for Parents
R.E.A.D. Program Sign-ups
Written by claire on 10/12/2010There is still space for the R.E.A.D. program for this Thursday, February 2 at 4:15pm.
Kids can sign up for individual reading sessions with Darien Library's R.E.A.D.er dog Brasil and his friends.
Winter R.E.A.D. sessions*. Register by selecting the date.
March 1
April 5
May 3
*All sessions begin at 4:15pm, and are 15 minutes each
*Sessions are for kids reading on their own, or with help. Ages 4 and up recommended.
To find out more about the R.E.A.D. program at Darien Library click here.
Dealing with Bullies
Written by KieraP on 02/03/2012 |
photo courtesy of Flickr user Eddie~S |
From pushes on the playground to mean instant messaging, bullying is an issue that almost all children face at some time or another. With a recent surge in media attention and a new focus on cyber-bullying, parents may wonder where and how to find the best information and ways of talking to their own kids about bullies.
What if my child is the victim of bullying?
A recent article in Parenting magazine offered the following 3 Step process for parents:
Step One: Find out what's going on. Get the facts and reassure your child that you will both work together on a solution.
Step Two: Help your child figure out how to respond. Some responses include:
- Stand tall and act brave
- Ignore the bully
- Stick with friends
- Tell an Adult
Step Three: Take action yourself. Set up a meeting with the teacher, parent, or caregiver.
What if my child's friend is the bully?
One of the hardest things for a child to learn is how to stand up for what's right, even in the face of possible scrutiny or embarassment.
The US Department of Health and Human Services has a kid-friendly website called Stop Bullying Now that features info, games, quizzes, and webisodes all designed to address the issues of bullying , offer meaningful discussion starters, and help promote positive ways of combatting this childhood problem. Check out this video featuring the character Melanie and her struggle with a friend who is a known bully.
What if my child is the bully?
It can sometimes be hard to tell if childhood squabbles are simply "kids being kids" or if there is a more serious problem.
Stop Bullying Now offers the following advice to parents:
- Make it clear to your child that you take bullying seriously and that you will not tolerate this behavior.
- Develop clear and consistent rules within your family for your children's behavior. Praise and reinforce your children for following rules and use non-physical, non hostile consequences for rule violations.
- Spend more time with your child and carefully supervise and monitor his or her activities. Find out who your child's friends are and how and where they spend free time.
- Build on your child's talents by encouraging him or her to get involved in prosocial activities (such as clubs, music lessons, nonviolent sports).
- Share your concerns with your child's teacher, counselor, or principal. Work together to send clear messages to your child that his or her bullying must stop.
- If you or your child needs additional help, talk with a school counselor or mental health professional.
The Children's Library also offers some great books for both children and parents on the subject of bullying. These are a few of our favorites:
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Celebrate Black History Month!
Written by KieraP on 02/02/2012February is Black History Month, a time to celebrate and honor great and influential African Americans throughout history.
Did you know that Black History Month was first celebrated in 1926? It was originally called "Negro History Week" (a term that we no longer use) and was started by historian Carter G. Woodson. Mr. Woodson was one of the first scholars to study African American history and promote the importance of discovering and understanding the history of African Americans here in the United States and around the world.
Here are a few inspiring books to share in celebration of Black History Month:
For young children:
Langston Hughes' melodic poem is paired with stunning photography by Charles R. Smith, Jr. to create a siimple, yet moving tribute to beauty in its particular and universal forms.
For elementary-aged children:
Did you know that one of the 2011 Caldecott Honor books tells the story of a slave who went on to become an influential artist and poet? Dave the Potter by Labban Carrick Hill is a beautifully illustrated, powerful true story.
For older readers:
In this tour-de-force sequel to Chains, Curzon, a 15-year-old escaped slave, joins the Continental Army at Valley Forge. Will he and his friend Isabel finally be granted true freedom?
More books to celebrate Black History Month.
Looking for in-depth information on famous African Americans? Check our Biography Resource Center or History Resource Center.
App of the Month - DoodleCast for Kids
Written by claire on 01/02/2012January's App of the Month is DoodleCast for Kids. This App allows preschoolers to draw, create videos, and practice their Narrative Skills. DoodleCast was also recently voted the "best App for younger children" at the 2012 KAPi Awards, part of the Consumer Electronics Show.
The App gives kids a list of images and adjectives, allowing them to draw and record voice-overs. Their descriptions are then made into short videos which can be emailed or uploaded to YouTube.
Doodling has never been this fun! Grownups are sure to also love the educational elements of this engaging activity. Children can illustrate their knowledge both visually and verbally.
DoodleCast for Kids is designed by Zinc Roe Inc. and can be found online for iPad users.
Dont have an iPad? Did you know that the Children's Library circulates Early Literacy iPads? Place your hold today!
Morning Matinees for Parents in December
Written by missmarian on 11/22/2011Darien Library will be hosting morning screenings of documentaries in December. If you haven't had a chance to see one, or both, of these films, please join us!
Miss Representation
Monday, December 19 at 10 a.m. in the Community Room
This film looks at the negative portrayal of women and girls in the media, and its glorification of youth and beauty. After screening at the Sundance Film Festival, Miss Representation was picked up by the Oprah Winfrey N etwork for their documentary film series. 90 minutes. TV-14.
Waiting for Superman
Wednesday, December 21 at 10 a.m. in the Conference Room
Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim tackles the topic of public education and introduces the viewer to the faces behind the statistics. 102 minutes. Rated PG.
The New York Times' 2011 Best Illustrated Children's Books
Written by missmarian on 11/03/2011The New York Times Book Review just announced it's 10 picks for Best Illustrated Children's 
Books of 2011. These books run the gamut from dry humor (I Want My Hat Back) to gorgeous biographies (Me...Jane and A Nation's Hope, which you might remember as a Booktalking title from this past summer!).
The list of books is below, with the exception of two books: Ice by Arthur Geisert and A New Year's Reunion by Yu Li-Qiong.
Miss Elisabeth Goes to Boston: The Horn Book Awards
Written by egattullo on 10/04/2011This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Boston-Globe Horn Book Awards at Simmons College. Each year, honors are bestowed upon authors and illustrators who excelled in Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Picture Books for children and teens. A full list of winners and honorees can be found here.
Winner : Picture Book
Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes
Illustrated and Curated by Sally Mavor
Sally Mavor hand created each 3-D image in this book, a process taking years. Her pictures are whimsical and detailed. In her acceptance speech, she talked about her creative process and showed a video of her embroidery work. She also spoke of her love for creating things with her hands and expressed an interest in creating animated films.
The library has one other work illustrated by Ms. Mavor: Martin Waddell's The Hollycock Wall, where her attention to the tiniest aspects of her creations is perfectly displayed.
Although the Fiction winners this year were authors of Young Adult literature, the Non-Fiction winner was writen for children (and is excellent!)
Winner: Non-Fiction
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, and Treachery
Written by Steve Sheinkin
This non-fiction account of American traitor Benedict Arnold's life reads like a spy thriller but is entirely true. Not content to paint his subject with an overbroad "bad guy" brush, the author details Arnold's heroics in the American Revolution (he won several important battles for General Washington before defecting to the British). Highly recommended.
In his acceptance speech, the author, a former writer of history textbooks, spoke of his desire to bring the "cool, intersting" parts of American history to life. These parts kept getting cut out of his textbooks, so he turned to stand-alone books instead.
The library also has copies of his highly informative, hilarious books:
Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War
Distinguished (and hilarious!) author Richard Peck was the opening speaker, and although his entire speech was excellent, one line stood out to me in particular: "If you cannot find yourself on the page very early in life, you will spend the rest of your life looking for yourself in all the wrong places."
Raising Our Sons and Daughters - A Parenting Program for the New School Year
Written by childrens library on 09/26/2011
As a parent, do you:
• Worry that you are not doing enough?
• Struggle with embarrassing issues?
• Seek ways to reduce power struggles?
• Want to do everything you can to be
an effective and competent parent?
Parents of boys and girls in 3rd and 4th grades are invited to join this monthly Parent Discussion Group held in the Darien Library Conference Room. Using the Raising Our Sons and Raising Our Daughters parenting guides, you will meet monthly with other parents with children of the same age/gender. This program is designed to be a pro-active approach to prepare for the tween and teen years.
Wednesdays, 10 to 11:30 AM
The first session will meet on Wednesday, October 12 at 10 AM in the Library's Conference Room.
Darien Library is a member of Thriving Youth: Connected Community, an initiative of the Human Services Planning Council for developmental asset building through meaningful relationships, experiences, skills and opportunities that benefit all our children. Thriving Youth: Connected Community is a movement in Darien to address the needs of our young people which were brought to light in the Fall when the Search Institute conducted the 40 Developmental Assets survey in our Middle and High Schools. If you missed the results when they were announced you can still view the presentation as a pdf here. Some of the sessions will be facilitated by Moira Rizzo, LMFT.
To see the list of Developmental Assets that will be discussed in this series, click here. To learn more about the Raising Our Sons and Daughters program, visit the Family Empowerment Network's website.
Space is limited - Register online here, or by calling the Children's Library at (203) 669-5235.
Jefferson's Sons, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Written by egattullo on 09/24/2011
In her new book, Jefferson's Sons, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley does something truly remarkable. She takes a complicated and controversial idea, that Thomas Jefferson had children by his slave Sally Hemmings, and writes about it in a simple, eloquent way that children can understand.
This book is definitely for advanced readers. The themes it tackles are complex and readers need a working knowledge of early US history to understand the world that Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston live in. The story does not shy away from the horrors of slavery - families are broken apart, friends are sold, and slaves who run away are punished when they are caught. However, by presenting the book from the perspectives of children, Bradley is able to convey her story without graphic details.
This book is generating a lot of Newbery buzz for its honesty and the high quality of its storytelling. There is a recomended reading list at the back of the book, and Bradley writes an afterword in which she details how she did her research and where she located most of her information (in primary sources from Monticello.org).
I would recomend that parents read this book themselves if they have a child who would like to check it out, as it is a tale likely to generate a large amount of discussion.
Further reviews can be found here , here, and here. Highly recomended for children 9+.
Fantasy Friday: The Boneshaker by Kate Milford
Written by egattullo on 09/16/2011Welcome to the Innagural Fantasy Friday Post!
Kate Milford's The Boneshaker: a book I would highly reccomend it to everyone who likes thrills, chills, visions, prophecies, the midwest, history, and battles with great and terrible Evil.
It's 1914, and Natalie Minks lives in a quiet, sleepy town. A slightly strange, quiet, sleepy town, situated just down the road from the former town. Old Aracane burned to the ground under mysterious circumstances 200 years before, and the crossroads it stands on have been known to flicker in the night.
Natalie loves two things more than anything else in the world. She loves the legends her mother tells her each night before bed, strange stories where men meet the Devil at the crossroads and survive, or don't. And she loves her father's mechanic shop, where she spends her days learning how things work.
Life is great until the day the doctor leaves town to help with a mysterious flu epidemic 200 miles away. As the doctor leaves town, Dr. Jake Limberleg's Nostrum Fair and Medical Show arrives. And there's something not-quite-right about Dr. Jake, who wears clothes from a 100 years ago and won't ever, ever take his gloves off.
Worse, there's something truly wrong with the medicines he begins to dispense to the town and the men who help him dispense it. Somehow, Natalie knows that there is a great evil at work in Arcane. And she may be the only one who can stop it.
Have you ever met the Devil at the crossroads? Because it looks like Natalie's about to...
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