Tech Parents-Ace Your Knowledge of the Digital Age

Does your child know more about Facebook than you? Do you fear that your child may be accessing information digitally that you'd rather they didn't-but don't know enough about computers or the programs to feel comfortable making changes? Have no fear, your library is here to help you! On Saturday, May 21 the Town of Monroe is hosting a Technology Day for parents just like you. Come to FREE classes on Facebook, Cyber-Bullying, Internet Safety, and Gaming. Presented by the Town of Monroe's Technology Department, you will leave empowered and renewed in your ability to manage today's latest and greatest technologies. For a list of the day's events please click here.

Family Travel

As the school year begins it's final quarter, families start planning summer vacations. Theme parks, camps, and beaches are some of the destinations along with trips to visit family and national sites. Even for the seasoned family traveler, the prospect of a ten day vacation with young children might seem a little daunting.

From the mode of transportation, to the best route to take, to what to do once you finally get there are all pieces of this vacationing puzzle. Wouldn't it be nice to have a list of all the family friendly hotels in the area? Or an idea of what your children (and you) might enjoy once you hit your destination?

Well, come to the library and check out one of our many resources on family vacationing. Whether its (Fodor's Walt Disney World with Kids) or staying local in the Big Apple (Fodor's Family New York City with Kids), we have a travel guide for you. Also, prepare your youngest travelers for their first flight, with books such as: Flying by Donald Crews or The Airport by Patricia Murphy. We also have DVD Series for traveling with kids. Watch as a family how to navigate: London, Bali, Costa Rica and many more.

So if you need a little help with planning that big excursion this summer, stop on by-and relax. We're sure to have the resources to help you.

-Adrienne

A Camping We Will Go

It's that time of year again...when savvy parents begin researching information about summer camps. Did you know that your local library has the Connecticut Summer Youth Camps Day/Resident 2011 Directory? It's FREE and yours to take home and keep. Visit our Children's Department for a FREE Guide. Or visit: www.ctcamps.org to find the perfect camp for your little adventurer.

Happy Camping!
-Adrienne Wilson
Children's Librarian

Finding Childcare @ Care.Com

Awhile back, I put a link to Care.com on our parents link list. Care.com is a website that provides resources to parents to help them find nannies, babysitters, au pairs, and childcare centers. Care.com actually has resources to aid one in finding all sorts of care giving needs, including pets, adults & seniors, and even house keeping and house sitting. Care.com is a company, and will require you to pay a nominal fee to have access to all it's features.

However, those features include:

-standard Background Checks include Social Security number verification
-a national criminal database search,
-a state sex offender registries search
-enhanced Background Check that also includes an in-person search of county and federal courthouse records performed by an investigator,
-reference interviews so you can hear from caregivers' previous employers-or you can call the references yourself if you prefer,
-you decide when to share your contact information with a caregiver- all messaging happens through the Care.com site, which monitors for spam, scams, and inappropriate content

The site also lists the latest news and information regarding childcare, parenting and tips.

While the resources are not free, they are very good. And sometimes, you do get what you pay for. There is an option to try out the site for free, but you will not have access to all the features.

But, if you are looking for childcare, and we all know that can be really tricky-you might give this site a try. It is run by and for moms who know how hard finding good care can be.

Yoga Kids

Imagine a room full of cows, effortlessly transforming into meowing cats. Later, the same children balance on one leg spreading their limbs to become forest filled with different types of trees. This is a scene from a preschool class room where children experience the many benefits of practicing yoga. Yoga is a natural, creative way for children to move their bodies while developing confidence, self-awareness, and a healthy life style.

The physical benefits of yoga include increased coordination, strength balance, and flexibility as children stretch and move their bodies to become a dog, tree or snake. Yoga practicing children improve their self-regulation and relaxtion. They gain body strength and feelings of accomplishment at the same time. Yoga is inherently non-competivie and accepting. Just as nature is filled with many different types of trees, each child forms his or her own unique tree pose. As yoga is accepting of all abilities, strengths and weaknesses, it has many benefits for children.

Periodically, the library hosts Yoga classes for kids. You may see some this summer!

The library just acquired a new set of Yoga DVD's for children by the well-known Yoga publishing company Gaiam. We also have books for kids, that teach Yoga poses on a page by page basis.
For additional information for caregivers beginning yoga with children: http://yogakids.com/

Article by Deborah Muro, M.A. All Children Considered.

CHET-Dream Big Contest

It's that time of year again, for the CHET Dream Big Contest.

CHET is the Connecticut Higher Education Trust-sponsored by the State of CT Treasurers Office, and they specialize is 529 College Savings Programs. Every year, the State of CT Treasurers Office holds a competition, open to kids in grades K-5, the winner receiving a starter college savings account. Kids in grades K-3 are asked to submit drawings while children in grades 4-5 are asked to submit essays. Check out the link to CHET here: http://www.chetdreambig.com/.

The library also has the entry forms in our Children's Department, on our miscellaneous/freebie shelf. The deadline for entry is April 4, 2011.

Good Luck! Don't forget to Dream Big.

-Adrienne

Feed Your Family: We Have the Books!!!

As a new mom, feeding my child well is a top priority. I had been thinking about this over the weekend, and like anyone else... I googled the topic first. My search came up with a variety of .com sites. However, I wanted to make sure that the information I was finding was verifiable, truthful, timely, accurate and just plain good. So, I then decided to see what books our library owned on this same topic.

The great thing about using library books, is that libraries purchase most of their materials based on positive reviews from book journals. Someone went to the trouble of reading this book for you-cover to cover-before it made it to the library. This same person then wrote a short review saying "yes, buy this for your community-it's great!" or "don't waste precious tax dollars, it's not worth it". That means, that every non-fiction book you find in a library, should be of the highest calibler as far as information content, accuracy, readablity, and usefulness. Those are pretty important things when it comes to feeding your family...or anything really.


Back to what the library owns...I was certainly pleased with the results.

From our ever popular copy of Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfield or The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chase Lapine, in which the reader learns how to "hide" or "covertly smuggle" nutritious ingredients into the most tantalizing of entrees for the finicky eater; to learning how to make your own baby food in Love in Spoonfuls by Sarah Putnum Clegg, Cooking for Baby by Lisa Barnes or Blender Baby Food by Nicole Young.

In another book, Superfoods for Children, the author Michael Van Stratten discusses guidelines for healthy eating, the fundamentals of nutrition for optimum growth and lists 50 "superfoods" for kids, followed up by more than 100 tasty recipes. Those are just a few of the many titles we own for your borrowing pleasure.

There are also books that EWML doesn't own, but other libraries in CT do, that we can bring here for you in a matter of days, like: Starting Solids by Annabel Karmel, Toddler Bistro by Christina Schmidt, and The Top 100 Finger Foods for a Happy, Healthy Child by Annabel Karmel.


To top it all off, books from the library are FREE! You don't spend a cent. So, you can see if these family friendly food finds, are right for you-and then decide to purchase.

I don't know about you...but that's a meal deal I can't pass up.

-Adrienne Wilson
Children's Librarian

It’s Never Too Early: Parents should talk to their young ones long before they can speak

It’s Never Too Early: Parents should talk to their young ones long before they can speak

I just read a wonderful article about the importance of talking to your child to help develop their future vocabulary. Talk to your child in the morning, in the car, during bathtime, at the dinner table-every available second that you have. Keep all that rich vocabulary coming, and you will have an avid reader!