Trying to come up with a New Year’s resolution before 2017 arrives? Here’s an idea: resolve to read to your child daily! When a child learns to love books at an early age, it paves the way for a lifelong interest in reading. As a parent, there are many things that you can do to…
Each year, our Children’s Department at the Washington-Centerville Public Library puts together a list of some our favorite books from the current year that would make great gifts for children. If you’re in need of holiday gift ideas for the little readers in your life, check out this year’s list here!
Reading aloud to your child lays the foundation for literacy development and is widely regarded as the single most important activity for reading success. Not only does it allow a connection to be made between the written and spoken word, but it also serves as a demonstration of fluent reading. Even as your child starts reading…
Reading to your children is the absolute best way to prepare your little ones for later reading success. Research has shown, however, that the way in which you read to your children is just as important as the frequency with which you read to them. Dialogic reading is a proven-effective method of reading in which…
All parents would love to have endless amounts of time to sit and read to their kids, right? Unfortunately, life gets in the way and can make time for frequent one-on-one reading with your little ones hard to find. Fear not, frazzled parents! We’ve got a couple tricks up our sleeves at the library that…
If you haven’t heard the big news, the Washington-Centerville Public Library has been awarded a $100,000 grant to teach kids and teens about financial literacy! The majority of the grant money has been used to create an interactive exhibit designed to teach kids and teens about earning, saving, and spending money. This exhibit, created with…
The “summer slide” refers to what can happen to kids’ brains when they are idle during the summer months. Experts from the National Summer Learning Association estimate that the equivalent of about two month’s instruction time can be lost if children don’t keep their brains active during that break from school. Reading is a great…
Some of you might be wondering what in the world I could be talking about—Spring Break Blues?! I mean, who doesn’t LOVE Spring Break?! Well, if you’ve ever taken little ones out of town, you’ve probably experienced at least a little bit of the madness that can occur during a long ride in a car…
As a parent, you are your children’s first and often most influential role model. Your kids are constantly watching you and learning from your behavior (whether you like it or not!). Though you’re probably very conscious of making sure to properly model good manners and choosing right from wrong, things like modeling good reading habits might…
Babies are very cute, but they sure are needy! If you have a newborn at home, there’s a pretty high likelihood that your “me-time” has substantially diminished or even become non-existent. It’s your responsibility to make sure that your baby is fed, bathed, happy, diapered, well rested, stimulated, and kept alive. That doesn’t leave time…
