Tag Archives: children

John Newbery and the history of books for children

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John Newbery is known as the father of children’s literature. He was not the first publisher to issue books for children. He was not even the first to publish books for children to enjoy, but he did it on a much larger scale than anyone before and introduced many innovations. Before the invention of printing, when hand-copied books cost more than most people could afford to pay, there were no books for children. The concept of children as a special customer base for books and the idea that children ought to enjoy them seems to have originated in the 1690s. Newbery printed his first children’s book in 1744. The publishing industry has never looked back.

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How to teach your child to read and love it

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The coronavirus pandemic has cast parents unwillingly into the role of teacher. Except for parents who were homeschooling anyway, it can be an uncomfortable experience. Parents haven’t studied the curriculum or the techniques of teaching. When it comes to teaching your child to read, however, not knowing current reading theory is an advantage. I am not a teacher, but I was married to an elementary school teacher for more than 20 years. I saw firsthand how state standards interfere with teaching reading or anything else. What’s more, my own teachers drilled spelling, vocabulary, and grammar in ways our teacher training institutions no longer encourage. And I am learning that scientific research has verified that current methods of teaching children to read don’t work. Unfortunately, schools of education haven’t kept up.

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1000 Books Before Kindergarten and preschool literacy

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Early childhood literacy matters. Academic success depends on reading, yet nearly one and five school children have trouble reading. The 1000 Books Before Kindergarten challenge was founded to jumpstart early childhood literacy. It encourages reading to children. According to the University of Virginia’s Kindergarten Readiness Program, as many as 34% of children are unprepared to start kindergarten. They lack at least one of four critical learning domains: literacy, mathematics, self-regulation, and social skills. Formal education in this country doesn’t begin until children start kindergarten when they’re 5. That is too late to start learning. Parents and other caregivers take care of children in the critical first five years of life. Few have any teacher training, but all of them influence a child’s development for better or worse. Children learn to speak by hearing others speak to them. The more words they hear, the easier it will be to learn a large working vocabulary. In the same way, the more someone reads to them, the easier it will be for them to learn to read. When parents speak to their babies a lot and read to them, it promotes not only learning once they get to school. It also helps with … Continue reading →

Classical music for children at the library

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For the past three years, the Greensboro (North Carolina) Public Library, in partnership with the Eastern Music Festival, have presented a series of concerts called “EMF Encircling the City.” It is a special outreach to introduce children to classical music. Children dearly love any music they hear. This series exemplifies fairly standard library programming. Surely all public libraries in this country provide rich and varied experiences for children, including live music. Most of them present live music to youth and adult audiences. too. Many even have dedicated concert halls so they don’t have to try to fit performances into multi-purpose rooms. “EMF Encircling the City” is a three-year-old partnership that began as part of the Eastern Music Festival’s 50th-anniversary celebrations. Diane Phoenix-Neal, a Greensboro violist and EMF faculty member initiated the series. (For whatever it’s worth, she’s black and first participated in EMF as a young student.)

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