literacy – Page 2 – Mom Read It

It’s Everyday Advocacy Challenge time again!

Posted on January 11, 2017January 11, 2017 by Rosemary Kiladitis

It’s Everyday Advocacy time again! I joined the ALSC’s Winter Challenge, because one of my professional goals this year is to increase my advocacy efforts. This first week’s challenge is to craft another elevator speech – a quick response to “what do you do?” that gets the point across and hopefully, generates some interest that could lead to some help, be it with donations of books, materials, or funding. This time, though, the elevator speech is aimed more at the folks involved in the decision process: an alderman, mayor, local government staff members – you get the drift.

I decided to address the 30 million word gap in my speech. That’s the difference in the number of words that children from lower-income families are exposed to, versus children from high-income families. This isn’t over the stretch of a lifetime, either. This isn’t even before Kindergarten. This is by AGE 3. Thirty million words. This is why reading to your kids, singing with your kids, TALKING to your kids, is crucial. Don’t know what to sing? Hell, I started singing ’80s ballads to my eldest when I ran blank on lullabies and nursery rhymes. Sing anything. Talk lovingly. Play. It matters.

So here’s my little elevator speech: “Hi there! I’m Rosemary, and I’m one of the children’s librarians at Queens Library. My colleagues and I are working toward closing that 30 million word gap by providing a chance for babies, toddlers, and their caregivers to sing, talk, play, and listen to stories together. Want to visit one of my storytimes?”

I’m hoping that the mention of a 30 million word gap will get whoever I’m speaking with to want to hear more. If I’ve only got 10 seconds, I want that in the other person’s head, so they can look it up, learn, and act.

Go read to your kids! Read to the neighbor’s kids! Just read!

Uncategorized

March is Read Aloud Month!

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Remember, everyone – reading time is cuddle time, so get your snuggles in and read to the little ones in your life. Just 15 minutes a day makes a tremendous difference. Want a scary statistic? By 3 years of age, there is a 30 million word gap between children from the wealthiest and poorest families. 30. MILLION. WORDS. (Reading is Fundamental, 2014)

Grab those Pigeon books, the Sandra Boynton books (my little Gozer is currently a huge fan of But Not the Hippopotamus), anything by Karen Katz: just grab a book, snuggle that little one in your lap or wherever you’re most comfy, and read. Just 15 minutes a day makes all the difference in the world.

Got older kids? Read to them, too! Explore Narnia or Hogwarts, join Johnny Tremain or Phoebe the Spy. Make your kid the Mockingjay. Just read and be together.

The Read Aloud campaign has great, bilingual posters and handouts for the 15 Minutes literacy initiative here. Download them, print them, post them, hand them out!

Non-Fiction, Uncategorized

Hands-On Science and Math makes learning fun!

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Hands-On Science and Math – Fun, Fascinating Activities for Young Children, by Beth R. Davis (July 2015, Gryphon House), $14.95, ISBN: 9780876596500

Recommended for educators and parents of preschoolers-age 8

I’m always on the lookout for books that have fun, easy activities for my younger patrons. Being a librarian in an urban, lower community made up largely of working class and working poor families, I’ve got a lot of parents concerned about their kids’ progress in math and science. One thing I’ve been working on putting together is a series of science workshops for my younger patrons. I’m a bit clueless in this area, so I’ve been getting some help from my colleague at our Children’s Library and Discovery Center in Jamaica (seriously, go to this library and prepare to be amazed); I also keep an eye out for blogs, websites, and books that offer some ideas. Hands-On Science and Math is one of those books.

Loaded with experiments and ideas for kids from preschool to roughly third grade (you can skew older or younger, with easy tweaks on these experiments), Hands-On Science and Math gets kids thinking and using their five senses to explore the world around them. Each experiment comes with an explanation of the scientific concepts behind the experiment, STEM lessons to be gained from the experiments, and ways to link to the math and literacy in each one. I’ve already created a few sessions for the kids in my library, including using a Matchbox car, cardboard, a pile of books, and a measuring stick to learn about simple machines; examining the world around them using a magnifying glass, and the almighty baking soda volcano (I’ll be doing that one solo, but I’ll give them instructions they can try at home). I’ll be trying these out over the winter break!

Parents and educators can recreate these experiments on a small budget: most of the ingredients and objects can be found at dollar stores or are already in your home. There’s an appendix on graphing topics, a popular math and literacy link here, including questions with concrete answers you can use to graph results. Further resources are available for anyone who wants to read more about STEM activities and young children.

Author Beth R. Davis, EdS, NBCT, holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education; a master’s degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages, or TESOL; and an education specialist degree in computer education. She is the director of Kids 4 Kids Academy preschool in Miami, Florida. I’m thrilled that she’s got experience in working with speakers of other languages; this talent comes through in her experimentation, and allows me to create these programs with my multicultural families. She offers more science activities for kids on her website, where you can also sign up to join her mailing list.

Graphic Novels

I had a program! And people attended! Corona Comic Book Group Begins.

Posted on November 10, 2015November 10, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Now that I’ve had a month to settle into my daily routine here at my library, I’ve finally gotten some programming set. Today was my first Comic Book Club, an idea I’d been trying to get off the ground for over a year, but could never quite make happen at my previous library. Since the crowds here are pretty robust, and the kids are hungry for programming, I thought I’d give it a shot.

I kept it pretty laid back for our first meeting, since I’m still new here, myself. I had seven kids show up, all aging from 7-9 years old. They were excited to be talking about comic books, and the fact that I was wearing a Green Arrow t-shirt and comic book shoes, so that was a great conversation opener. We talked about what different TV shows and comics we like – Teen Titans and Steven Universe got huge props, which means I need to check out Steven Universe now. Plants vs. Zombies got some love, too.

We talked about what kind of comic book club we wanted to be. They were really enthusiastic about reading a graphic novel together and talking about it, and they wanted to learn more about comics that are on the shelves at the library. Babymouse, Owly, and Garfield are current favorites, and I’ve just ordered more books to put on the shelves, so maybe next week’s meeting will be an unveiling of the new stuff!

I used the comic book club as an excuse to talk about other programs the kids may want. Tabletop Gaming got some promising feedback, so that made my day. I’m thinking I may need to start a teen comic book club, too, because I had no idea how many younger kids would want in on this. They also want to watch movies, so I need to figure out the space situation (we’re tightly packed in this library) and make that happen.

My comic book store, Royal Collectibles in Forest Hills, generous donated some Halloween ComicFest copies of Grimmiss Island and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, so I was doubly thrilled. The kids in my library’s neighborhood don’t always have the disposable income for comics of their own, so this made their day.

I passed out some comic book templates that I found on Pinterest, and the kids went to work. I have to tell you, the creativity blew me away. Yeah, there was the one kid that made a new generation’s version of Spy vs. Spy, with one guy and another guy yelling “DIE!” and killing one another with explosions, but the other kids really sat and thought out their stories, even paging through the books I had on the table for ideas. We agreed that every week, I’ll give them more comic paper, and they can continue their stories (or write news ones), and create their own comic book.

It was a 45-minute program, with relatively no financial outlay thanks to the donation from Royal. It got the kids talking, I got to put names to some faces I see every day, and it helped me build a rapport with them. I’m already excited for next week!

Preschool Reads, Uncategorized

Hit the Election Trail with Monster Needs Your Vote!

Posted on August 14, 2015August 13, 2015 by Rosemary Kiladitis

Monster Needs Your Vote, by Paul Czajak/Illus. by Wendy Grieb (Aug. 2015, Mighty Media Kids), $16.95, ISBN: 978-1-938063-63-3

Recommended for ages 4-8

It’s election season, and Monster wants to get involved! He’s got a bunch of different platforms he supports – longer summers, dessert for dinner – but he quickly discovers a more important cause to stand for, and shows kids that no matter what your age, you can make a difference!

This latest book in author Paul Czajak’s Monster & Me series gives kids a glimpse into the election process – choosing a platform, the power of a grassroots movement, and the campaign trail, in particular. Monster’s focus on education and literacy makes this a great classroom and library read-aloud – never talking down to the youngest of readers, Czajak Grieb use rhyme and adorable, kid-friendly illustration in eye-catching, bright colors to talk to kids. A free, downloadable Campaign Kit from the publisher is loaded with great add-ons, including facts about Presidents and First Ladies, a political vocabulary sheet, Monster coloring sheets, and more.

The coming Presidential election is already heating up, with a huge primary on the horizon and a lot of passionate issues on the table. Monster Needs Your Vote is a valuable addition to educators and parents who want to get kids involved. I can’t wait to see what my preschoolers think of it (although I expect that dessert for dinner will be a key concern)! Monster gets my vote – I hope he gets yours!

Have a sneak peek at Monster Needs Your Vote right here, then hit that campaign trail!