Thursday, March 15, 2012

Butterfly Wings

I hope this post does not turn out to be thought of me boasting about my child's achievements - because I'm certainly not out to do that. However, I just have to share what I feel is a result of a program I was involved in back in my maternity leave days.

Butterfly Wings is a program that I ended up being involved with while on maternity leave with my daughter. I was attending a local playgroup hosted by the local community health centre. My memory gets a bit thin here - mummy brain - but I think they asked if anyone was interested in attending some training to become facilitators of an under 2's literacy and numeracy development program. Coming from a librarian background, I jumped at the chance and attended the training.

Gwen and Lisa are inspirational trainers and so passionate about their program it wasn't hard to get excited and enjoy learning. The thing that stuck out for me the most was a slide they showed of the brain size of a child who had been interacted with by their carers and one who hadn't. The size difference was amazing. As you may have guessed, the child who had interaction had a large brain from absorbing all that information, and the child who was neglected had a very small brain. If anything, this slide highlighted the importance of bonding with your child.

Once I became a facilitator, another mum from our group who also did the training and I sought funding to run the program at the Community Health centre. Not long after we were also approached to run it at the Gailes Neighbourhood House. These centres were in low socio-economic areas so funding for literacy and numeracy development was important.

Now I could go on and on about how good the program is - and I recommend my library friends check out the website I linked to above and follow up with Gwen and Lisa about some training for your library staff - but it is the impact it is having now on my child that I want to share.

When I shared this with Gwen, she said she shed a tear but said it was really my bonding with my child that is the cause of this - not necessarilly Butterfly Wings - I think it is a mix of both.

My daughter participated in the Butterfly Wings program from 6mths of age. I had also been reading to her since she was born - something that I highly recommend. You might feel a little silly and they may not always like it - but most of the time they love hearing your voice.

My daughter is now in the advanced reading group in her class, she is writing some wonderful imaginative stories and she speaks very well (we often get comments about this). I feel that a lot of this has happened due to the Butterfly Wings program and the time we spent together singing songs, doing interactive rhyme and sharing stories.

I hope that the other mums that participated in the program are sharing similar stories because I just feel that this program - and others similar to it - give our children the best start in life and it would be really interesting to do some research to show the statistics or evidence that those children who participate in programs such as Butterfly Wings do perform better later in school life!!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Name

"And now we're grown up orphans
And never knew their names
We don't belong to no one
That's a shame
But you could hide beside me
Maybe for a while
And I won't tell no one your name
And I won't tell 'em your name"

I don't know if it is the heat that is keeping me awake or the excitement that I will be seeing my brother and some of his family tomorrow. I haven't seen them for over two years!! Maybe it's a combination of both - and perhaps it's because this blog post has been floating around in my head for days.

You will note that I started this post with the lyrics from one of my favourite songs - Name by Goo Goo Dolls. And while the song is a little bit on the sad side, the theme of this blog post is not sad. It's all about names!!

When I worked for larger institutions, I found that there were a few regular library users who I would get to know their names and take pride in using their names when I served them. I think it makes the user feel a little bit special that you know them by name. Of course, there is always a bit of an awkward moment when you are unsure if you should refer to them as Mr, Mrs or Miss so and so or just by their first name, but once that's worked out then calling them by name usually results in a nice little smile appearing on their face. Like you've made a difference to their day! Well that's what I like to think!

Now I work in a small library I can honestly say that I know the name of 90% of the people that walk through the door. Sure I have my days when their name might escape me but you can always "cheat" a little by checking the returns list or waiting for them to hand you their library card!! What other ways do you "cheat"? Yes I know I won't be the only one who does have their secret ways of remembering names.

I once had another librarian visit my library and they commented on how I spoke to everyone who came into the library by name and how good they thought that was. I was a bit surprised as I thought that is what most of us strive to do - am I wrong??

There are a few people who I get stuck with their name. I was very proud today when a regular came in and I said her name to her quietly and she said my name back - we were both proud we had remembered the others name - although I did have a name badge on!! 8-)

So do you make it a goal to remember everyone's name and call them by name when they come into your library? What are your secrets to remember people's names? Do you feel special when your regular library, cafe or shop staff person remembers your name and uses it?

"I think about you all the time
But I don't need the same
It's lonely where you are
Come back down
And I won't tell 'em your name."