Living in Library Land at Home

I love to read with my kids.  Love it.  I believe with 100% of my heart that as a parent it is your privileged obligation to read to and with your kids.  However, because I love and appreciate other forms of media so much, too, it is sometimes hard for me to set boundaries for my kids.  I love to observe them intently watching a film or TV show, because after it we have detailed conversations about plot, character motivation, and other elements (like setting).  I also love to watch them play video games with their father.  They are gaining great hand-eye coordination AND problem-solving skills.  I mean, how could you ever play any edition of Zelda without developing problem-solving skills.

But, today I'm here to confess something.  Some days my two biggers spend too much time in front of the box instead of between the covers of a book.

I try to reassure myself.  They can't go to sleep without at least one story.  They love to re-read the same books over and over again (especially Halloween books--at all times of year), and the two biggers love to take books to their little sister, so she can open them, feel them, and use them as teething toys.  However, they usually only turn to books when I prompt them.  I feel like I'm giving too much time to the other forms of literacy media in our home, so I've started to try to balance out the time divided between media.  My partner in this?  Roald Dahl.

At the beginning of this week, I started to tell my oldest daughter about a very special book.  A VERY special book with a special girl who has powers and who LOVES to read more than anything.  My daughter's eyes grew wider and wider as I told her about this girl, named Matilda.  She wanted to jump into the book right away.  I feel like this is the perfect starting point to get my kids re-acquainted with asking for book time: the story is top notch (of course), Quentin Blake's illustrations come at least every other page to help them visualize what's going on, and Matilda's mission to bring justice to her friends and Miss Honey will include a lot of grossery and action for us to talk about.

So far #1 has enjoyed immensely and has started to ask,  "When will we be reading Matilda tonight?"  #2, who wasn't too interested at first, has started to take note and peer around the covers of the book to look at the classic Blake illustrations.  But, how did I REALLY know this ruse was working?

Yesterday, when sitting in the optometrist's waiting room, #1 and I were reading Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches.  When McBean started to take off the stars of the Star Bellies (at an exorbitant rate) after putting on stars to the No Star Bellies, #1 made an amazing connection.  She said, "McBean is like Matilda's daddy!  He's taking money from those people and being sneaky about it."

Oh, my.  I could not have been prouder in that moment.  Not proud that my plan had worked, but proud that she is starting to cultivate a love for Roald Dahl and can connect the dots between stories.  YES!

Hello! I Want to be Your Librarian!

Today, August 25, 2014, marks the beginning of my second year in the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library & Information Science.  Now.  Before you read any further, I want you to say that three times super fast.  It's kind of hard, huh?  Yeah, that's why we have annoying acronyms: It's a lot quicker to say GSLIS (Giss-Liss).

I know that librarian blogs are a dime a dozen, but I do this more for my own sake.  Kind of a journal, you'd say.  I don't think anyone will really read this.  (Except for my Mom.  She's the BEST, MOST SUPPORTIVE Mom the world's ever seen.  I hope I can be half as awesome as she is at parenting.)  I'm fine with that.  That means I'm just kind of talking to myself (and my mom) at this point.  Let me remind my old self, who is reading this after a long and hopefully fruitful career as a school librarian, what it's been like so far.

I don't really know when I set my heart on being a school librarian: I think the idea was always kind of stuck there in the back of my head.  I had ten wonderful years teaching sixth graders at a public middle school in Champaign, IL, but things started to get a little rough.  I loved my co-workers, the kids, the subject (reading and writing), but I got frustrated with the emphasis placed on testing, making every student--even those with special needs--succumb to the stress of standardized testing, and I felt that it wasn't about student-teacher relationships and respect anymore but how many kids can you make meet this number that others think is an acceptable measure of intelligence.  I am not ignorant: I know that school librarians will also have to be involved with Common Core, and I look forward to my participation in instruction, but I like to think in the library kids can experience a freedom to explore what they want to explore.  I will encourage them to do this and to think outside the box.

The center, or CENTERS, of my life are my husband and our three kids.  They are supporting me on this journey and staying strong through my late night writing/study hours, my spats of irrational mumbling during stressful times when projects and papers are due, and by enduring one too many pizza nights during the week.  (My son and daughter actually don't mind that third pitfall too much.)

I am a wife, mom, teacher, and in-progress librarian.  I love this crazy, busy life God has blessed me with, and I hope you enjoy my crazy adventures in Library Land.  I know I'm going to love sharing them with you (Mom, cause you're the only one reading).