theinfamousmissbeth

I was on my way upstairs at the library when I met up with a mother and daughter coming down. The little girl was probably 10 or 11 and was on my side of the staircase. The mom told her to move out of the way, which she did, and I continued up as they continued down. A few seconds later as they reached a place that I am assuming the mother thought I couldn't hear her, she said, "Honey, that was an old lady and you need to be considerate." An old lady! Well, I have to admit I wasn't all that insulted, because after all, I have reached my "golden years."  Besides that, being an old lady isn't all bad. For one thing, I get to enjoy a fabulous granddaughter and adorable great-nieces and nephews. I am enjoying retirement and, in fact, I am writing this post while cuddled up with my pups! One of the first books describing the relationship between children and "old people" that I came across several years ago was Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Pa...

On the eve of the anniversary of Dr. Seuss's birthday I thought I would write a short poem. It goes like this: You were a strange one Dr. Seuss, You wrote a bunch of gobbledy-gook. As many, even most of you readers know, Dr. Seuss wrote such classics as Green Eggs and Ham,Cat in the Hat, Hop on Pop, and my all time favorite, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. For those of you who know me, my favorite comes as no surprise. Anyhoo, on with the post because I really want to talk about children's books that can help with language development and allow children to "play" with language. Leslie Layman, interested in all things related to early childhood, equity, access, and play has written, " Learning language is one of the most exciting and difficult tasks that young children achieve." She goes on to say, " Children practice language skills by imitating what they hear. Infants babble, toddlers begin forming words and short sentences, preschoo...

 Oban, Scotland. Well here we are at the end of the first month of the new year. In the past, I have made a "one word" resolution for the upcoming year. However, this year I have decided to take the advice I often gave to teachers and follow it myself. And that advice is: do a "two week cleanse". What, you ask, does that mean? Well, as usual, since you ask, I'll tell you. When I was called upon to go out and help preschool teachers, one of the most frequent requests was for help with classroom management. You know, that's the term used for corralling a large herd of cats dressed as young children into some sort of organized chaos. That's just my definition, there are others. In one classroom I visited, a fairly new teacher stated that she was having trouble getting the class of twelve three year olds to sit still at circle time for, oh let's say, thirty minutes. My first unkind thought was, "When will they ever learn?...

Time for the goodies! We recently took a winter time trip to celebrate an early Christmas with family and to check an item off of the bucket list. The visit with family was filled with fun, food, and lots of game playing.  Usually card games are the main focus but this time it was Monopoly. We also baked (read that as ate) several dozen cookies and were entertained by the new grand cat, Stanley. Stanley checks out the new waffle maker under the tree. What, you ask, was the bucket list item?  Drum roll, please. It was a trip to upstate New York to visit Woodstock and Cooperstown, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame!! The village of Woodstock, as many of you know, was not the actual site of the famous music festival in 1969 (that was the town of Bethell) but none the less, who doesn't want to visit Woodstock? A philosophical statement. Just had to stop by and purchase a tie-dyed pair of socks. Lots of peace, love, and you ...

Well, the tree is up and the fake presents are underneath. You may be asking, "Miss Beth, why would you put fake presents under your tree?" The short answer: all our gifts go out of town, so to keep from looking like a total loser, I simply stuff tissue paper into bags and voila! it's Christmas! So a couple of weeks ago, I was reading a local publication that offers a variety of articles including local restaurant reviews, suggestions of places to visit throughout the state, short stories, book reviews, recipes, holiday specialty drinks, interviews with local "celebrities"  gardening tips and much, much more! In the advertisement section, a box with the heading "Christmas Tip" caught my eye. It started out with "wrap empty boxes for presents" (see someone else had the same idea) but then suddenly it went really off the rails because the rest of the tip read, "and when your child misbehaves or doesn't listen throw one in...

You may be wondering what exactly a library card, an electric skillet, and towels have in common or maybe you are just wondering what the heck? Please read on and I will explain. The three items mentioned above are things I found almost essential in my preschool classrooms over the years. Let me tell you why. Most private child care centers ( most often called day cares) don't ever seem to have very complete library corners. Books are often scribbled on, have pages that are torn or missing altogether, and usually consist mostly of princess stories or animals wearing clothes. In public school classrooms, the variety and quality is usually better, but not always. If you have a library card for your public library, a whole new world opens up! For example, in the fall, meaning the real fall of the year in your hometown, you can check out books by Lois Ehlert. These include:  Leaf Man, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, and Nuts to You. Or, in the spring when things are growing...

A recent trip to Boston and West Hartford was filled with family, food, and fun! I have to admit, the purpose of the trip was to attend a Jimmy Buffett concert at Fenway Park, but so many more interesting and great things also occurred. The first day was spent exploring the campus of Harvard University, Harvard Square, Boston Common, Boston Public Garden,  Beacon Hill, and Cheers (the bar made famous by the television show, if you are old enough to remember that). Where everybody knows your name.           A street in Beacon Hill The main library at Harvard. Harvard Square and the Boston Public Garden were  among my favorite places we visited that day. An entire store devoted to Curious George! The authors H.A. and Margaret Rey spent much of their writing lives living in Harvard Square area and wrote the Curious George series there. Make Way for Ducklings at the Boston Public Garden. Our s...