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Parents as Readers | Call for Volunteers | Reading to Your Child | Surfing Safely | Internet Permission Forms
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Parents as Readers: a 2008 Summer Reading Program
Some parents think they do not read well enough to help their children. That's hardly ever the case. There are things every parent can do to help his or her child get ready to read. Families with toddlers and preschoolers can learn more and sign up with Parents as Readers on Thursday, June 5th between 10 - 11 am.
Contact Nancy at the library for more information, 367-4114.
Call for Volunteers
Dear Parents and Friends,
The Library is looking for volunteers to help us offer more activities
for our summer program. “Catch the Reading Bug!” is
designed to encourage children to continue reading during vacation
so valuable reading skills won’t
be lost.
We hope to offer a variety of activities for children.
We need volunteers to:
- Help with registration and recording of books ready by children
- Assist the librarian with storytime or other programs
- Offer or help with a craft program
- Create a display or help decorate a room
- Chaperone a reading party or field trip
- Provide refreshments for a special event
- Offer a workshop using a special skill I have
If you are interested in helping us, please fill out this form and return it to the library by Tuesday, May 20. Contact Nancy at the library for more information, 367-4114.
Reading to Your Child
Children who read perform better in school and express more creativity. You can help your little one of any age love to read by reading to them early and often.
Babies
- Sharing books with your baby forms a foundation of reading.
- Reading aloud exposes children to the sounds of human speech and helps them to learn language from birth. It also teaches your baby about communication, introduces concepts such as numbers, letters, colors, and shapes in a fun way, and builds listening, memory, and vocabulary skills.
- The average 2 year old knows between 300-500 words. Children who are spoken and read to often exhibit more diverse vocabularies and become into interested readers.
What to do
- Get a library card. The library has hundred of board books available for borrowing.
- Begin reading board books with your baby. They are very colorful and durable. Expect your 4-6 month old baby to explore the book by patting, biting and pulling at pages. By the end of the first year, your baby may explore books independently and at 18-24 months, your baby will pretend to be reading books by themselves.
- Let your baby set the pace at story time. If your baby isn't interested, wait for another time.
More resources about reading to babies
Toddlers
- Toddlers can learn up to 9 new words a day. This is an important time to nurture language and read to ensure larger vocabularies and development into better readers.
What to do
- Read to your toddler every day. Picking a set time to read together is the best way to create a new routine.
- Toddlers like to hear the same story over and over again. This helps them find comfortable familiarity with books.
- Don't be discouraged if your toddler gets up and moves around during the story. He or she is still listening as you read.
- Engage your toddler in the story by asking questions. Encourage them to name things in the book as well.
- Bring your toddler to story time at the library. It's a great way to foster excitement about books and the library, socialize with other toddlers, and just get out of the house.
More resources about reading to toddlers
Preschoolers
- Children understand 13,000 words by the time they are age 6. Reading to them is an assured way to better success in school.
- At ages 3 and 4, your preschoolers will enjoy discussing books and will handle them with ease.
- By age 5, your preschooler will recognize certain words, retell simple stories and will understand that text flows from left to right.
What to do
- Have your preschooler guess which rhyming word comes next in a familiar story or repeat recognizable phrases.
- Ask questions about what the characters in the story may be feeling or thinking about.
- Bring your preschooler to the library and encourage him or her to pick out his own books to borrow.
- Turn the TV off during reading time at home and keep a variety of books, newspaper, and magazines around the house. Let your preschooler see you enjoying reading!
More resources about reading to preschoolers
Surfing Safely
While there is no simple solution to keeping kids safe while using the Internet, there are basic suggestions for online safety. We suggest browsing these recommended resources and taking an online quiz with your child. Talk to them about their answers. Nothing can replace parental involvement, but we hope to provide you with an understanding of the issue, and better prepare you to guide your children as they use the Internet.
View more information about children accessing the Internet with library computers.
Safekids.com is probably the most respected online safety site. A wealth of other useful and timely information.
A large resource with safety guides are grouped by age from 2-17.
The Federal Trade Commission's tips for keeping personal information about your children private
A quiz for children to help them understand online safety. Fun & informative.
Additional Resources
- Congressional report: Just The Facts About Online Youth Victimization: Researchers Present the Facts and Debunk Myths
- FBI publication: A Parent's Guide to Internet Safety
- National Center for Missing & Exploited Children brochure: Child Safety on the Information Highway
Internet Permission Forms
Children may use the library's public computers located in the children's and teen areas. These computers feature child safety filtering software.
Children may use adult public computers which have no protective filtering software with parent permission.
Although measures are taken to ensure that child-safe filtering software protects children while using library computers located in the children's area and teen room, library staff does not monitor children's activities online.
Download a children's internet permission form
in Microsoft Word or PDF format.
