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Exploring Mathematics Everyday With Your Child
In everyday conversation use appropriate mathematics vocabulary such as positional words—over, under, near, behind, in front of, underneath; shape names—circle, square, triangle; and words such as more than, less than, addition and subtraction.
Children's Literature Prize
Australian author Sonya Hartnett has won the 2008 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, named after the Swedish creator of Pippi Longstocking for her novels for young adults. (ABC News)
Children's Book Awards Announced
The Caldecott and Newberry awards for outstanding children's books have been announced for 2008.(American Library Association)
The Most Famous Science Fiction Characters
Science Fiction has given us some of the greatest characters in the history of literature. Some might attribute this as a fluke, a result of the colorful, fantastic backdrops of the story, but they'd be wrong. What makes a great character stand out are the same things that make a great man stand out. (Helium)
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LIBRARIES
Bixby Memorial
258 Main Street
Vergennes, VT 05491
802-877-2211
Cornwall Free Public
2629 Route 30
Cornwall, VT 05753
802-462-2775
Hancock Free Public
47 Rte. 125
Hancock, VT 05748
802-767-4651
ACPgoodidealibrarybooks
Place a special basket or decorated box in the bedroom or next to the couch to hold library books and other borrowed items. This keeps them all in one place, and ready to go back to the library when they are due.
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Ilsley Public
75 Main St.
Middlebury, VT 05753
802-388-4095
Lawrence Memorial
40 North St.
Bristol, VT 05443
802-453-2366
Lincoln Library
222 West River Rd.
Lincoln, VT 05443
802-453-2665
New Haven Community
50 North St.
New Haven, VT 05472
802-453-4015
Orwell Free
473 Main St.
Orwell, VT 05760
802-948-2041
Platt Memorial
279 Main St.
Shoreham, VT 05770
802-897-2647
Salisbury Free Public Library
918 Maple Street
Salisbury, VT 05769
802-352-4198
Sarah Partridge Community
Rt. 25, Po Box 330
East Middlebury, VT 05740
802-388-7588
Starksboro Public
2827 Rte 116
Starksboro, VT 05487
802-453-3732
Whiting Free Library
91 Murray Road
Whiting, VT 05778
OTHER
Youth Radio Vermont
A program of the Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury that trains kids in the art of radio documentary production. Teens learn the skills to develop, produce, and edit stories about themselves and the communities where they live.
Vermont Reads
Explore the power of a richly told life story, the magic of poetry, and a New England world of yesteryear with other readers in your community and around the state. This year’s Vermont Reads book is A Restless Spirit: The Story of Robert Frost, by award-winning biographer Natalie Bober. First published in 1981, this young-adult biography of one of America’s most celebrated poets is a true class.
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Vermont Author's and Illustrators of Children's Books
Visit the Vermont Department of Libraries.
Literacy in Vermont
Literacy organizations throughout Vermont are helping adults and children move away from illiteracy. To learn about literacy efforts in Vermont visit www.readingvermont.org
Fifty Ways to Keep Your Kids Reading
If you'd like to encourage your kids to read more (and watch less), here you will find half a hundred easy ideas. Reading isn't the most important thing, it's the ONLY thing!
TumbleBookLibrary
A collection of over 200 audio books for children and adults are available online. The TumbleBookClub is for parents who wish to subscribe at home for their children for an annual membership fee of $29.00. Go to www.tumblebooks.com.
Elementary School Resources for Parents
What should school-age children know and be able to do when they start school? Find out how to help your child reach key reading milestones. Go to the Thinkfinity Literacy Network.
What to read?
Looking for the perfect book to read to your child? Or do you need a gift for a young reader?
For ideas go to www.mothergooseprograms.org
The National Commission on Reading wrote in 1984 that "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children."
All young readers share the following characteristics:
-They have had a lot of experience with print;
-They have heard complex uses of language, both in print and orally;
-They have learned that there is a general relationship between printed words and spoken sounds;
-They have had many, many books read to them.
The best way to teach reading is to demonstrate that:
- text moves across the page from left to right;
- pictures are connected with print, by pointing to both and talking about them;
- thinking and talking about connections between stories and the readers' personal experiences are important parts of reading;
- it is helpful to summarize the plot from time to time, and to ask questions about what has happened in the story, or what may happen.
Research also tells us that:
-High-achieving first-graders have been read to more and have seen adults, themselves, reading more than low-achieving ones;
-Studies of fourth-, eighth- and twelfth-graders show that those who read for pleasure on their own score between one-fifth and one-fourth higher on reading proficiency tests than those who do not do so;
-Reading with family often leads to higher gains in test scores than getting extra formal reading instruction in school does;
-The amount of conversation children have with adults directly affects how well they develop thinking skills.
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 To encourage your children to think about words in a fun way, play a Rhyming Game. It's so easy to do and can be done during bath time, while washing dishes, or while sitting together on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and a cozy blanket.
To your child, say "What rhymes with...?" And, use easy words for small children, harder ones for older kids. Such as:
Easy: bat, red, blue, nap, eye, brown, socks, hair, up, ball, shoe, etc.
For more words ideas, see the Fox in Socks and Hop on Pop by Dr. Suess.
Advanced: critter, shuffle, cookie, dangle, dial, table, motion, etc.
Make a list or count how many words you can think of that rhyme with 'critter.'
Be sure to keep it fun. Try silly, nonsense words and allow your child to make up a word that rhymes.
How Does a Book Work?
Children are fascinated by how a book looks and feels. They see how easily you work with it, and they want to make it work, too. When your toddler watches you handle books, she begins to learn that a book is for reading, not tearing or tossing around.
Before she is three, she may even pick one up and pretend to read, an important sign that she is beginning to know what a book is for. As your child becomes a preschooler, she is learning that:
-A book has a front cover.
-A book has a beginning and an end.
-A book has pages.
-A page has a top and a bottom.
-You turn pages one at a time to follow the story.
-You read a story from left to right.
As you read with your four- or five-year-old, point these out. Read the title on the cover. Talk about the picture there. Point out where the story starts, and later where it ends. Let your child help turn the page. When you start a new page, point to where the words of the story continue and keep following them with your finger. These things take time to learn. But when your child learns them, she has solved some of reading's mysteries.
Source: Helping Your Child Become a Reader, U.S. Department of Education
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