General

A Happy Mind: 5 Ways To Maintain Summer Reading Habits

School starting again means having more things to do: pack lunches, attend meetings, do homework, participate in after-school activities, and the list goes on. While getting back into the swing of the school year is exciting, the shift from summer to fall is overwhelming and often results in the loss of well-formed, closely-followed, summer habits…such … Continued

General

Broaching through Books

By Caroline Jones This past Sunday, I was driving back from Maine and passing the time in traffic with the wonderful podcast “This American Life”. One of the episodes, “The Birds & The Bees”, explored the complexities of explaining all kinds of difficult issues to young children. W. Kamau Bell, a comedian and father, was … Continued

General

Growing up CLiF

By Caroline Jones, CLiF’s Summer Intern I know what you’re thinking: “Who is that budding reader and aspiring politician in the blue dress in the front row? Why is she in this group of small children holding books with pre-scream Governor Dean in this painfully ‘90’s photo?” Fear not, faithful readers. ‘Tis I, Caroline, CLiF’s … Continued

General

Books Abroad

Embarking for a recent family vacation, I knew that books would be an important ingredient for the first international trip with my nine-month-old daughter, Nora. Six flights and countless retellings of The Pout-Pout Fish later, I was grateful for the durability of the humble board book. What I didn’t count on, however, was that books … Continued

CLiF Spotlight

Mothers and Kids: Togetherness

At CLiF, much of our work occurs behind the scenes. We spend many hours scheduling events, organizing logistics, communicating with coordinators who are on the ground in various communities throughout Vermont and New Hampshire. While we love what we do, nothing compares to hanging up the phone, logging off our email, and stepping out from … Continued

If you're a parent and...

If you’re a parent and…you’ve got a slugger

Well, maybe not a “slugger.” More like a clunker. His pitching is anything but fast, his tiny hands can barely close his glove, let alone catch with it, and he usually forgets to run the bases when his bat finally makes contact with the ball. No matter. It’s baseball season, and my son is itching … Continued

From a Lowell, VT child's Storykeepers family history research project: "I never got to meet my grandfather. But if I could, well, I'd love to."

General / CLiF Spotlight

CLiF Spotlight: Keeping Family Stories Alive

Probably most adults could not coherently discuss the differences between the 1840 and 1860 census how a daguerreotype differs from a tintype or the repercussions of the 1890 census being destroyed in a Department of Commerce fire. But the children of Island Pond and Lowell, Vermont can. Funded in part by CLiF Year of the … Continued

FPO image for CLiF website

General

Life, Kids, and Books: There’s an Acorn in the Dryer

There’s an acorn banging around in the dryer. Of course there is. That makes perfect sense. It goes along with the rest of it: the gobs and gobs of “art” stuck with magnets to the fridge, the Lego guy in my shoe, the missing checks and stamps that someone (and I know who!) used to … Continued

General

Two Wild Boys Become Quiet Readers – for a Moment

I don’t like it when my house gets too quiet. As the mother of two little boys, silence makes red flags go up in a hurry. I have become quite talented in tuning out the everyday sounds of fights over whose truck is whose and whose turn it is to play with the fireman. I … Continued

CLiF has served over 350,000 children since 1998.

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