This post was co-written by Erica Zippert and Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen This month’s article describes a research study about talking vs. reading picture books to children. “The Words Children Hear: Picture Books and the Statistic for Language Learning” by…
Ladybugs!
Today’s jbrary blog had a great instructions for a Lady Bug Flannel Game. It reminded me of a counting song that had a very catchy beat which I adapted and recorded with my friend Rahel. I love using this song…
Mother Goose on the Loose Kickstarter Update!
Wow! This week has been progressing at a feverish pace for us, as I write this blog post our campaign has just gone live on kickstarter. Recently I have felt that Betsy and I are succeeding at taking the…
Good news about school libraries
On July 8, the U.S. Senate voted 98-0 in favor of an amendment that will make school library programs part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This is important because many schools have been trimming their budgets by eliminating…
Exciting happenings
June has been a whirlwind of a month! In just a few days, I will be going to the American Library Association annual conference in San Francisco (total attendance is approximately 25,000 people!). For a few days, librarians from around…
MGOL for Preemies?
One morning this week, I joined my friend and fellow children’s librarian, Nancy, at the pool for water aerobics. During the class, another exerciser, Jen, pointed out that while the older exercise instructors often move TO the music and coordinate…
Reading and Using Books with Young Children Activates the Brain in Unique Ways
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently published information about a study that involved reading behaviors of low-income parents with preschoolers from ages 3-5. Scans of brain activity compared what happened when the preschoolers listened to recordings of books being read aloud with brain activity…
Importance of Developing THE WHOLE CHILD
This week, I’ve read a few articles on the importance of play, of play as being the work of childhood, and on the misguided common core standards. In Reading Instruction in Kindergarten: Little to Gain and Much to Lose, Common…
Tools of the Mind and the Civil War Museum
In the Mother Goose on the Loose April newsletter, I mentioned attending a conference for the Society for Research in Child Development and listening to Dr. Clancy Blair talk about his research on “Tools of the Mind.” Shortly after sending…
Busy March finished, busy April coming up
In March I attended my first SRCD (Society for Research in Child Development) conference. It was very different from the typical library conferences I have attended. One of the coolest things was meeting (in person) some of the people whose…