Tomorrow (before I go dashing off), we are going to begin a quilt of nursery rhymes. I was startled last week to find that only the Grandmother in the group knew any nursery rhymes and I feel they are very important. We will do everything by hand. The rhymes will be written on the muslin blocks with fabric paint.
Tonight I have been reading the new position paper from NAEYC/IRA, and I find that they feel nursery rhymes are imperative for infants and toddlers to hear. So I'm not so far off. My presentation on Thursday is about my parents' group and how I feel it is a first step to their babies' emerging literacy. I talked to the head of the training group that invited me today, and she sounded skeptical about this conclusion I have reached on my own, so I was gratified to see it supported by NAEYC/IRA. In fact, all the strategies I have been using seem to fit what the experts are saying the children need from their parents and teachers. And these parents can't help their children if they have never been nurtured into literacy. So, I'll continue with my reading aloud, putting the difficult words on the board to talk about and learn before I ask them to read aloud, give them words to describe (tomorrow's words are "white" and ? how come I forgot that?), encourage them to write in their journals, urge them to copy the new words into their word lists, coax stories they can write and illustrate from them, and even record my redbird's stories for her to copy. And my activities, such as rebus recipes we make in class, are "approved" by the august experts. I have asked one of my parents if I can take some of her journal to share with the teachers; I hope she says yes, because she writes from her heart. Their books will travel with me again. I just wish they could travel with me, too. I have a recurring dream that I take them camping at Letchworth (and, like all dreams, it gets pretty bizarre!). This has been an incredibly heavy week, and it's only Tuesday! But I have had all this training to plan (Icome back to another big one on Friday), and a big portion of a grant to write. I couldn't sleep last night. I hope I can tonight because of that long, lonely drive on a fairly deserted highway.
I just read Lyra's page, and find that, like mother, like daughter, I'm leaving tomorrow to dash across the state for two hours to stay at an old friend's house so that the next a.m. I can go to Glass City to present at a training, then leave around 2-ish to dash back home. Retirement is sounding better and better, except that I can't bear to think of leaving my parents' group now that I am discovering that my methods of enhancing their literacy skills are approved by NAEYC and IRA.
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