Second Day

Margaret's report

We spent the day learning about infant brain development and programming. I don't have all the stats with me (left the giant notebook with the training materials in the classroom) but the level of brain activity in infants from birth to 5 years is pretty impressive. From birth to 5 years old, a babies brain has trillions of neural connections going on - how many zeroes is that?

One key element in early child development and the library is the parent or caregiver as the architect or engineer for their baby's brain development. The librarian's primary audience is the adult who works with the child. Since the Family Place stresses the family unit, the librarian is the guide for the adult to sustain the baby's development. Ideally, the caregivers learn the storytime songs, fingerplays and behaviors and reinforce their babies learning outside of the library.

They outlined the components for an ideal 2 - 4 year old play environment in a library:
1. dramatic play area
2. construction
3. language arts
4. music
5. expressive art (children explore materials but not create a craft)
6. science
7. small motor skills
8. gross motor skills

They shared storytime programs they do on a monthly, not weekly, basis. Yes, most of their programs are offered on a monthly basis. One librarian asked if the babies remembered from month to month the songs or fingerplays offered in the program. The presenter said yes. A primary component to a child's learning is repetition. Having a monthly program seems at odds with the entire concept of repetition as key to a child's learning process. They publish a 5 month programming schedule. I have to see if they offer any weekly storytimes.

A few programs which I think would be fun to try out is a Circle Time, utilizing a parachute and variety of materials, music, and a Create and Learn program featuring homemade games and musical instruments for parents.

Food update (since Robert is interested)

Selden Library is providing breakfast, lunch and dinners (except for tonight.) Yesterday's breakfast spread had a variety of bagels, danish, fruit, yogurt and coffee and tea. Lunch was a variety of wraps (I had one with dry chicken), some good salads and fruit. We had dinner in Port Jefferson at a nice hotel by the water called Danford's Inn. They gave us a choice of salmon, chicken or prime rib - I went for the prime rib and potatoes. What I noticed is that everyone ate so fast! I think I was halfway finished when everyone at my table (except for Heather) was scraping up their last forkful. Do people from the eastern states eat faster than Californians, or were they just starving?

Today we had the same breakfast options and lunch options except they had another type of sandwich made with ciabatta bread (no dry chicken today - yay.) Dinner was our choice today (got a voucher for repayment tomorrow - sort of odd.) Most of us went to an Italian restaurant across from the library. The food was quite good. I had mahi mahi served with roasted potatoes and tomatoes. One person had mussels in a coconut sauce, which she said was good. For dessert I ordered cannoli. I've never had cannoli before, but expected it to look like rolled up crepes with stuff inside. They brought me 3 flat cookies with the filling on top of each "cookie" drizzled with chocolate -looked good but really didn't have any flavor. I should have ordered the gelato!