General

How To Help Your Toddler Learn To Love Reading

Fostering a love of reading can help set your little one up for academic success. It can also set the stage for a lifetime of enjoyment. But, just how do you teach your toddler to love reading? I have outlined a few tips below. Take A Trip To The Library Libraries are a great place … 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

General / If you're a parent and...

If you are a parent and… every day is Thanksgiving

As parents we often exhaust ourselves prodding our kids to use their manners: “Remember to say please.” “How do you ask nicely?” “What’s the magic word?” “What do you say now?” We want them to be polite, appreciative, socially appropriate beings, and sometimes forcing them to use manners doesn’t feel like the most effective or … Continued

General / Book Recommendations / If you're a parent and...

If you are a parent and… you need the toy to end all toys

It’s a drizzly, dreary afternoon. The blocks have towered and the cars have raced and the crayons have drawn. But it’s still drizzly and dreary. Cue the whining. My son’s new favorite I’m-bored-phrase is “but who will play with me?” That’s when it’s time for the box. You don’t need movies or video games or intricate … Continued

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General / Book Recommendations

Get Out! Ideas for Bringing Books Outside This Summer

With the promise of summer weather on the horizon, I’ve started to contemplate fun ways to bring our reading outdoors on warm, sunny days. Luckily with the world of Pinterest and creative blogs, I found a wealth of ideas for summer literacy activities. Unfortunately, children that don’t read and write during the summer months experience … Continued

General / Book Recommendations

Children’s Books as Art

Recently, while at the library seeking new reading material for my son, Emmett, two books jumped out at me. Each had an enticing title, intriguing subject matter, and captivating imagery. And Then It’s Spring and Peaceful Piggy Meditation grabbed my interest, and without hesitation, I checked them out and nestled them into our stroller. Though the books are … Continued

General

Storytime Chaos

Storytime at the library. It paints an enticing image: stylish stay-at-home mom, peppy grin, hip outfit, adorable bright-faced child, a healthy snack in her bag, a stack of books in her arm, and endless patience. She quietly enters, sits on the floor while her little one piles neatly into her lap, and they gaze cheerily … Continued

General / Book Recommendations

Lyrically Alluring Reads

A few months ago I tasked our readers with an important assignment: help me find books that I can read repeatedly without losing my sanity. For those of you who missed my first blog post, feel free to read it here. The gist of my request was that I now have a (just-about-in-only-one-week-where-did-the-time-go) two-year-old who has … Continued

Book Recommendations / How You Can Help

No Words Necessary

Time with a toddler can be an exhausting string of activity. When you’re not decoding the cause for the latest tantrum, you’re plucking your child from the arm of the couch before he belly flops onto the cushions.

This past Friday I was watching my own crazed toddler, Emmett, in addition to two other children his age. Needless to say, my morning involved a mug of coffee gone cold and a maze of picking up toys, mopping up milk, and repeatedly reminding them to be gentle. By naptime, I was ready to snooze myself and couldn’t wait for a small window of quietness. Before I lulled them to sleep, however, I bravely tried to tackle story time.

CLiF has served over 350,000 children since 1998.

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