Make a Joyful Noise: A Simple Song Has the Power to Bring People Together |...
The mothers and children enter the neighborhood meeting room. A raw, icy blast of wind follows the families through the door. Mothers unlayer little ones. Off come the boots and hats and mittens and...
View ArticleSomething to Smile About: A Statewide Early Literacy Program Is Making a Big...
As our communities face serious economic challenges, it’s easy to focus solely on the dire news of the day: dwindling budgets, programs at risk. So, now more than ever, it’s important to appreciate the...
View ArticleModel Behavior: Children (and Adults) Often Learn Best by Seeing and Doing |...
Children (and adults) often learn best by seeing and doing Watching our Commander-in-Chief read Where the Wild Things Are (HarperCollins, 1964) at the White House Easter Egg Roll gave us chills, even...
View ArticleReady, Set, Go! Storytime Can Help Children (and Parents) Become...
On these early autumn days, in communities big and small, kindergarteners are stuffing backpacks with colored markers, glue sticks, tissues, and sometimes a favorite book or stuffed animal. Getting...
View ArticleIt’s Never Too Early: Parents should talk to their young ones long before...
The young woman sitting alone near the front of the MAX train car was speaking passionately, presumably to a friend on a cellphone. Nothing new—we overhear all sorts of conversations these days. But...
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Virtual Preschool? Believe It or not, It’s a Thing
I’m having a nightmare. In it, my editor has pitched me an idea to cover virtual preschool. In my nightmare, I think: “Virtual preschool? I don’t even have my own flying car! But maybe my parents...
View ArticleHave You Heard the Word?: National Poetry Month is a great time to share the...
Our evening walks around Portland are even more delightful these days as more and more neighbors have added poetry posts to their yards. Poetry posts, you ask? They are simple wooden poles, kind of...
View ArticleA Happy Ending | First Steps
Outcomes-based evaluations help us define what we’re trying to accomplish Spring is the time of year when we ask our early childhood community partners to help us measure the effectiveness of our...
View ArticleThe Power of Words | First Steps
How librarians can help close the vocabulary gap We’ve never forgotten a story that Micki Freeny, coordinator of youth services at the District of Columbia Public Library, told us about her daughter....
View ArticleGet Ready, Get Set… | First Steps
In a perfect world, every child would enter kindergarten happy, healthy, and eager to learn. They’d run into their classrooms anxious to see friends and already in love with their teachers. But it’s...
View ArticleWhen Trauma Hits Home: Did you know that infants are the largest single group...
One of the most startling things we learned this year is that 48.6 percent of trauma victims in our state of Oregon are younger than six years old. And infants make up the largest single group of...
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Family Place Libraries Recast the Librarian’s Role in Early Learning
Photo by Andersen Ross/Thinkstock photos Three toddlers stack plastic plates and cups onto a table while another pretends to wash some forks in a sink. Across the way, a grandmother and her...
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Surprise—It’s STEM for Toddlers!
Twins stacking cups at the North Bellmore (NY) Public Library with ReneeMcGrath, manager of youth services for the Nassau (NY) Library System.Photo by Michele Rudzewick. A friend recently posted this...
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Are Bedtime Stories Going the Way of the Dinosaurs? | First Steps
One of my greatest memories is reading the same, mundane book over and over again, night after night, to my firstborn over a decade ago. And yes, after the 179th reading, it was hard for me to muster...
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The Best Early-Learning Blogs | First Steps
When it comes to early learning, I can’t get enough of blogs. There are so many good ones out there that I hesitate to pick and choose—but I’m going to risk it. It’s important to the promotion of early...
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Learning to Like Mother Goose Scripts | First Steps
I’ve been chanting “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” baaing like a sheep, and sharing my favorite Mother Goose rhymes during early learning programs for the last 24 years—often without a script. While I created a...
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Why toys should be in every children’s department—and how to make it happen |...
I never thought that toys would be a polarizing topic, yet here we are. Librarians either love them or strongly disagree with their placement in children’s rooms. Today’s children’s librarians have the...
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‘Open-Access’ Approach Creates a Parent-Friendly Library | First Steps
The last year or so has seen a wide-ranging conversation around diversity in children’s books, which is a great one to have. But what about diversity in parenting? What about diversity in parenting...
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How Can Youth Services Staff Meet Early Learning Needs in 2017? | First Steps
After attending the New York State Library Association conference on November 2–5, and listening to Rebekkah Smith-Aldrich and Matthew Bollerman speak about sustainability, I was fired up. Then,...
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Wearable Tech May Build Babies’ Budding Vocabularies | First Steps
On my left wrist is a piece of gadgetry that is supposed to motivate me to get up from behind my desk and walk. While I occasionally hit my goal of 10,000 steps a day on my Fitbit, I don’t do it often...
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