Maureen is our Needle and Thread: Stitching for Literacy 2011 Bookmark Challenge Super Model. I’ve decided to allow a shortened version of the title: “Super Mo.” You know, what with her being Maureen and all. I’m thinking she needs a cape—or a towel or sheet at the very least.

Maureen is a model twice over:

• she’s modeling reading and stitching for her daughter
• she’s a model for all of us stitchers as she initiates a Stitching for Literacy program locally

As with beauty pageant participants, Maureen has a platform which she aims to promote while serving her term as our Super Model: Family Reading and Stitching.

Throughout the year, we’re going to follow Super Mo as she does her modeling things, and during the Challenge, she’s going to share her thoughts on and efforts toward Family Reading and Stitching every Friday.

Hello everyone,

I’d like to share a picture of my daughter, Madison, and me. She is reading aloud to me while I am stitching a bookmark. We have fun doing this, and I love encouraging her to read.

Madison has loved books since she was old enough to hold them. She would have a stack of books to sleep with instead of a blanket. Before she could read, she would look at the pictures and make up her own story. It was very interesting! Now that she knows how to read she loves it even more.

Are you a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, babysitter, neighbor, or friend to a child? Invite that child to read to you while you stitch. Share the story with him; discuss it afterward. Ask if he likes the story, the illustrations. Ask if it reminds him of any other stories. Ask if he can imagine himself in the story, and, if so, what would he do in it? Is there something he can think to change to make it more relevant to him?

Maureen has her own blog: Maureen’s Mountain of Stitching. Check it out.