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!

0-3 Key Age

While many parents know that ages zero through six/seven is key in the development of young minds, many might not be aware that within that time window, ages zero to three has it's own unique development growth opportunity. "Early experiences have a decisive impact on the architecture of the brain, and on the nature and extent of adult capacities." (Shore, 1997.) Schools, day care and libraries try very hard to continually expound this message through early literacy type activities in story, play and class times. However, parental involvement is more than key in this development. Your baby or toddler needs your help in becoming the best version of themselves. The library has many books & resources about this topic. But, I'd like to share some websites that are of particular use.

Zero-Three: http://www.zerotothree.org/ A national organization that aims to improve the lives of infants and toddlers. Includes some really cool interactive tools that show you how your child's brain is developing, and what activities you can do to continue that development!

Reading Rockets: http://www.readingrockets.org/audience/parents This national multimedia project offers information and resources on how young kids learn to read and why so many struggle. It has a phenominal parents page with FREE resources and activities.

Every Child Ready to Read: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alsc/ecrr/index2.cfm Although geared for library training, this website has multitudes of information on why from birth to 3, and then to 6, is key in developing young minds. Clear pictures of brain synapses being formed, bring the issue home.

National Center for Family Literacy:
http://www.famlit.org/free-resources/ NCFL's mission is to create a literate nation by leveraging the power of the family. The link included takes you directly to the parent's page, so you can download FREE activities, resources, guides etc.

Want some cool/educational toys to help you with your at home learning? Try these toy stores:

Constructive Playthings http://www.cptoys.com/
Folkmanis http://www.folkmanis.com/
Lakeshore Learning http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/


Best of luck!

Adrienne, Children's Librarian

Flotsam Writing Contest-Is Your Child Participating?

If you didn't know, the Edith Wheeler Library is hosting a writing contest for kids going into Grades K-6. All the details about the contest can be found in the Children's Room of the library on our Flotsam Display.

The library is hosting writer's workshops this summer, in addition to the contest-to inspire our young authors and get them creating something special. Below is a news release article from our favorite bilingual buddy, Lorzeno, about those very writer's workshops!

Breaking News from Lorenzo’s News Service
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 13, 2010


BRAINSTORMS BATTER EWML WRITERS’ WORKSHOP

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 Monroe-Heavy Brainstorms battered the craft room of the Edith Wheeler Memorial Library inundating patrons in the Children’s Library with creatures from the deep. Patrons reported robotic fish, miniscule green people, and hot air balloons resembling blowfish, emerge from the craft room in the library’s lower level. Shortly after 2:30 PM, several sharks in the vicinity reported serious dental pain resulting from biting down on robotic fish. Chaotic reports emerged from correspondents of uncovering documents exhibiting lack of punctuation and the inclusion of incomplete sentences. Documents including few details were also noted. Authorities attributed the unusual reporting due to rough drafts emanating from the conference suite of the 4-6th grade writers workshop, a.k.a., The Craft Room.

Unauthorized spokespersons for the writers’ group, who beg to remain anonymous, allege that they were encouraged to toss out the rules and just get their stories down on paper. Unverified reports note that a woman’s straw hat was passed to collect time-taking metaphors, similes, descriptive language, and the authors’ worries and insecurities that the writers’ stories were not worthy of publication. After an hour long flurry of transcribing narratives to hard copy, writers packed their Writers’ Toolbox Folders and left the area at approximately 3:00PM, or 3:04 or 2:59PM.

According to the spokesperson for the group, none of the clocks in the vicinity ticked in unison, leading the writers to speculate on the merits of a story , in which time does not stand still, nor does it stand together with its colleagues-the time reporting machines, also known as clocks, housed in EWML.

Lorenzo’s News Service has received information stating that the cataloging department has been advised of the inconsistent filing of seconds, minutes and hours. Authorities have declined to comment at the time of filing this report. The extended forecast warnings for the area predict clouds with a chance of brainstorms for Thursday morning. Patrons of EWML are advised to avoid the vicinity of the craft room between 10:30 AM and 11:30 AM unless they are adequately prepared for flooding conditions and the flow of prevailing imagination, revision and editing storms.

Stay tuned to www. EWML.LNS.com, your breaking literary news source, for further Make Waves warnings.