Mary K.'s blog

There's been a lot of talk lately about the benefits play provides young children. It's being talked about on blogs, in research, in libraries, and in early childhood education centers. Parents are certainly encouraged to make sure their children are getting plenty of time to just PLAY (although, as a child's brain develops, it's never JUST play, is it?)

For those of us using the "One World, Many Stories" theme for our summer reading programs, and for anyone interested in learning songs and rhymes in new languages or with multilingual service populations, this new site from the Burnaby Public Library is SO useful.

If you are of my generation, you grew up learning about grammar, history, science, and math not only in school but via your saturday morning cartoons. Remember Schoolhouse Rock? I can still sing large parts of these songs (it's how I know the Preamble to the Constitution), so obviously, they did their job! This is one of my favorites. Which ones did you love?

Via Washington Learning Systems read an excerpt of a speech the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave about "Challenges for State and Local Government", in which he says:

A Colorado librarian named Melissa (a blogger here, too) had a great idea a few weeks ago: Why not start posting flannelboard ideas on her blog every friday and call it "Flannel Friday?" She posted her idea on twitter and soon 4 other librarians decided to join in. Now we are several weeks in, and there are lots of Flannel Friday posts for you to mine for great storytime ideas! The blogs are: