Jodi Wheeler is no doubt a local hero around Lyndonville, Vermont. In 2005, Jodi founded the H.O.P.E. Foundation to help address the most basic needs of her neighbors: clothing and food. H.O.P.E. operates a thrift store to provide low cost clothing, provides emergency food and operates a weekly backpack program for children in need. Jodi … Continued
General / Book Recommendations
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
CLiF knows that parents have a tremendous influence on the likelihood that their child will grow up a strong reader and writer. That’s why we strive to include parents whenever possible in our programs.
Christmas cards! Wrapping! Cookies! And toys! Ornaments! Concerts! Family! And noise! Oh what a season to be someone’s mother Making some magic for your kids and others. The late nights of wrapping and shopping and baking Struggling in the dark morning hours of waking Wishing for peace, but racing instead Fending off “helpers” who won’t … Continued
(Thanks to Kat Colby for sending us this update about a recent book giveaway in Gilman, Vermont.) Tuesday, March 11 was a big day for Gilman Head Start in Gilman! In addition to a visit from local children’s author, David Martin, Head Start was awarded $2,000 worth of new hardcover books as part of Lunenburg-Gilman’s … Continued
Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, a children’s book author from Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, has been visiting K-8 students at the Lunenburg Elementary School and Gilman Middle School since October to teach her Story Keepers humanities curriculum. Story Keepers is part of Lunenburg’s three-year Community Literacy grant from CLiF. Natalie’s books are often based on her own family stories. … Continued
The day before Thanksgiving, Duncan rolled up to McLaughlin Middle School with the CLiF mobile chock full of books. CLiF specifically came to visit the ELL students – or English Language Learners – at this school in Manchester, NH. Almost all of these ELL students are New Americans, whose families have recently relocated to Manchester from … Continued
General / Book Recommendations
We all know the power books can have. They can persuade, instruct, entertain, stimulate, educate, amaze, etc., etc., etc. But can they make it snow? Probably not all by themselves, but maybe with our help. Just maybe. Remember the old “Think Snow” slogan? Well, this is exactly the time of year to pull it out … Continued
CLiF’s newest program, Year of the Book, provides more than $25,000 in literacy support, programs, and new books for six schools across New Hampshire and Vermont. One important part of Year of the Book is the mini-grants program. In each Year of the Book school, CLiF has offered $2,000 in funding for mini-grants for classroom … Continued
I pulled out a pad of paper to jot down a few ideas for my blog post, and the toddler to my right (my son Emmett’s friend) inquired, “Mommy write?” Impressed with her command of the word “write,” I joyfully responded, “Yes. I’m going to write!” To this, she replied, “Mommy write?” Again, “Yes. Write.” … Continued
Someone is starting to read! It is so amazing to watch, incredible really. It starts so small, you hardly notice it’s beginning. You’re just going along your merry way packing lunches, patching boo boos, and carrying on as if everything is perfectly normal. But deep in that little brain something miraculous is happening. Behind those … Continued
Election season. An exhausting ride where we are all bombarded with campaign ads, controversial discussions, heated debates, and a barrage of political humdrum.
Halloween Eve 9:00 p.m. I can’t imagine how this is possible. My sugar-hyped children have fallen asleep. Thank God. I look around the house. Some dishes from dinner are still on the counter; we barely gobbled it down before heading out to Trick or Treat. The table is covered in neatly sorted piles of peanut … Continued
General / Book Recommendations
If you’re anything like me, you’ll be spending this Halloween curled up with a scary book as you wait to chase hooligans off the supposedly-haunted bridge across from your property. But even if you’re not like me, you should still consider spending this cloudy, drizzly, decidedly creepy time of year reading an appropriately eerie book … Continued
I was quite a skilled eavesdropper by the time I was 13. You see, growing up in my house meant that each night before bed a story was told to each child in his or her own bedroom. It was a special time alone for each child with my mother at the helm of a … Continued
A long time ago, when we were first married, my husband and I used to love to hang around on a Sunday morning reading the New York Times. In my memory of those days, it was cold and raining outside, or 20 below, and we had no place in particular to be. I made an extra … Continued
If you would like your child to be a great reader, should you give him or her… A book A Barbie A Lego set A trip to the zoo All of the above Well, let’s see. What are the tools of a really good reader? A good reader can decode the symbols on a page … Continued
Over the past few weeks, CLiF Executive Director Duncan McDougall has packed the CLiFmobile with books and driven to Brownington, Newbury, and Johnson, Vermont, as well as Pittsfield and Berlin, New Hampshire. CLiF has partnered with each town’s elementary school on our newest program, CLiF’s Year of the Book. (We’re also working with Pittsburg, NH. Their kick-off event will be on October 11.)
CLiF has served over 350,000 children since 1998.