My kids and I recently had the wonderful opportunity to share a few days with my friend's son. Their family had relocated to the city of Rochester from a rural home in the southern tier, and Hadley was adjusting to a major lifestyle change. I brought him and my children to the Central library for an outing as Hadley needed a library card and we love visiting "the big echoy library" as my kids call it. This turned out to be such a cool outing! The children's room was full of kids excited to be enjoying one of the first days of summer vacation. Hadley signed up for his card and found an awesome comic book about Greek myths. Come to find out, there was also a really great jazz concert happening in the reading garden at the library. Hadley loved it so much, he begged me to borrow money to buy a CD. Vinny danced in circles until he fell down, and Beatrice just stared at the musicians as if in a trance.
I thought the library might be a great place for Hadley to meet some new friends with similar interests as his own, so we also visited the Monroe branch in his new neighborhood. Sadly, that library does not open until noon, so we were unable to go inside the morning we stopped by. Hadley was excited about the Monroe branch because they also have a Lego club, and he seriously loves Legos. Monroe is the only branch in Rochester Public Library with the small Lego blocks for club members to use. The club meets four times during the summer and once a month during the school year and I have heard it is a popular program.
Via Facebook I learned about an amazing grant opportunity/contest to get $5,000 for legos and books to support literacy in libraries. Maybe we can win! Please go online to vote for Rochester Public Library here in Rochester, NY http://www.readbuildplay.com/index.cfm so that maybe we can get some Legos sor kids like Hadley and his potential new friends have plenty of materials to support their learning.
There is also a very nice activity guide available here: http://www.readbuildplay.com/LEGO-DUPLO_Parent-Activity-Guide.pdf that parents and early childhood professionals may use to support Lego use. With this guide I think you will find it very easy to share hours of fun learning with young children. It includes activities to share with kids under age six. enjoy!
Don't forget to vote for us!!
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