Learning Letters

A few weeks ago the activity for the toddlers and parents was to make the child's name with play dough. This is always a great activity since play dough is always so much fun and helps with the development of fine motor skills. Two toddlers sat with their mothers at the table working with the play dough to create their names. One said, "Esta es la letra de mi nombre. Esta es la Y de yo-yo." (This is the letter of my name. This is Y for yo-yo.) He continued verbalizing these connections to letters as he played. The second child matched up the stampers to make letters to the letters of his name already in the play dough. Here were these two children under 3 years old demonstrating early literacy skills that will eventually lead them to read and write on their own! It was so wonderful and rewarding to see this since I've known these two since they were babies who couldn't even crawl. It has always been fun for me to see my own children learn and grow, and it can be just as enjoyable to see it in all other children.

-Laura Hecht

Rolling my terrible eyes!

As we gear up for a new semester of Growing with Books classes, I'm reflecting on how I have come to enjoy storytelling since I began my work with The Reading Tree two and a half years ago. Though I have always loved teaching, I did not consider myself a "storyteller" in the true sense of the word. "Ratoncita Cuenta-Cuentos" (The storytelling mouse) is one such sought after story teller in Costa Rica, the birthplace of my twin boys. Even though I don't dress up as an oversized motherly mouse, I do get paid for reading books to children (among other things). "Professional Storyteller", however, seems too large a title for me just yet.

With the recent release of the movie "Where the Wild Things Are" I am pushed to ponder the original story by Maurice Sendak (the movie tells a good story, but it is a different story from the one Sendak told). I love this story book for read alouds - especially around Halloween time when scary monsters are out and about - which can be rather startling to our young ones. It is amazing that even the youngest minds seem to know what a "monster" is. This book is very empowering for children as Max booms "BE STILL!" and tames the monsters with the magic trick of staring into their eyes without blinking. The monsters, in this way, become smaller than a child's will while remaining larger than life itself. Even toddlers' eyes gleam with delight when Max asserts his own will to leave the monsters behind with a simple "No." I always read this word with a slight upturn, sideways movement of the chin, conveying the confidence of a child who has smugly realized his power. I have a lot of fun rolling my terrible eyes, gnasing my teeth terrible teeth, roaring my terribles roars, and showing my terrible claws in sync with the wild things.

If you haven't read this one in a while, it is well worth revisiting, with someone you love, and make sure you read it aloud. Don't forget to roll those eyes!

-Dawn Noelle

I really prefer a pen and paper for writing or a good book I can hold in my hand for reading. For this reason I have been slow to join the blogging world. However, I recently watched the movie "Julie & Julia" and now I am inspired. As Julie wrote of her culinary adventures trying out Julia Child's recipes - I am ready to share my own experiences of story telling in the context of our Growing with Books classes in the Mission District of San Francisco. Thursday, October 8, was the annual "Read for the Record" sponsored by Jumpstart. I was thrilled to learn that this year's book was Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". (I can't for the life of me figure out how to underline text in this blog.) We just happened to have boxes and boxes of apples and pears in our house brought in by my housemates - many with poc-marks from hail damage. These wormlike holes looked curiously familiar and suddenly became my props for the first two days of the very hungry caterpillars eating adventures. He really was at my house, you know, eating right through an apple on Monday, and right through two pears on Tuesday. Where he went to eat through three plums, four strawberries, and five oranges - well I'm not sure, but my mommy and toddler audience seeme intrigued as we read the story of the caterpillar I had met personally.

At the end of this event - including 25 families, books were sent home with families promising to hold their own mini-event with the children in their neighborhood. One comment from a mother sums up why I do what I do: "Now it is our turn to do our part - read at home to our children."

-Dawn Noelle

A quote by Anne Lamott

This is Jenny Lockie writing.  I'm a teacher in one of The Reading Tree's Growing With Books classes.  I found this quote recently, and thought others might enjoy it.  It's from Anne Lamott's book Grace (Eventually) Thoughts on Faith at the end of a chapter about a protest when the libraries in Salinas were going to be closed due to budget cuts.

"Reading and books are medicine.  Stories are written and told by and for people who have been broken, but who have risen up, or will rise, if attention is paid to them.  Those people are you and us.  Stories and truth are splints for the soul, and that makes today a sacred gathering.  Now we were all saying: Pass it on."

Welcome to our Blog!

The Reading Tree is a San Francisco based family literacy non-profit organization. We believe that exposure to books and reading is vital for early childhood development. We seek to promote early literacy in our community through programs that educate families on the importance of sharing books with children and by building the personal libraries of these children in need.
We believe that creating a life-long love of reading begins by sharing books with infants and small children. To foster this love of reading and promote early literacy, we give books to children in need through our two book distribution Programs.

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