Currently my colleague at the public library, Kyra, and I are trying to create a family literacy night program that is ongoing throughout our community where there are 2 elementary schools and 2 high schools in a town that has a Native American community and a suburban/farming community.
I think as part of the seasonal program, in the fall would be a great time to focus on how to teach your children from an early age the importance of …
I’ll be back after I am done with niece and nephews….
Dance class break:)
The seeds of bullying start early. I had a second grader making fun of a book someone picked out during library a couple of weeks ago. Teachable moment and made me think that I had to teach this interaction. This started a conversation about bullying.
Two years ago my friend’s daughter had a boy say to her ( it was first or second grade) that he was going to shoot her. My friend got on the phone fast, but not after thinking hard about how to deal with the situation. What does she tell her daughter? and what does she say to the school? She didn’t want to be a crazy parent and she imagined there must be an interesting homelife for a child that would say such a thing.
Fostering caring humans is the role of not just the parents, but the community. I believe it does take a village.
Librarians throughout a community can make a concerted effort to give parents and community members the information and access to the expertise they need to nurture caring children and in doing so prepare them to be responsible citizens and users of the internet.
A community series of events where parents can talk to knowledgeable adults about the Internet is necessary. While parents are filling in the gaps of what they don’t know about how the Internet works and ways to teach their children to use technology responsibly, children can be learning through reading and talking about books. Here is a great list of books for young readers about bullying: https://www.k12.wa.us/safetycenter/BullyingHarassment/WorkGroup/RecommendedBooks.pdf from Washington State.
But don’t just look at books about bullying. Really books about healthy relationships work as well and this will translate to cyber relationships when the children are older and on the internet.
My computer is broken, sooo… I have to stop typing before I beat my head against a wall..