meredithh's blog

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When you enter through the "TEEN" button on ACLD's home page, you enter a site that provides expert live homework help for students from 2:00 PM until 11:00 PM every weekday. This awesome feature is expanded to skillbuilding help and exercises in all academic areas. You'll even find a Writing Lab where you can submit a paper and within 24 hours have a real teacher find errors, critique your work, and suggest skills that need improving--and guide you to help with those skill sets. ESL students can access the help in Spanish at the touch of a button, and expect a response in that language. This help is available to all levels of grade readiness--but there's more!

There are plenty of books for young children that celebrate Valentine's Day. But did you know that your library has books that explore the joy, power, and tenderness of love in a bright array of formats that are wonderful to read to your youngest all year long? Miss Meredith especially likes the picture books that reassure the very small people in your circle that they are loved even when they digress from "perfect" behavior--the best of this group might be:

Hawthorne Branch is welcoming at least a dozen "new" patrons a week as the eCards are phased out and replaced by physical cards that entitle users to all library services. Folks are coming from as far away as St. Augustine to continue the services they know and love through the eBranch, and discover those they only get to know by walking into our friendly brick and mortar building with helpful, real live staff.

No matter how happy the occasion, holiday celebrating goes hand-in hand with extra work. Are you a frazzled parent or caretaker who sometimes wonders how to fit everything you need and want to do into your already busy schedule? Miss Meredith has a suggestion you might think is crazy— totally out of the question—completely unrealistic—in a word, impossible. In spite of that, if you try this once, it will become a precious, serene part of all your seasonal holidays to come. What might this time-expanding, calming miracle be?

Many ACLD library services are obvious to any casual visitor or busy browser. As soon as you walk in the door of your favorite branch, the array of books and a variety of electronic offerings vie with the magazines and program listings; the Snuggle area beckons and computers await every patron’s needs for information and entertainment. But one of the brightest gems of stellar library service is not quite as instantly apparent.

As adults, there is so much we take for granted, even though we are willing to agree that nature's growth and transformative processes are miraculous. It is a privilege to be part of our children's very first exploration of these miracles. This was brought home to me in a regular Hawthorne Preschool Storytime session one recent Spring Thursday. As my alias Miss Meredith read the story, "Waiting for Wings" by author Lois Ehlert, I glanced up to assess audience engagement. Just in time, I saw a new attendee, not yet two years old, clap his hands and bounce with startled glee as the caterpillar puppet I held turned upside down, sprouted wings, and "flew" above the storybook. After  the story time, he wanted to see this amazing metamorphosis again and again.

Children this age need repetition of favorites. Don’t introduce something you don’t want to hear 27 times (in a row).