Mother Goose on the Loose February 2019 Newsletter

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Table of Contents
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Research
Baby Brains Take the Lead in Play
Quality Language Environments Create Quality Learning Environments

Resources
Gail Gibbons Website
The Secret Power of the Picture Book
Guided Play Extends Children's Learning
Benefits of Nursery Rhymes

MGOL in the News
About the Publishing Process
The Updated MGOL Manual
MGOL Rhyme Contest Update

MGOL on the Road
Booking Opportunities
Here, There, and Everywhere

Rhyme of the Month
Developmental Tip of the Month

A Note from Betsy

With all of the crazy weather lately, not having any workshops in January turned out to be a blessing. I've been using the time to renew my training certificate with the Maryland State Department of Education to give childcare credits to MD providers who attend my workshops and have been finishing up an online course on executive function skills that will be offered by My Niche Academy sometime next month.
In last month's newsletter, I asked for readers who were interested in taking a survey on their use of MGOL and MGOL techniques to contact me. I am grateful to all those people who volunteered to be survey-takers and I am hopeful that the survey will be completed soon. It is fascinating to hear about all the different ways MGOL has morphed into programming that reaches all segments of the population.
Next month, I'll tell you about two fascinating new projects - one about bringing MGOL to Honduras and the other about using MGOL to help families suffering from trauma.
Stay tuned!

A research article in the open access PLOS Biology magazine studies the interconnection of brain activity when babies and their adults play together. In "Parental Neural Responsivity to Infants Visual Attention: How Mature Brains Scaffold Immature Brains during Social Interaction", researchers discovered that when children play alone, their brains have bursts of high-frequency brain activity. When babies and their adults play together, the adult brains echoes those same bursts of activity! Joint play has now been shown to influence joint changes in brain activity. Also, “Where the parent’s brain is more responsive to the child, the child sustains their attention for longer." This information could be used as a developmental tip to encourage parents’ active participation in storytime activities.

Read about the article: https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/baby-brains-take-the-lead-in-play. "Parent brains mimic baby brains during play, according to a new study."

Read the article: Wass, Sam V., Valdas Noreika, Stanimira Georgieva, Kaili Clackson, Laura Brightman, Rebecca Nutbrown, Lorena Santamaria, and Victoria Leong. "Parental Neural Responsivity to Infants Visual Attention: How Mature Brains Scaffold Immature Brains during Social Interaction." PLOS Biology, December 14, 2018. doi:10.1101/295790.

High Quality Language Environments Create High Quality Learning Environments

Click below for a fascinating Ted Talk by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjN7frWx5yw

Holiday House recently announced a website by one of my favorite non-fiction authors, Gail Gibbons. In addition to information about her books, the site contains science guides (useful for planning STEM programs), lesson plans (for school librarians), and activity sheets.
http://holidayhouse.com/site/gail-gibbons/

Resources for Parents

Selma Levi sent me Meghan Cox Gordon's Jan. 18, 2019 Wall Street Journal essay, "The Secret Power of the Children's Picture Book: Even infants get profound cognitive and behavioral benefits from sharing a vivid story," which is adapted from her new book pictured on the left.
Although I haven't read the book yet (I will!) the description sounded great:

Grounded in the latest brain science and behavioral research, and drawing widely from life and literature, The Enchanted Hour reveals the stunning advantages that await people of every age and background when they partake of this ancient practice.

From a thrilling look at what happens in a toddler’s brain when a grownup reads a story, to the way shared books are keeping far-flung military families connected; from the imaginative transport of classic novels, to the rejuvenating late-life consolations of the spoken word: the evidence is clear and the benefits irrefutable.

Lively and authoritative, with practical tips and reading recommendations, The Enchanted Hour will inspire readers to share this invaluable, life-altering tradition with the people they love most—and perhaps rediscover an enchanted slice of their own childhoods in the process.

Serious Fun: How Guided Play Extends Children's Learning was recently published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and is edited by Marie L. Masterson and Holly Bohart . Although the book is meant to be a guide for teachers, it can be useful to children's librarians and parents as well.

In addition to learning what guided play is, readers will discover new ways to provide guided play experiences along with opportunities for unstructured play. Information includes how to set up play environments with learning goals in mind and suggestions & questions that adults can use to "prompt children's reflection and deeper learning."

The Benefits of Nursery Rhymes on Preschool Development

Written by Lisa Healy, a homeschooling mom, t his article from the Homeschool Solutions website touts the benefits of nursery rhymes. Categories include cognitive development, speech, reading, language, creativity, history, math, physical, & social and emotional. Bullet points under each category list a few selected benefits, with the examples of cognitive development and speech below. Check out this site; there is plenty of material for some cool developmental tips!

Cognitive development

Repetition of rhymes and stories is good for the brain, teaching how language works and building memory capabilities.
Nursery rhymes help develop inferencing skills, both with encountering new words and in reading comprehension.
Because these verses are made up of patterns, they are easy first memorization pieces.

Speech

Nursery rhymes are important for language acquisition and help with speech development.
They help children develop auditory skills such as discriminating between sounds and developing the ear for the music of words.
Rhymes like these help kids articulate words, modulate voices (practicing pitch, volume, and inflection) and enunciate clearly by saying them over and over without fear of criticism.
Nursery rhymes are excellent, the natural choice for a first recitation selection.
The mouth and tongue muscles are developed as children say these rhymes.
Listening comprehension is a foundational skill that is often skipped, but nursery rhymes can help ensure this crucial ability (that precedes reading comprehension) is covered.

Source: https://pambarnhill.com/nursery-rhyme-benefits/

American Sign Language Emotions

Check out this VIDEO published by Colorado State Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL). "Feelings" is an ASL chant performed by Jeni & Marigold. It is a wonderful resource for learning ASL signs for different emotions.

About the Publishing Process

Authors are supposed to estimate the number of words or pages when submitting a proposal to a publisher for writing a book. Based on that estimate, the publisher figures out the cost of producing the book and estimates what the price of the book will be. Authors are strongly encouraged to stay within the page limit mentioned at the beginning of the book writing process, which helps publishers stay on schedule.

I have always had the problem of writing too much rather than trying to fill up my quota of words.

My first book was Mother Goose on the loose : a handbook and CD-ROM kit with scripts, rhymes, songs, flannel-board patterns, and activities for promoting early childhood development (Neal-Schuman, 2006). I was nervous about writing and would send each chapter to my editor asking "Do you have any suggestions?" His response was always, "Write more!" So I wrote more. I found it surprising that he never addressed the content or the form of what I was writing, but with his encouragement I deeply analyzed all of the elements that go into planning and presenting MGOL programs and presented them in glorious detail.

He asked me to produce 10 scripts for ten subsequent sessions, in order to illustrate how the formula of 80% repetition worked. Since my sister, Celia, is a talented artist, I asked her to create templates for flannel board characters which could be added to the book, and she did. Still, my editor continued to encourage, "Write more!" So I did.

Finally, when I had put everything I could possibly say about MGOL down on paper, I responded to his request to write more with, "There is nothing more to write." My editor then asked me to print out everything I had written and to send him two photocopied versions of it. (Yes, back in those days, electronic files were not considered as good as hard copy). He called me to say that he almost had a heart attack when the package arrived since each photocopy of the book was more than 800 pages and I had originally estimated that the book would be 200 pages. "But you kept telling me to keep writing," I said. "Well you'll have to cut it down to 200 pages," he told me.

I was furious. In the end, we agreed on a compromise of 400 pages and the final version is 461 pages.

At that point, the editor actually started addressing content and we worked together to produce the manual. With so many unplanned for pages, the publishers opted to produce it as a binder rather than as a bound book.

In retrospect, I can't say I'm sorry because the constant prompting to "write more" resulted in a book that covered everything from A to Z about planning, preparing, and presenting quality early literacy programs for parents with babies and toddlers at a time when very few libraries were offering programs for children under age two. It explained lots of the research behind Mother Goose on the Loose and gave many examples of developmental tips. There were lyrics for useful songs and rhymes, web addresses for recommended resources (such as the flannel board easel with the shelf in the middle), and a number of flannel board templates. Luckily, the book was very well-received.

When presenting trainings around the country, I always begin by asking participants what ages they program for. In those early days, it was rare to have anyone presenting programs for babies, and only some of the librarians were presenting programs for toddlers. Each year, the number of librarians presenting programs for the youngest children grew; to my delight just about all children's librarians at my trainings now offer programs for caregivers and children of ALL ages.

Since my first experience with having to cut 200 pages out of a manuscript, I have been hesitant to estimate how long a proposed book will be since clearly, that is not one of my strengths. I try to be concise, but there is always so much to say!

Last year, I submitted a proposal to ALA Editions for a book about all the wonderful adaptations of MGOL that people have created to serve diverse audiences in a range of settings. My proposal was accepted with caveat that I also update the original manual.

Writing two books at one time was not easy for me although I loved working with the ALA team - they are all extraordinary people who gave valuable feedback every step along the way. However when it came to writing about the research upon which Mother Goose is based, when applicable I chose to cite the original, foundational research. Although newer studies on different topics are cited, when talking about the basic principles of literacy, school readiness, and the "Listen, Like, Learn" approach upon which MGOL was founded, I chose continue to give credit to the original findings that had been also cited in my first book. Since I am a voracious reader, if I had included citations for all of the research studies that continue to influence the development of MGOL, my end notes would have taken several additional pages. As you can imagine, based on past experience, I am very sensitive to that.

When the book was already in process, I attended ALA where a few people commented to me "I am really looking forward to seeing all the new research." It was too late to go back and add all of my resources, and in many cases, there were multiple resources because I had read so much continuing research on the same topics of early literacy, play, vocabulary, the economic value of entering school ready to learn, the WHOLE child, the benefits of music, etc.

A couple of weeks ago, I loved receiving my "hot off the press" copies of the book. It has all the old elements with lots of new stuff (digital media, sensitivity to the history of certain rhymes, and new research), but I regretted that I had not cited even more resources regarding more recent research that builds upon my original sources.

Because of that, I have created a web-page that attempts to list many of the sources I have used throughout the years to help me develop and refine MGOL. It's impossible to recapture everything, but this is a way I can share an ever-growing number of valuable resources. If you are interested in having a look, go to: https://mgol.net/research-supporting-all-aspects-of-mgol/. Since this is a work in progress, please excuse any typos or differences in formatting. Once the resources are added, I will have time to go back and proof-read. Meanwhile, if there is a great article or book that you think should be on there but is not, let me know! I am always happy to discover new resources.

Eventually, I will add websites to my resource list, but for now I am busy trying to finish writing this newsletter in order to send it out while it is still February.

For now, please feel free to check out my latest book, Mother Goose on the Loose, Updated! below.

The Updated MGOL Manual

The NEW Updated version of my first 2006 Mother Goose on the Loose manual is now available via ALA Editions!

It includes information regarding digital media, recent research findings, additional songs and rhymes, extra felt templates for the flannel board and more time tested tips.

Copies can be ordered from ALA Bookstore.

Click on the picture if you want to know more about it!

MGOL Rhyme Contest Winners!

Thank you to everyone who responded to the contest to update the words to the traditional "Old Mother Goose" rhymes. Betsy was unable to choose one winner so she is sending a celebratory tote bag to each person who submitted a rhyme (or two!). Below are a few of the creative entries:

Friendly Mother Goose, on her feathery fowl, let stories unravel as she traveled around.
- Victoria Montelione

Watch Mother Goose, and her quite splendid gander, as they fly through the air, what could be grander?
-Julia Hurwitz

Groovy goose when she wanted to wander would fly through the air on her very fine gander.
-Kathy Gerber

Mother Goose has a gander, Instead of a steed. They fly through the air, helping children to read.
-Staci Dillahunty

Upcoming Booking Opportunities:

It's time to book your workshops for the upcoming year. Workshops include:

Using Mother Goose on the Loose to Nurture the Whole Child
Transforming Storytime
Play Your Way to Literacy through STEM

Adaptations of the above workshops include:

Transforming Storytime (with an emphasis on STEM)
Play Your Way to Literacy and STEM
MGOL - inclusive version
How to Plan and Present MGOL programs to Spanish Speakers When You Don't Speak Spanish
Savta Goose on the Loose

Please contact jen@mgol.org for details.

If you would like to learn about training for Mother Goose on the Loose Goslings, please contact Betsy directly at betsydc@mgol.org

Mother Goose on the Loose: Here, There, and Everywhere

If you want to learn about new MGOL adaptations that librarians have created, or if you would like to explore more ways to reach underserved and unserved populations, check out my newest book. There are lots of contributions by fellow children's librarians who explain key features and tips for success for holding MGOL adapted programs in parks, hospitals, prisons, laundromats, home daycares, Early Head Starts, museums, stores, first grade classrooms, and more. The book will be available in Spring, 2019, but can be pre-ordered by clicking here or on the picture of the book cover.

Rhyme of the Month -

February 2019

Hurry, Scurry, Little Mouse

Hurry, scurry, little mouse,
starts down at your toes.

Hurry, scurry, little mouse,
past your knees he goes.

Hurry, scurry, little mouse,
past where your tummy is.

Hurry, scurry, little mouse,
gives you a mousey kiss.

Subscribe to More MGOL Rhymes on YouTube HERE!

Developmental Tip of the Month:

Moving vigorously by running, jumping, hopping, leaping, twisting, and crawling does more than just give your child physical exercise. It also improves your child's learning! Movement fires up the brain to improve alertness, attention and motivation; it also spurs the development of new nerve cells in the brain and encourages the neurons to make new connections which allows more information to be absorbed and retained.

Paraphrased from: Ratey, John. 2008. Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. Little, Brown, and Co, p.53

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