Praise is a funny thing. Words of acknowledgment can be the water and sunshine that help children grow into sturdy,...
Most of us have heard of the “summer slide” in which children lose some of the lessons they’ve learned during...
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Helping Children Connect with Nature through Gardening
Julie Cerny’s book, The Little Gardener: Helping Children Connect with the Natural World, is part how-to, part inspiration and part...
When the Washington Post published an article headlined “Books of the Ages — The best books to read at every...
Book Review: What the Eyes Don’t See: Fueled by Idealism, Backed by Science
How a Pediatrician Confronted a Public Health Crisis and Rocked a Nation
Hanna-Attisha’s riveting first-person account of the public health catastrophe that has become known as the Flint water crisis not only lays out the facts of how a government poisoned its own people; it lays open the heart of a doctor who swore an oath to protect the health and lives of the children affected.
Book Review: When You Wonder, You’re Learning
A TV Icon’s Gentle Revolution
Never underestimate Fred Rogers. With his cardigan, close-cropped hair and soft voice, it’s easy to imagine that the kind and...
In the past few decades, public libraries have undergone a quiet transformation from sleepy repositories of books to full-fledged community...
2.7 million children (1 in 28) currently have an incarcerated parent. How are programs like the Family Connections Center helping them get ready to be with their families again-- while still behind bars?
Mobilizing Communities So All Children Make the Grade
Pop Up Neighbor events, community, collaboration, mobilization
Even without advance promotion, when word got out that the SuperMatt Laundromat in Sarasota, Florida, was offering free laundry all day, neighborhood residents formed a steady stream of customers.
Not only was laundry-and-all-the-fixings free—a boon to low-income families who can ill afford the $35 to $50 a week they spend trying to keep their kids in clean clothes—the food bank was there with abundant food to restock their pantries.
Best of all, there were books—lots of books—and plenty of volunteers to read to children while the adults did as many loads of laundry as needed. When the children left, books went home with them.
Why Don’t We Just Do That?
Over Cocktails, Restaurateurs Hatch a Plan for Literacy
Three years ago, Amanda and John Horne, owners of Anna Maria Oyster Bar in Bradenton, Florida, heard that 51 percent of children in their local Manatee County school system couldn’t read at grade level by third grade. They were appalled.
“This was horrific,” Amanda says. “We had no idea that this was an issue.”
Over cocktails one night, Amanda and John wondered what they could do. Their clientele is largely composed of older “grandparent-type” people. They have four restaurants and a mailing list of more than 24,000 customers. What if they could pair children up with a grandparent figure or somebody who cares about them, read with them and maybe instill them with a love of reading?
