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
Last week, the New York Times‘ Opinionator blog featured an essay called “What Should Children Read?” by English teacher and writer Sarah Mosle. In the essay, Mosle highlights the new emphasis on nonfiction in the Common Core State Standards, “a set of national benchmarks, adopted by nearly every state, for the skills public school students … Continued
Thank you author Dallas Clayton for this beautiful book that reminds us of all the wonderful things in the world to be thankful for: the usual and the unusual. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you to the sun above thank you for … Continued
We love Ramona. Ramona Quimby. You know, Beezus’s little sister. The one who is always getting into so much trouble. What kind of trouble? Oh, you know, there’s the time she took one bite out of every apple in a bushel, forcing her mom to make the world’s biggest batch of applesauce. Or the time … 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
Do you see these beautiful children? Oh, they are a handful! I love them so much, but at the end of a long day of chicken herding, I am worn out! Like chickens, they all seem to be going in different directions at the same time. And just when you think you have got everybody … 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
Sure, there are those beautiful fall days with high, clear blue skies that set off the colors of the trees and just make your heart sing. Roald Dahl would be wasted on those days. And anyway, if we have any of those days left, PUT YOUR BOOKS DOWN AND GO OUTSIDE! When I mention Roald Dahl … 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
They say that reading aloud to your child is a great way to start conversations about topics that you might have otherwise avoided, been too uncomfortable to discuss, or that would have never come up otherwise.
It can bring you closer to your child by giving you the opportunity to learn their opinions and see their perspectives on different subjects. As a parent of two boys, I can vouch for the validity of this statement.
As part of its mission to assure that all children begin school prepared, Jumpstart is sponsoringRead for the Record, an annual celebration of adults and children reading together.
In October 2011, more than two million people participated by reading aloud the classic tale,Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney.
This year, on Thursday, October 4th even more people across the nation will join in the celebration by reading Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad.
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.)
It’s hard to believe that it’s autumn already! Over the course of the summer, CLiF presenters visited more than 2,600 children in Vermont and New Hampshire as part of our Summer Readers program. That’s a 24 percent increase over last summer!
The leaves are changing, the air is crisper and Halloween is just around the corner! After discovering an excess of Halloween books in our inventory, we thought it might be fun to celebrate by giving away some copies to our enthusiastic CLiF fans.
CLiF has served over 350,000 children since 1998.