fruits and veggies grow a year.

Relive some special moments with Grandma, as she weaves vibrant stories, taking a trip down memory lane in rural Jamaica.

This book provides fun and engaging ways for young readers to learn problem solving skills and concepts. Messy Bessy learns that with the right care, she can take good care of her garden.

​On the best day to plant a garden, peas are planted in the backyard. This book has easy rhyming words to enhance the reading experience and give young students phonemic awareness practice.

With so many students learning from home over the next several weeks, we wanted to share a compilation of free learning resources and fun educational/literacy activities parents can share with their kids. Leave a comment if you know of more that we can add to the list!

Free Children's Stories Audiobooks
Audible has opened their collection of children's stories for kids everywhere to stream for free on any desktop, phone, laptop, or tablet. Explore their vast collection of stories (including titles available in six different languages) and incorporate them into daily learning or family reading time! Learn more >

30 Virtual Field Trips for Kids
Museums, national parks, famous landmarks, zoos, even space . . . there are so many places your kids can go right from the comfort of home. Check out this awesome list of 30 virtual field trips from The Educators Spin On It that your kids can take today. Learn more

Mo Willems Lunch Doodle
The popular author of much-loved kids books like Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus is hosting a shared doodle time on Youtube every Monday (videos release at 1 p.m. ET). Learn more

Storyline Online
Upgrade story time with some of your favorite celebrity friends! The award-winning children's literacy website from the SAG-AFTRA Foundation allows kids and parents to stream famous and celebrated actors reading popular children's books with accompanying illustrations. Learn more

Virtual Book Club for Kids
Do you have little ones who adore construction stuff, space, or pirates? Right now, Virtual Book Club for Kids is offering these select activity books for FREE (until Apr. 30, 2020). You can also find free weekly learning activity plans for a range of other subjects including gardening, rainbows, colors, and more. Learn more

The Learning Network (Ages 13+)
The New York Times is giving middle and high school students a unique way to practice reading, writing, comprehension, and critical thinking. Every week, The Learning Network provides new writing prompts surround a variety of issues (based on Times articles, videos, photographs, graphs, and, illustrations). Learn more

Scholastic Learn at Home
Choose from a variety of at-home learning activities for kids from Pre-K to 6th grade and up in Scholastic's free Learn at Home program. Kids can engage in fun and educational lessons about everything from animals to plants, life science, social studies, and more. Learn more

ReadWorks.org Reading & Comprehension Activities
Parents can access reading passages and all the instructional materials that go with them (i.e., comprehension questions) for free from ReadWorks.org. Choose by grade, topic, difficulty level and more.  Learn more

Free Coloring Pages from Asheville Art Museum
Check out Asheville Art Museum's "Color Our Art" campaign featuring free coloring pages celebrating the works of one of their featured artists, Lorna Blaine Halper who studies at Black Mountain College from summer 1945 through the spring term of 1948. Check it out

Story Time from Space
Looking for an "out of this world" idea to get your kids excited about reading? Then tune in to NASA's Story Time from Space, a project from the Global Space Education Foundation, where astronauts aboard the International Space Station read engaging stories (with follow-along text and pictures). Check it out

Free Blank Comic Book Pages
Artist and author of the EngiNerds book series, Jared Lerner, is creating free downloadable comic book pages for kids to draw and write on to tell their own unique story. Great for little artists and fans of books series like EngiNerds, Dog Man, and Lunch Lady! Check it out

Additional Lists of FREE Educational Resources and Learning Activities:
10 Great Free Websites for Elementary School (via Common Sense Education)
10 Free Online Educational Game Sites (via Mindshift KQED)
36 Free Education Websites Parents Can Access While Schools Are Closed (via PopSugar)
For older students & parents: 450 Free Online Ivy League Courses (via Free Code Camp)

*Note: Spectrum is offering free internet for qualified households (including a free internet modem and no contract). Learn more

This weekend Read to Succeed will accept an award as the 2014 ACSF "Grassroots Partner Champion." All of us who contribute to R2S with time, money and/or talent are thrilled with this recognition. Thank you, everyone!

As I thought about the upcoming event I realized how often people ask me about R2S and what drew me to the organization.

The answer is easy: I was a newcomer to Asheville, recently retired, and looking for a way to connect with the community. I read a guest commentary in the Asheville Citizen-Times, written by our dynamo board member, Catherine Alter, and I knew this was where I needed to be.

I'd like to honor Catherine by re-publishing her newspaper piece, which inspired me and most of the September 2012 literacy coach trainees. She is one of a handful of founding board members without whom this program would little more than a good idea.

And who know? It may resonate with you, or with someone near to you. Please share this with others. We're taking names for our Fall 2014 training session. If you think, as I did, think this might be a good fit, contact our volunteer coordinator, at the end of the article below.

(Note: when Catherine's piece was written, we had 13 reading coaches in one Asheville elementary school. Today we're in 4 of 5 city schools and the number of reading coaches have almost quadrupled. Yes, we ARE making a difference!)

Welcome to the first ever edition of the R2S Blog!

It's a wonderful opportunity to share some exciting news: Read to Succeed Asheville is honored by the Asheville City Schools Foundation as their 2014 Grassroots Partner Champion.  I love when hard work and excellent results are recognized! 

We are very grateful to ACSF for this distinction. We value our partnership with the Foundation, an important resource to the Asheville educational community.

R2S is a team effort, reflecting the confluence of focused efforts and high standards. We know our intensive training program prepares R2S coaches to give the very best instruction. And since 2009, our board has worked to find creative, effective ways to expand and improve literacy within Asheville City Schools.

But the key to our successes - the people who are the heart and soul of this program - are our reading coaches. Kudos to our coaches, who, week after week, year after year, work tirelessly with their students, giving the priceless gift of literacy. Thank you, one and all.

Those of us who live in and around Asheville: March 29 is the 2014 Celebration of Champions Dinner. It's also a fundraiser for ACSF, so consider joining us to celebrate our award and support ACSF.  Follow this link for more information and to reserve your seat at the event. 

Please share this news - and this website - with a friend or a relative. And be sure to head over to our Facebook page and become an official friend! That FB "thumb's up" is important to us and translates into greater exposure within our community (and beyond!)

And don't be shy: chime in by commenting on this blog. I promise to respond!

Stay tuned for the next installment. It's the very best way to stay abreast of Read to Succeed Asheville news.