On Friday, I had an exhilarating visit to Terra Haute, Indiana. There, United Way of the Wabash Valley has partnered with the Vigo County Public Library and Success by Six and received a Mother Goose on the Loose grant. I presented a workshop for librarians, daycare providers, trainers, program directors, and others which was great fun. At the end of the day, I was shown the new car which was paid for by the grant!

The decals have not been put on it yet, but I was given these pictures showing the final product! This will be the very first "Mother Goose on the Loose mobile!" One of the librarians is going to do outreach to daycares by traveling around in this vehicle and providing roving Mother Goose on the Loose programs. How cool!

Upcoming Workshops in Baltimore

A full-day MGOL training will be held at Port Discovery Children's Museum on Monday, May 18. There will also be a training on Tuesday, May 19 for English speakers who would like to start a Spanish langauge Mother Goose on the Loose program (Eschucha y Disfruta) at their library (but do not necessarily speak Spanish).

Both workshops will be led by Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen, creator of Mother Goose of the Loose.
Additional trainers will include Regina Wade for the full-day training workshop and Rose Hernandez for the workshop focusing on Spanish speakers.

Each workshop involves background information on recent research, brain develompent, child development, and school readiness. There is a hands-on demonstation, a connection of the research with the practice, a step-by-step guide to planning and executing your program. There is also a piece where each person makes their own flannel board piece and then has the opportunity to perform their rhyme in front of the group. Since we know that the best way to learn is by doing, our workshop reflects that. I can guarantee that anyone who participates in the workshop will leave with the knowledge, the skill, and the inspiration to present Mother Goose on the Loose programs at their own libraries.

Non-Spanish-speaking participants in the Spanish workshop will leave with the toos and inspiration to start their own programs. The workshop covers how to look for a community partner who speaks Spanish, (knowing how to look and where to look), what points to keep in consideration, how to work together with a partner, how to prepare yourir library for this type of program, what type of content is needed, and how to organize and present the content of this specific program (Eschucha y Disfruta - Mother Goose on the Loose en Español. Anyone who does not yet run Spanish langauge programs for families with young children but would like to start, would find this workshop very helpful.

Workshop dates and times are as follows:

Monday May 18th 2009 English Workshop 9 am -4pm (1 hour break for lunch)
Tuesday May 19th 2009 Workshop for learning how to run Mother Goose on the Loose in Spanish (Eschucha y Disfruta) 9 am -3pm (1 hour break for lunch)

Location: Port Discovery Children's Museum, 35 Market Place, Baltimore, Maryland 21202

Please return completed registration form by email.


Checks can be made out to: Mother Goose on the Loose, LLC, and can be sent to:

Mother Goose on the Loose
P.O. Box 20857
Baltimore, Maryland 21209


Questions? Call: 443 928-3915




REGISTER HERE!

One Hour Telephone Course

The evaluations are in from the one-hour telephone course on Mother Goose I presented on Friday, February 20, 2009 for the Education Institute, part of The Partnership - Canada's national network of provincial and territorial library associations.

Comments include:

-Speaker was clear, spoke quickly but was easy to listen to and understand. Covered a lot of info.

-We had a great time! We now have many new songs (with lyrics) to offer our toddlers at storytime.

-Enjoyed the enthusiasm of the speaker. it was very well organized and presented.

-Enjoyed this session very much. It was great to see that we are on the right track here in our library as we follow a similar, though not exact, way of doing our baby and toddler programs.

-Reassuring to know that we already incorporate many of the suggestions in our program; great to get new rhyme ideas.

-I appreciated the balance of theoretical information as well as practical examples of stuff I can use in my programs.

-I appreciate the enthusiasm and new ideas. I'm looking forward to trying them.

-Enjoyed it!

Pictures from the South Carolina Workshop

Deborah Hotchkiss just sent me a link to the Flicker slideshow of the training workshop I recently did in South Carolina. Look at all the great flannel board pieces people made! Also, there is a brief YouTube video. Check it out!

Tony Chestnut

During the Flannel Board presentations at the workshop in South Carolina, I heard some wonderful new songs. One of them was Tony Chestnut, which was taped and uploaded to YouTube. Have a look at this cool song:


Try it some time at your library!