So Long, Farewell

In February of 2010, our freshly appointed Early Literacy Specialist, Jenna, had a wonderful idea. She started a new library blog and described it in this way: "This blog is designed to highlight all of the fun and engaging things you can be doing with your children before they go to school. I'll highlight favorite read-alouds, developmental tips, updates about our library storytimes, and suggestions to help you as parents and caregivers be your child's first and best teacher."

"Just in case you’re wondering what the term 'Early Literacy' actually means, it is simply everything children know about reading and writing before they can actually read and write. Early literacy is a baby who chews on a book, a toddler who wants his favorite book read over and over, and a preschooler who 'reads' the story to you from memory."

Over the years since then, most of us in the Youth Services department have contributed blog posts at different times to Open Shut Them. In the process, we’ve offered some of the early literacy tips that help guide our storytime planning, and featured new research related to kids and reading readiness. We’ve tried to assist all of you in navigating the sea of new books that are published each year, selecting a few of our absolute favorites to share with you. In addition, we’ve tried to approach reading and literacy in a sensible, but humorous fashion, knowing that some days that can be helpful.

Now it’s time to move on to new endeavors here at the library. This post will be the final one in the Open Shut Them series, but our Children’s website will continue to offer plentiful reading suggestions, as well as opportunities to learn about new ways to foster a love of reading in your children.

For additional reading suggestions for kids, please visit our kids' website. There are lots of ways to read, learn, and play there, as well as stay informed about all of the special programs we have planned for you and your family. You can also subscribe to receive your choice of reading suggestions by email. And keep your eye on our library's Facebook page, where we will always have up-to-date information on what’s happening at the library.

An additional option is to check out the Parent and Caregiver Resources section of our web page, which features Library Services, Research Databases, and Web Links for child- and parent-centered web sites.

Most importantly, please continue to visit us in the library! We are always happy to see you and to share some of our favorite new books with you. It has always been, and continues to be, our pleasure to join you and your children on their journey to literacy!

Guest post by Bridget W.

What Are Early Literacy Practices?

While you are in the library or at a child care center, you may hear teachers and librarians talking about early literacy practices and skills that will help your child get ready to read in the future. You know that these are important, but what are they? The five early literacy practices are talking, reading, writing, playing, and singing. These activities will help your child learn all of the skills necessary to read. There are six skills that these practices help your child build. These are print motivation, having an interest in books, print awareness, knowing how to read a book and the realization that print is everywhere in our lives, letter knowledge, knowing that letters are different from each other and knowing their shapes, names, and sounds, vocabulary, knowing all kinds of words, phonological awareness, hearing the smaller sounds that make up words, and narrative skills, describing things or events, telling stories, knowing the order of events, and making predictions during a book.

During storytime, we will always give you an early literacy tip so you can have ideas on how to implement these practices and skills at home. We also hold a program called Every Child Ready to Read several times throughout the year to give you more ideas. If you would like to read about these skills on your own, we own several books that will give you even more ideas and activities, including Preparing Children for Reading Success: Hands-On Activities for Librarians, Educators, and Caregivers by Julia Irwin, which is packed full of activities and recommended reading for certain skills. As always, if you’re looking for help, don’t be afraid to ask us! We are always willing to help you find resources.

Guest post by Sarah H. 

Nursery Rhymes: Creating a Solid Foundation

These days, it seems that reciting nursery rhymes is a little less commonplace than it has been in the past. This is unfortunate, since learning nursery rhymes has many early-literacy benefits for young children.

First, nursery rhymes expand children’s vocabulary by exposing them to a variety of words that are not used in everyday conversation. What a great, easy way to build your child’s vocabulary!

Through nursery rhymes, children also hear rhyming words, which helps develop phonological awareness. Research shows that children who know rhymes find it easier to learn to read because they are better able to break down the sounds in words.

In addition, most nursery rhymes follow a clear sequence of events. This helps your child start to develop narrative skills and learn the way in which most stories are organized.

Finally, nursery rhymes are so easy to repeat that they can, often times, be some of a child’s first sentences. Even when children are struggling to string together words to form a sentence, they can repeat a nursery rhyme that they've heard often enough to memorize.

If you’re just starting to introduce nursery rhymes to your children, start with shorter ones, like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” or “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.” Make sure to be animated to hold your children’s interest. When your children start to learn the rhymes, let them help by stopping to allow them to fill in a word or line. Best of all, since nursery rhymes are recited, you can say them anytime and anywhere—in the car, at the store, while cooking, or before bed. Use your imagination and have fun!

Check out these books for some great nursery rhymes:
My Mother Goose
Will Moses Mother Goose
The Cat and the Fiddle: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes
Mary Engelbreit’s Happy Mother Goose
Hickory, Dickory, Dock and Other Favorite Nursery Rhymes

On the Edge of Literacy: Ways to Help Your Emerging Reader

Do you have a little one at home who is at that exciting stage, just on the verge of reading? If so, there are several things that you can do to assist your emerging reader. One thing that’s really helpful is running your finger under the words as you read them. Your child will likely follow along and pick up lots of information that will help the reading process.

After reading a book, or using one that you’ve read often, have your child “read” you the story. This pretend reading or reading from memory helps your child navigate books and is great practice for the real thing.

Finally, having conversations about the books you read is always helpful. You can talk about the story, re-read favorite parts, and discuss new vocabulary words that were introduced in the book.

If you want to find some great books for beginning readers, we have a whole section at the library that’s full of emergent readers. Stop by, and we’ll be happy to show you where you can find them!

Are You Pinterest-ed?

Information on book clubs, early literacy tips, staff members’ book suggestions, movie ideas, and DIY book-related crafts are just some of what you’ll find on the Washington-Centerville Public Library’s new Pinterest page. If you’re already on Pinterest, follow us here. If you’re not a Pinterest-user, now is a great time to rectify that situation!

Prescription to Read

Hats off to the American Academy of Pediatrics! This group’s new policy, in which pediatricians will tell parents to read aloud to their children starting at birth, has the potential to have a HUGE positive impact on children all over the United States! A recent article in the New York Times described the motivation behind the new plan: “With the increased recognition that an important part of brain development occurs within the first three years of a child’s life, and that reading to children enhances vocabulary and other important communication skills, the group, which represents 62,000 pediatricians across the country, is asking its members to become powerful advocates for reading aloud, every time a baby visits the doctor.”

According to the article, though the academy has issued recommendations on things such as breastfeeding and screen time, this is the first time it has addressed early literacy education. Personally, I couldn’t be happier! Check out the rest of the article here.

Boosting Vocabulary: The How and Why

Studies have shown that children have an easier time reading words that they already know than words that are foreign to them. In addition, the more words a child knows, the better she is able to comprehend what she’s reading. So, it's quite clear that building a child’s vocabulary is an extremely important part of early literacy.

Reading to your child often is one of the best ways to improve vocabulary (and I’m not just saying that because I’m a librarian! J). Once you come across a word that your child doesn’t know, you can help her learn it. First, define the word, making sure to use simple terms that your child will understand. Next, give an example of how the word is used. Then, ask your child to come up with her own example. Finally, you can reinforce the new knowledge by using the word often in the days and weeks after your child has been introduced to it.

Making a conscious effort to help boost your child’s vocabulary at a young age will undoubtedly help her when she begins to learn to read and well beyond.

Write Away!

As children write, they become aware that the written letters and words have meaning, and they start to see the relationship between written and spoken word. Because of this, writing is one of the five early literacy practices that help children become ready to read.

The holidays present a number of great opportunities to practice writing with your child. If your little one is too young to actually form the letters, have her dictate what she’d like written, and then she can watch you write it.

Here are a few ways to practice writing:

-Write out an “I’m Thankful” list, or instead of place cards on the table for your holiday meal, have each person write an "I'm Thankful" place card, and use those to decorate the table.

-Write out wish lists for holiday gifts.

-Write holiday cards and/or thank you notes to family and friends.

If your child is too young to even dictate thoughts to you, you can practice writing in other ways. Tracing in sand or shaving cream, playing with play dough, and crinkling up old newspapers or magazines are all good forms of writing practice, since they help strengthen those little finger muscles that will later be used for writing.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

A Book a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Have you ever heard of a doctor giving a “prescription to read?” Well, neither had I until just the other day, when I read an article about it. Realizing the importance of early literacy on a child’s overall health, some 90 or so health clinics in Wisconsin are giving out books to kids, ages 6 months to 5 years, at well-child visits. Through this “Reach Out and Read” program, these health care providers are not only passing out books, but also giving advice on sharing books with family.

After doing a little more research on the Reach Out and Read initiative, I found out that it has programs nationwide, in all 50 states, and distributes 6.5 million books annually. We even have 139 participating clinics here in Ohio! Check out the Reach Out and Read website for more information on how it works and how you can get involved.

As a librarian who is constantly preaching about the benefits of early literacy, I am beyond thrilled to hear about a program like this. From now on, I’ll be sure to mention that, not only do I think reading is important, but it’s the doctor’s order!

Sing Your Heart Out!

When was the last time you and your children had a good, old-fashioned sing-a-long? Now, even though I, personally, love to sing loud and often (something my family and friends don’t ALWAYS love…), I do understand that it’s not everyone’s favorite pastime. I will say, however, that the benefits of singing with your children might just make it worthwhile for those of you who wouldn’t otherwise be inclined to do so. And, luckily for us, kids are a very kind audience and don’t tend to be bothered by subpar vocal abilities.

 

Did you know that every time you sing songs with your children, you are helping them to hear the smaller sounds in words? This early literacy skill is called phonological awareness and will help them later when they try to sound out words as they learn to read. So, singing isn’t just for fun; it’s actually teaching your kids an important skill.

If you’re looking for some good, new kids’ music, I’ve got a couple of suggestions for you. We sing some really fun songs during our storytimes here at the library, and we’ve made a Storytime Playlist of our favorites. The playlist gives the song title and tells the CD’s name and call number, so you can easily locate it.

Another great place to find kids’ music is through the library’s new service, Freegal, which can be accessed from our eCollection page on our website. I’m OBSESSED with Freegal, and I think you will be, too. Freegal has millions of songs that are available for you to download and keep forever (yes, you read that correctly—FOREVER!). All you have to do is enter your library card number, and you’re able to download 3 songs per week to your iTunes account or whatever music program you use on your computer. There’s even a smartphone app that allows you to download songs straight to your phone. It’s amazing. Each library card number can get 3 songs each week. So, if everyone in your family doesn’t have a library card yet, you may want to take care of that!

It's time to get out there, get some new music, and start singing!

 

The Three Little Puppets

 

If your household is anything like mine was as a child, the holidays are filled with lots of stay-in-your-pajamas-all-day-long kinds of days. Oh, wait, that was just us? Well, whether you and your family are typically dressed to venture outside of your house or not, surely with school out and many parents off of work, there will be a little more family time than usual. If you could use a few ideas for ways to entertain those cooped-up kiddos on long winter days, you've come to the right place!

Playing, talking, and reading with your child are three of the five early literacy practices that will help prepare your little one to start reading on his own (singing and writing are the other two). Making puppets and telling stories are ways to incorporate those three practices into an afternoon of fun. Depending on your creativity, artistic ability, and time constraints, you can make puppets that are as simple as a paper bag with a face drawn on it or a craft stick/straw with a cut-out head glued/taped to it. Or, if you’re feeling ambitious, you could create beautifully sewn puppet masterpieces. I’m more of a craft-stick-puppet-kind-of-gal, myself. No matter how complicated your puppets are to make, your child will undoubtedly be thrilled to have made one (or ten!).

These puppets can be used in many different ways. Try reading a story to your child, and then have him retell the story using the puppets. He’ll have fun playing with the puppet and will comprehend the story better, having to tell it on his own. Or, if you’d prefer, try using the puppets to tell a story that you already know, like The Three Little Pigs. You can even do it multiple times, switching up the roles to make it more exciting. If your child has a vivid imagination, have him make up his own story using the puppets. Warning: fits of uncontrollable laughter will likely ensue!

If you and your family try this, I’d love to hear how it goes and what fun stories and memories you create. You never know, you may find a new calling; the world is always in need of more puppeteers, right?! Happy puppet-making!

Keep Up Those Reading Routines!

Well, here we are again; it’s time for the winter holidays. So much to do--cleaning, shopping, baking, wrapping, decorating, and more shopping! How does one stay sane during this busy time? How do we find time, quality time, for our families and ourselves? It’s important that we keep our routines with our children--those bedtime stories can’t be missed, quiet times for sharing something that happened today, time to tell them a story about when you were little and things you did at this time of year. It’s all so important. Studies have shown that children, who come from homes where they are read to daily, have access to books, and are encouraged to share in conversations, enter kindergarten with a vocabulary of around 20,000 words. Children who are not read to, do not have books or go to the library, and whose main conversations come from TV, enter school with a mere 3,000 words under their belts. You can easily do the math. Keep reading and engaging them in conversations! 

Stop in the library to check out our Gift Giving book list, which is made up of books that we, the librarians, are fond of and would recommend to add to personal libraries or bookshelves. And speaking of bookshelves, I was perusing our shelves the other day and found an author whose books I had not read before and decided that they were outstanding. His name is Patrick McDonnell, and his books are totally delightful. My favorite is Hug Time, but Just Like Heaven and The Gift of Nothing are just as sweet.

Whatever holiday you and your family celebrate, I wish you a happy and safe one. Guest post by Pam R.

Cuddle Close and Have a Look

I love reading books to children and I love when parents or grandparents later tell me how they have storytime at home, just like Miss Pam does it. The children delight in singing "open-shut them" or "cuddle close and have a look" in front of their favorite stuffed animals or dolls. Then they begin to read - either they've memorized the story or they "read" the pictures to their small, quiet audience. What a joy! These things don't just happen - children who have this devout interest in books have been read to since they were born. They have been allowed to play with, chew on, and look at board books since a very early age. Their parents probably bring them to the library for storytime and allow them to pick out their own books. These are the children who will start school already reading or will pick it up very easily in the first months of Kindergarten.

Start your babies on this path - pick up some wonderful board books. We have hundreds to choose from! Let your child get acquainted with them. Board books are so great - they're made of sturdy stuff and can withstand being chewed on, walked on, or thrown around. They are just the right size for little hands, purses, or diaper bags. Choose ones with bright colors, pictures of babies, or things children can easily recognize - dogs, cats, balls, trucks, etc. Find ones with textures to feel or flaps to peek under - it's all fun! It's something wonderful to do for our children and the enjoyment will last a lifetime. Check out the great board books available at the library! Guest post by Pam R.

Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?

Today after preschool storytime I had a mother of a September-born son approach me with questions about kindergarten.  Every year, as spring kindergarten registration approaches, parents agonize over sending or holding back their late summer/early fall babies. 

To help alleviate some of the stress surrounding this decision, and any other unanswered questions parents may have about the kindergarten registration process, the library is offering a Kindergarten Ready or Not night on January 30th at 7pm.  The event consists of a panel of local kindergarten teachers from a variety of public, private and parochial schools.  Participants have the opportunity to hear the unique perspective of classroom teachers and ask them questions about how best to ready their children for the coming school year. 

For a good dose of silliness in the meantime, make sure to read Audrey Vernick's hilarious take on kindergarten, where "you learn to get along without using your horns."

Brand new 'Brary Bags!

Thanks to a grant from Target, the library has created a collection of 'Brary Bags, each with a different theme, that are filled with books, a toy, and a sheet of awesome early literacy activties to do at home.  Starting January 16th, we will have bags at both locations that are appropriate for babies, toddlers and preschoolers.  Hurry in to get your hands on one before they are all checked out! 

Ready or Not

Here it comes!  Registration for Kindergarten is just around the corner.  If you have a preschooler headed to school in the fall, you probably have a few (or a dozen) questions.  We have the perfect solution! Tomorrow, the library will be offering our annual Kindergarten Ready or Not? program to help you decide where to send your children, how to know when they're ready, and to give you tips on things you can do before the first day of school.

The library provides a number of programs, crafts and storytimes that help your child learn the skills necessary for school.  We also love to recommend our favorite picture books to help teach important school-readiness skills like manners and listening.  This story about Martha, a precocious otter, is one of my favorites and will appeal to any preschooler (or parent of one, for that matter). 

Join us tomorrow from 7-9 PM at the Centerville Library for a chance to ask public and private school teachers the answers to all your Kindergarten questions...and be sure to take Martha home if you have a preschooler who struggles with sharing!

Womb Worries and Reading Readiness

If you’ve walked past a news stand recently, your eye may have landed on last week’s issue of Time magazine featuring the silhouette of a pregnant woman and an article called How the First Nine Months Shape the Rest of Your Life. Scientists are doing fascinating studies in the field of fetal origins, an area of science devoted to researching how our time in the womb affects things from personality traits to our risk for heart disease.

Pregnant Woman
Heide Benser / Corbis

This new research, coupled with decades of studies done on infant and toddler brain development, may end up making you worry more about what you aren’t doing as a parent than giving you ideas about what you should be doing.

Yeah, we don’t think that is very helpful either. All of our library storytellers are trainers certified to present a workshop called Every Child Ready to Read. There are three sessions, each geared toward the parents or caregivers of children ages 0-2, 2-3, and 4-5. In these sessions we do discuss interesting brain research and powerful studies that show just how important reading to and talking with your child really are. But, the workshops don’t stop there. We show you how to incorporate early literacy skills in your daily life in a fun way using picture books, songs and rhymes.

So, don’t let these news articles send you into paroxysms of guilt about how you have probably already irrevocably messed up your children. Join us at the library this October for  fun, realistic tips about things you can do right now to set your child up for success!

For more information, or to register for one of our workshops, go to: http://www.wclibrary.info/storytime/ecrtr.asp



Storytimes are Risky Business

With the amount of parenting info in the media and on library shelves it’s no wonder that parents are often paralyzed with indecision when it comes to the emotional, academic and social well-being of their children.

An example of this overwhelming amount of parenting “advice,” reached out from this week’s newspaper and slapped me in the face: “Teaching reading before age 6 increases risk of learning problems.” The author goes on to make the statement that paying attention to women and doing what women tell you to do are the “two skills most essential to early academic achievement.” Your eyebrows are raised right?

His point seems to be that we are trying to pressure our preschoolers to become readers before they’re ready. I agree that this is not only unrealistic but possibly damaging (not to mention frustrating) for both you and your child. However, reading with your children and helping them develop early literacy skills by talking with them, singing to them and playing with them will help prepare them for academic achievement. It’s also fun.

Join us at the library for storytimes starting September 20th…that is if you’re willing to risk it.

Welcome!

Just in case you’re wondering what the term “Early Literacy” actually means, it is simply everything children know about reading and writing before they can actually read and write. Early literacy is a baby who chews on a book, a toddler who wants his favorite book read over and over, and a preschooler who "reads" the story to you from memory. 

This blog is designed to highlight all of the fun and engaging things you can be doing with your children before they go to school.  I'll highlight favorite read-alouds, developmental tips, updates about our library storytimes, and suggestions to help you as parents and caregivers be your child's first and best teacher.