Blogs

Power of Play

Growing up, my mother told me many stories. Most of them were about Uncle Joe, Aunt Rose, Grandma and Grandpa coming to this country, and the like. But some of the stories were different, they touched on more universal subjects and one of these attempted to explain something of human history and why certain antagonisms exist today between various individuals, kinds of individuals, and groups of human beings. It began, “ In the beginning, we moved around a lot…” She was describing a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. As the story continued, she described the discovery of the principles of horticulture and the various ways they could be implemented and the string of events that inevitably followed the choice made, how one thing led to another, like dominoes falling in a row: how relationships between men and women, between ethnic and religious groups, between humanity and the other life that inhabits this planet, between humanity and nature, itself--changed when the majority of human beings decided that they were somehow separate, above or better than nature. Then I saw something about this book, "Pandora’s Seed", in Publisher’s Weekly. In "Pandora’s Seed", author and geneticist, Spencer Wills, uses these words, contrasting “controlling and conquering nature” with “cooperating” with it. My mother told this story simply, but Mr. Wells tells it in great detail, bringing to bear a huge reservoir of scientific knowledge. He relates the string of events that began with the first practice of agriculture, events that have impacted our physical health, our mental health, our longevity, our social organization, the incidence of crime and war…even the human genome. A fascinating read.

Learning to Edit

We all know it won't be long until Junior's first paper is due, right?  The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance offers these tips to help kids learn how to edit their work:

1. Start with a hand-written rough draft, complete with misspellings and grammatical errors.  Hand-writing helps the creative process flow.

that school is in session don't forget your leisure reading! WordWeaver knows that you'll be overwhelmed with homework and classes but there is a new series you just must absolutely read! It is a fast read and one that will transport you away to a gripping mystery.

Curious minds create great inventions!

Thanks to the latest issue of School Library Journal, here are some fascinating and helpful websites for kids who love to build, invent, and create!

pbskids.org/designsquad/ Design Squad is for kids grades 3 and up.  This site is full of engineering projects and games.

It may be too cloudy to see them but, somewhere "up there" will be many "shooting stars" this week. It's the annual Perseid Meteor Shower and skywatchers worldwide are excited. This year's event seems to be loaded with bright meteors and there will be no glare from the Moon interfering with the shower's peak!

It seems like the summer storytimes just ended, and already we're being asked when fall storytimes begin! Soon, we promise!

Fall storytimes are dvided into two sessions: Session 1 runs from September 13 to October 21, and Session 2 runs from November 8 through December 16. Times are as follows:

.....really fast, before summer ends and school starts. It's so nice to read on lazy summer afternoons or at the beach or even in a tent at a camp out. The book to read now is MY LIFE AS A BOOK by Janet Tashjian. Soon school will begin and life will get busier than ever.

Textbook Costs

Summer Reading