When Jeneca Jones became editor of West Lane News in 2003, prior to her current job at CAWOOD, she also assumed the previous editor’s role as a SMART reader.

Jeneca has since been a consistent part of several SMART students’ lives: a girl who had trouble focusing, a boy timid about reading but who liked the stories, a girl who often chose the same book over and over again.

Jeneca recalls the first student she read with at Applegate Elementary. “[She] was in kindergarten and I read to her for three years in a row. I watched her go through many changes. After reading to her for a year, she began to show an interest in reading on her own and reading to me.”

Learning about each child has helped her connect and be a better reading partner. “In between reading stories, you talk about things in the stories and how they relate to the kids. I learned about [one girl’s] pets and her family and what they enjoyed doing as a family.”

Jeneca believes reading to children “helps you connect, slow down and relax.” As a mother of a three year old boy, Jeneca tells her own son: “Reading makes your brain muscle very big and strong.” They read two to three books each night and talk about the stories.

SMART reading is not always easy, she says, but it’s rewarding. “Give kids a lot of feedback on those days when they do try. Even if it’s just really small steps, it makes a big difference.”