>Also on the subject of reading was this one from the Ithaca
Journal: "Reading Can Benefit Even the Tiniest of Tykes". This came from Katrina
Morse, assistant
director of the Family Reading Partnership in Ithaca. Here is a pertinent quote:
"With each story,
a baby grows to associate books with pleasure - a comfortable lap, a soothing
voice, the closeness
of a loved one ..... We encourage each family to read to baby from the start to
foster social and
emotional bonds with their child and a familiarity with books. The goal of reading
to baby is not
to teach reading, but to teach a love of books."
I couldn't find an online version of the article, but here is their website:
www.familyreading.org.<
This has been the thrust of what Mem Fox has been saying for years and is detailed
in her book
Reading Magic (that's the Australian title - the US might be different.). One of
the services I
offered to address this (when I was in the Palmerston library) was Grab Bags (or
Fast Finds for
Families). I made about 25 fabric bags and each one contained seven family
favourites suitable for
reading aloud to children six and under. Some were duplicates from the shelves,
others were picked
up cheaply at second-hand stores or book sales. It meant that the busy parent
dropping off their
littlies at school could call into the library and just grab a bag and know they
had enough quality
stories for a read-aloud every night for both their school and pre-school children.
I actually heard about the idea from the Tasmanian Minister for Education in 2003
whose local public
library had initiated the practice and how valuable and successful it was.
And yes, it took some time to organise and some money (mostly mine) to establish,
but I believed
very deeply in the benefits it would bring and I was not disappointed. In
conjunction with the
other program we ran with our adjoining pre school, we have our new entrants just
bursting to get to
the library to borrow their own books!
Barbara
Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
PALMERSTON ACT 2913
AUSTRALIA
E. barbara@iimetro.com.au
"Together we learn from each other."
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