Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

 

Let Mother Goose on the loose in your library and jump-start children’s learning and brain development. Here are activities that will build motor, music, social, and pre-literacy skills in infants and toddlers. Mother Goose on the Loose incorporates books, rhymes, fingerplays, flannelboard stories, music, dance, and child-parent interaction into dynamic programs that will bring whole families into the library. Award-winning program creator Betsy Diamant-Cohen offers this valuable manual that helps librarians and educators create their own Mother Goose on the Loose (MGOL) routines with ready-to-use plans and materials. The guide features ten MGOL programs--each one with complete scripts and instructions! In addition, you’ll find planning and scheduling sheets for implementing the program and instructions for designing your own original MGOL sessions. Chapters outline the learning process for infants and toddlers, including the importance of repetition, ritual, play, reading, movement, and music; provide tips for communicating with parents; and suggest ways to incorporate books, instruments, and props. Diamant-Cohen includes suggestions for expanding and evaluating the MGOL program and a list of FAQs (and answers) for sharing with parents and administrators. The companion CD-ROM features all of the rhymes and songs as well as a complete Mother Goose on the Loose script.

 This outstanding resource provides everything a librarian needs to plan and implement a successful, high-quality program for babies and their caregivers.
-- Library Journal, Starred Review
 
...innovative, creative, chock-full-of ideas...Highly recommended for all librarians involved with programming for young children.
-- Catholic Library World, Volume 78, No 3, March 2008
 
I swear I don't work for Neal-Schuman Publishers when I say that this is the motherlode of Mother Goose planning.... From the introduction of our "goosey" to the closing lullaby, the babies were completely engaged. Parents kept marveling at how nice it was for the library to offer a program for their little ones. As for myself, leading that first Baby Lapsit was one of my biggest professional accomplishments.
-- Adaena Hornstrom, Allegheny County Public Libraries
 
In the award-winning Mother Goose on the Loose (MGOL) library program, inspired by Barbara Cass-Beggss work, Diamant-Cohen uses books, songs, instruments, rhymes, and props to promote early literacy, school-readiness, and other skills in children up to age two. This binder-and-CD kit provides overviews of early development and MGOLs benefits, program instructions and scripts in print and audio formats, evaluation tools, songs, rhymes, tips to share with parents, flannel-board patterns, templates, and promotional resources. Clear instructions for the structured program are given, making this an essential resource for MGOL implementation. The well-produced CD, with clear recitations of rhymes and songs by Diamant-Cohen and musician Rahel, will be particularly appreciated by childrens specialists new to programming for young children, whether they use this model or not. While others looking for content to incorporate into their established lapsits will not find this kit as flexible as Jane Marinos Babies in the Library! (Scarecrow, 2003), or as comprehensive as Linda Ernsts lapsit guides (Neal-Schuman), Diamant-Cohens developmentally appropriate ideas for incorporating musical instruments and music concepts, and promoting social and motor skills, can be useful additions to any program for the preschool-and-under set.
-- School Library Journal
 

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