Thursday, March 24, 2011

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

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

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.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

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.