New Kid...

Hey all - I just signed up for this last night, but am very intrigued. I was a member at bibliophil.org for a while, but I lapsed in my posting - I hope to get myself on track here!

I like the Rev's idea of having a Bostonian introduction thread, so here's my brief New Kid contribution. I was born in Beantown, went to school at BC (English major), and now I live in the 'burbs, with my wife, and my two little ones. I joined LibraryThing about 18 months ago, but I just recently discovered the groups feature. Thanks for having me!

Welcome to LT, Reverend! It's a neat little place. Definitely serves the purpose of organizing and chatting about our libraries and other things.

Three cheers for English majors! I hung up my literary criticism hat and put on "let's learn how to read" hat... so I'm still sort of in the loop. :) And yay for BC, Prongs. :) That's where I am until May (thank goodness... 3 more months!!).

Hope the icy weather hasn't been too terrible to anyone. I know I've done the "oh my gosh, I'm going to die" ice dance a few times already. yikes!

Best,
Chelsea :)

Oh my goodness, Chelsea - the ice dance! For me, this weekend, it was more of a cartoon-like movement of my feet skywards followed shortly thereafter by a nasty splat, with the papers I had been neatly carrying in my hand raining down on top of me. I suppose we can't complain, given such a mild (freakishly mild?) January, but sometimes I think Spring can't come fast enough.

Well, Boston College is a great place to be no matter what time of year it is and I'm glad you're enjoying your time there. I hope you get a chance to spend some time in the Bapst library - I think that was my favorite place on campus. My little ones are just learning how to read right now. Do you have any recommendations?

Prongs-- Boston College's campus was the thing that drew me to BC (other than White Mountain Creamery right across the street... haha)! Gorgeous gothic architecture and beautiful grounds. I haven't been in Bapst yet since I'm mostly confined to Campion when I'm on campus. I've heard good things though! :)

Oooh, I could give a lot of good recommendations for kid books! :) Just learning how to read can be such a fun stage. The best thing to encourage them is to exhibit good reading skills by reading aloud to them a LOT. You'll make it a lot easier for them when they're in school (because then they'll hopefully be at or above grade level because they'll be overly familiar with the concept of text). :) But are there any books in particular you're looking for? Books that address different cultures? Values? Topics? Or just for fun books? How old are your little ones?

Have a great week,
Chelsea :)

Prongs,

If your kids are just learning to read, take them to Barefoot Books on Mass Ave in Cambridge (between Harvard and Porter squares) - it's one of the best kids bookstores anywhere!

Chelsea, my little ones are two and four - I have a boy and girl - and I read about three stories to them out loud every night. I love it and we have a lot of fun (and we have a lot of books), but I was wondering if any books were particulalrly well suited for learning to read. We'll read just about anything. I was thinking that books that are slightly repetitive might be good choices. For instance, my son (the four year old) his new favorite is Blankie by Leslie Patricelli - since I have the two year old, three cheers for board books :)! - and it repeats certain phrasing and I try to point out the words as we go along. I haven't taken them back to BC, but when we do, I'll have to stop off at the White Mounain Creamery. Can you believe I've never been there before?

And thanks for the tip, A_musing - I'll have to check out Barefoot Books when I'm in that neck of the woods. I seem to recall another really well-stocked Children's Bookstore right smack dab in the middle of Harvard Square, but I can't remember the name. Is anybody familiar with that one?

Curious George Goes to Wordsworth - it's a good kids book store, but Barefoot Books is more a book experience - there are tents and thrones and cushions and chairs for reading, there is kid oriented art work everywhere, the books have great themes, it's just a fun place.

And it's right near the Harvard Natural History Museum, another kid magnet.

Leaning to read is wonderful and books by Patty Wolcott will make it more so. She has written readers that use only ten words per book, but what wonderful words. Some titles are Tunafish Sandwiches, Marvelous Mud Washing Machine, Double-decker, double-decker, double-decker bus, The Dragon and the Wild Fandango, and Where did that naughty little hamster go. You can find the books at libraries in the following systems:
Cape Libraries (C.L.A.M.S) 28 hits
C/W MARS Central MA Libraries 39 hits
Fenway Libraries Online 18 hits
Metro Boston Library Network 27 hits
Minuteman Library Network 36 hits
Merrimack Valley Library Con. 28 hits
NOBLE 28 hits
Old Colony Library Network 21 hits
Sails Library Network 23 hits
There are lots more controlled/limited vocabulary books, but these have such wonderful words. Any children's librarian will be happy to help you find other titles that will suit you and your kids.

Thanks for the recommendations!

David

Prongs-- Sorry for such a delay in response. I just got back from vacation, and my second graders are quite the energy-consuming ones. :) While I don't have too much breadth of book knowledge for tiny wee ones, I can suggest a few things!

For your 2 year-old, just keep reading to him and showing him good reader skills (i.e., holding the book, pointing to words, etc.). When you see him pick up a book, open it, and pretend to read, that's an excellent sign! He's realizing that something is going on on those pages. :)

A cute one for your 4 year-old is the "My First Reader" series (authors include Louise Gikow and Nancy Christensen), particularly Good Night, Little Kitten and I Can Read. I don't know how well she's grasped the "concept of print" yet or how aware she is of her letters, but a great reading strategy that I use with some struggling readers in my class (who are unfortunately reading at a Kindergarten level) is a "read to you, read to me" thing where you read it through once, then reread the first page and ask your daughter to read back just that page to you (using your finger as a guide! Can't underestimate the pointer!). After a few times of repetition and familiarity with the text, she will eventually develop fluency with it. :)

Really, just reading to her is the best thing! It's so great to see a parent who's really invested in his children's reading development. I wish I saw more of that in the class I'm in now; it would make SUCH a difference!

Wow, it's so funny that I'm talking about all of this... I'm taking the Foundations of Reading teacher certification exam this Saturday... and all this stuff is going to be on there. I'm still freaking out ever so slightly about it. Eek! This is the one that most people don't do so well on and then have to retake this expensive test. Fingers crossed on this one!

Best of luck to you and yours!
Chelsea :)

Hello I will formally introduce myself. I'm a teacher Born and raised in Boston went to BA form Lesley University in Literature and Art AKA (Liberal Arts) soon to add a Masters to it.

Good luck on your Foundations of Reading Colombe would you belive it if I told you I failed it by a few points.

Don't like to spend alot on books unless I have to. I usally got to the Goodwill both in Cambridge and Roxbury and Salvation army in Cambridge. Barefoot Books is a good spot for childrens books and Minuteman Library Network one of my favorites system for finding books.

Hlpme-- Eek! Don't tell me that you failed by a few points! You're only confirming what I've heard! :P lol But glad to hear you're still a teacher, so you must have gotten by somehow. :)

Thrift stores are the best for classroom books. :)

Chelsea :)

Greetings, hlpme, and thanks for the Barefoot Books recommendation. You're the second person to point me in that direction in this thread, so I will have to pack up the wagon (i.e., the station wagon) and take my little ankle biters down to Harvard Square.

And thank you for your advice and encouragement, Chelsea, and good luck on your test this Saturday. Is the teacher certification test a multi-part exam (with the Reading portion being just one)? If so, it sounds like a bit of a nightmare. It sounds like a racket to me, actually. It should be enough that you graduate from an accredited school, don't you think?

I'm probably preaching to the choir, but don't people understand that as a society, we inevitably force students and teachers (and prospective teachers) to put an inordinate amount of time and effort (and money) into being good test takers, which inevitably means less time and effort (and money) goes into making people better at their chosen profession?

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed your vacation last week and didn't spend the whole time studying away the hours. One of my professors at BC, Pete Wilson (an accounting professor!), used to say "You should never mix serious work and serious play." I always loved the sound of that and what it implied. He would always say it with a huge smile on his face. If, on the off chance you ever get a chance to hear him speak at school, grab it! He's a great teacher!

David