Story Time...What's the Big Deal?

Next week we will begin a new series of Story time programs for kids ages 2-5. I spend approximately 40% of my time either prepping or presenting programs for kids. Why so much time? Let's look and see what the benefits are.

As a children's librarian I believe that reading is necessary for success as well as reaching one's potential. We teach young children to read because it is easier for them to develop this skill at an early age. The consequences of not being able to read are devastating. Did you know that 60% of all prisoners in the U.S. justice system are illiterate and that poor literacy skills have been linked to depression in children as young at age 10? So, what does that have to do with Story time? Programs at the library are designed to promote reading and the love of books. Great programs at the library bring people in and once they are in the building they are 75% more likely to use other services that the library offers.

Programs at the library, like Story time, promote a sense of community. Programs turn a solitary activity of reading into a group activity. It helps socialize children into the community and helps parents feel less isolated from other parents. We can show kids that reading is fun, we can form good reading habits and teach them how a library works. This sets them up to be successful library users in the future. Story time is not just about books but engages children in language and stories as well.  At the library, especially during Story time, we see the social effect of reading. Reading is a way to combat overexposure of media that often promotes violence, bad use of language and poor morals. Attending a program at the library can help a child develop a sense of structure and an awareness of rules and routine setting them up for success when they enter formal school environments.

You may ask the question, "Aren't teachers at school teaching kids how to read?" Well yes, they are teaching the mechanics of reading, but the reality is that most teachers cannot spend enough time with a child to engage them in literature.  It is the libraries' job to promote the love of reading and books.

There is still time to register your child for one of our Story time sessions. Classes available are Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. and Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. or you can attend one of our drop-in programs which we hold every Thursday at 10:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. You don't need a library card to attend any of our classes.  For more information about these and other programs at the library, call us at 435-723-5850 or visit our web page at www.bcpl.lib.ut.us

Michele Schumann
Children's Librarian

Living in an oral world

What did you say?

Before they become literate children live in an oral world. From early babyhood a child is immersed in language and learns to decode the world he lives in through the words he learns. Children can learn concepts through songs, rhymes and chants long before they begin the process of learning to read. Reading is really just a process of learning the abstract symbols we use for sounds that children have already know through their oral learning from birth.

Larry McMurtry, Pulitzer-Prize winning author, describes this oral world in his memoir, titled "Books". He says, "It puzzles me how totally bookless our ranch house was. There must have been a bible, but I don't remember seeing it. The fact of the bookless ranch house meant that before the age of five or six I lived in an aural culture. My mother, father, grandfather, grandmother and whatever uncles or cowboys happened by, sat on the front porch every night in good weather and told stories..."

The experience he describes is a mostly lost tradition, but children still learn through the things they hear spoken. If you have ever heard a toddler parrot a naughty word you have witnessed this phenomenon! We can influence a child's early learning by talking, singing, storytelling, reading aloud, making silly rhymes, and naming things we see. Children will need to master the language before they begin the process of reading. Children's learning begins by observing enthusiastic role models interact and use language in every format, from conversation to singing to reading.

How can you influence how engaging books and learning are for your child once they become literate? The first steps are rooted in the oral world they live in as infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Engage them in learning long before the "reading process" begins. In short, speak and they will learn, speak more and they will learn more.

Michele, Children's Librarian

Summer Reading Tutors Needed

“To learn to read is to light a fire: every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”

~Victor Hugo~

The Literacy Program will hold its annual Stay on Track summer reading program at the Boys & Girls Club, Willard Library/city offices, and the Brigham Library. Tutors are trained at a 2 hour session on Thursday June 4 by Diane Francom and then matched with a child that has been recommended by their elementary school teacher. The tutor and child then meet twice a week during the summer for about 45 minutes to benefit from the joys of reading. These are often children who otherwise may not have the continuity of reading during those months and struggle with it during the school year.

This is a very flexible program where everyone takes into consideration vacations and holidays. It is an opportunity to volunteer for a service that is not only richly rewarding, but invaluable. The recent Dept. of Education survey projects that this will be the first generation in the history of this country that will be less educated than the previous generation.

Please consider volunteering this summer for Stay on Track and look for sign up sheets at the library for the training, or call Diane at 723-5850.

You Can Help Promote Youth Literacy

“To learn to read is to light a fire: every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”

~Victor Hugo~

The Literacy Program will hold its annual Stay on Track summer reading program at the Boys & Girls Club, Willard Library/city offices, and the Brigham Library. Tutors are trained at a 2 hour session on Thursday June 4 by Diane Francom and then matched with a child that has been recommended by their elementary school teacher. The tutor and child then meet twice a week during the summer for about 45 minutes to benefit from the joys of reading. These are often children who otherwise may not have the continuity of reading during those months and struggle with it during the school year.

This is a very flexible program where everyone takes into consideration vacations and holidays. It is an opportunity to volunteer for a service that is not only richly rewarding, but invaluable. The recent Dept. of Education survey projects that this will be the first generation in the history of this country that will be less educated than the previous generation.

Please consider volunteering this summer for Stay on Track and look for sign up sheets at the library for the training, or call Diane at 723-5850.

Helping Kids Read

“To learn to read is to light a fire: every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”

~Victor Hugo~

The Literacy Program will hold its annual Stay on Track summer reading program at the Boys & Girls Club, Willard Library/city offices, and the Brigham Library. Tutors are trained at a 2 hour session on Thursday June 4 by Diane Francom and then matched with a child that has been recommended by their elementary school teacher. The tutor and child then meet twice a week during the summer for about 45 minutes to benefit from the joys of reading. These are often children who otherwise may not have the continuity of reading during those months and struggle with it during the school year.

This is a very flexible program where everyone takes into consideration vacations and holidays. It is an opportunity to volunteer for a service that is not only richly rewarding, but invaluable. The recent Dept. of Education survey projects that this will be the first generation in the history of this country that will be less educated than the previous generation.

Please consider volunteering this summer for Stay on Track and look for sign up sheets at the library for the training, or call Diane at 723-5850.

Volunteers Needed to Promote Literacy

“To learn to read is to light a fire: every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”

~Victor Hugo~

The Literacy Program will hold its annual Stay on Track summer reading program at the Boys & Girls Club, Willard Library/city offices, and the Brigham Library. Tutors are trained at a 2 hour session on Thursday June 4 by Diane Francom and then matched with a child that has been recommended by their elementary school teacher. The tutor and child then meet twice a week during the summer for about 45 minutes to benefit from the joys of reading. These are often children who otherwise may not have the continuity of reading during those months and struggle with it during the school year.

This is a very flexible program where everyone takes into consideration vacations and holidays. It is an opportunity to volunteer for a service that is not only richly rewarding, but invaluable. The recent Dept. of Education survey projects that this will be the first generation in the history of this country that will be less educated than the previous generation.

Please consider volunteering this summer for Stay on Track and look for sign up sheets at the library for the training, or call Diane at 723-5850.

Reception Held in Honor of Volunteers

Last Thursday the Box Elder County Literacy Program held a reception in honor of all of the literacy and ESL volunteers that have helped people in communities around Box Elder County by tutoring in reading and English language instruction. These volunteers have come in for training and have scheduled time with the students they work with. We'd all like to extend a big thank you to these wonderful people for all of the time they've shared and for caring about others in our communities. Literacy is an incredible gift to give to individuals, as well as society as a whole. If you know someone who's a literacy volunteer, be sure to say, "Thanks."

Here's a few pictures from the reception:

Diane is the Literacy Coordinator. She's the one to contact if you would like to volunteer or if you know someone who would like help with their reading or with the English language.
She's super nice, so don't hesitate in giving her a call, 723-5850.


The Literacy Program has kept a scrapbook over the years.
They certainly have grown a lot.


Parts of the scrapbook were put on DVD to share at Thursday's reception.


Some Spanish language materials that are available to people were
displayed at the reception as well.

Giving the Gift of Reading

Last month I received an e-mail about the results of a reading study done by the National Endowment for the Arts. They gathered results from more than 40 studies of children, teens and adults in the United States. These studies took into account all forms of reading materials. What they found were disturbing, although not all together new, results.

Their results showed that Americans, as a society, are:

1. Reading less

2. Reading less well

The study goes on to explain the effects poor reading skills are having on young Americans as they go to enter the workforce. Get the whole story on this reading survey, it's just a few pages, or you can look at the full 98 page report. Our nation's reading was also recently discussed on NPR. I thought this program was really, really good. It's only about 30 minutes and will be well worth your time - Listen to the NPR program now.

It's hard to find time to get everything done in today's world, especially when you have kids to care for and take from place to place. Sometimes at the end of the day we don't want to do anything but get the kids to bed and then get there ourselves. But have we stopped to think what an extra 20 minutes to read bedtime stories might mean to our kids? What reading the next chapter in our book or that interesting article in the newspaper might mean to us as well as our children?

Reading is a basic skill that we all need, and need to be able to do well, in order to make it through life with greater ease and to be more successful in the things we choose to do. With a study reporting that we are reading less - and less well - than our counterparts 20 years ago, shouldn't we see what we can do to correct this deficiency?

I know it's not as simple as taking a supplement. Don't we all wish it was. We have so many things to take our attention. We have work, social activities, family time, television, internet, music, games, and how the list could go on. In our society we push to do everything, in many cases we feel expected to do everything, and there is never enough time in a day. But if reading for a few minutes each day would help make you or your children more successful, wouldn't you think it was worth the time? Is it just a question of deciding what our priorities are? A few month ago our children's librarian posted very good article on reading to your child for 20 minutes a day. With our society show signs of a literacy deficiency, isn't it worth it?

And why not make it something fun for you and the kids. Reading doesn't have to be a chore. Like anything, we are all more likely to stick with something if we think it's fun. Make reading fun! Let you child see that you enjoy it. And have fun reading together. Recently I left a little blank book for my niece, she's been learning how to read and write - and she loves it. She carries around notebooks to write in and come up with math problems for you to solve. I knew she'd love this little freebie I'd picked up. The next morning when I saw her she brought it over to me and opened it up to the first page where she'd drawn a picture and written the words "I thikn I can and" she read the read the words to me and then pointed to the picture "and I'm reading!" she said excitedly. It was a picture of her reading a book. I love her excitement for reading and I hope she can keep it for the rest of her life. Wouldn't it be nice if we could share the love of reading with everyone.

It may be hard for us to introduce a lot of people to reading, but we can each do a little. Box Elder County has a literacy program and at times they need literacy tutors. Schools and church organizations sometimes look for help in teaching children and/or adults how to read, or to help individuals increase their reading ability. Don't have a lot of time? Start it simple. Read yourself. Read with your kids. If you develop, or increase your love of reading, your kids will see it. If your kids see it they'll want to find out what it's all about. If they find a love of reading their friends will see it. Get them hooked early, before all the diversions of the teen years bombard them. This Christmas encourage Santa to leave a book in the stocking next to that iPod or Wii. This Christmas give them the gift of reading!

Elizabeth

Flap, Jump and Shimmy into Reading

By Michele, Children's Librarian

If you are singing The eency weency spider song or dancing along with The Crazy Dance Contest by Jim Gill, you must be attending Preschool Story Time. There is nothing cuter than a dozen children age five and under blowing kisses and wiggling along to a story. But look closer at the jumping, clapping and animal sounds and you will see a method behind all this silliness.

Programs at the library are all about promoting children's literacy develpment. We need to help children develop in the following six areas: Print awareness, vocabulary, print motivation, narrative skills, phonological awareness and letter knowledge. Picture book reading provides children with many of these reading-readiness skills.

Print Awareness is knowing how we follow the written words on a page and how to handle a book. Parents can help by reading aloud everyday. Following the words with your finger as you read and pointing to new words.

Vocabulary is knowing the names of things. Parents can help by talking with your child, tell them the names of new things. Use creative descriptions.

Print motivation is a child's interest in and enjoyment of books. Parents can help by having books available to your child everyday.

Phonological Sensitivity (Awareness) is the ability to hear and play with smaller sounds in words. Parents can use rhymes and play with words. Combine two familiar words with each other to make up a new silly word. For instance; combine Duck and Horse to make a Dorse or a Huck.

Narrative skill is the ability to describe things and events and to tell what happened. Parents take turns with your child telling about your day. Use descriptive words.

Letter Knowledge is knowing that every letter has a different name and sound. Parents teach letter names and sounds together. Read alphabet books together. Teach your child to spell their name and sound it out together.

What you do every day gets your child ready to read. So bring your child to the library, choose some books and stop by one of our programs. It can help you teach your child to love reading, and make your child's day more fun, so get ready to flap, jump and shimmy to early reading skills.