Kids Blog

Today, Sesame Street turns 40 years old. As a child of the '70's, Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, and Grover became my very close pals. The music–from the uplifting "Sunny Days" intro theme to the swinging "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-tweeeelve" pinball disco song–became personal anthems. I learned phonics from the letter of the day and counting from...who else?...The Count.

    If your children watched the “Baby Einstein” videos, but failed to turn into geniuses, you can get your money back.  A recently settled suit against Disney, the owner of the popular series, asserts that the claim that the videos are educational is unfair and deceptive.  Parents can get a refund of $15.99 for up to four of the videos.  

    Fortunately, at least one way to help your child to grow intellectually is free and widely available.  You guessed it – reading to your child from books you can borrow from your local public library.  Not only is it free, but numerous studies show the benefits of early read-aloud sessions.  Just pick up one of our “Every Child Ready to Read” brochures, and plunge in!

Today's libraries are not just for books, computers and magazines – the Salem Church library now has its own geocache!  In geocaching, participants obtain the location of a geocache from a geocaching Web site www.geocaching.com, use a GPS to arrive in the area of the cache, and then follow clues or simply hunt for the cache.   There are over 1000 caches waiting to be found within a 25 mile radius of the Fredericksburg area!  

She’s only four feet tall and 110 pounds, but little “Ardi” is causing a sensation among paleoanthropologists. Earlier this month, after fifteen years of research, scientists reported that they had identified Ardi’s skeleton as the oldest hominid known to modern humans. Ardipithecus ramidus, as she is formally known, lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia. She’s remarkable not just for her age, but for what she tells us about human evolution. Scientists are re-arranging the human family tree in light of this new research.

Come vote for your favorite of the 3 pumpkins that library staff members decorated. There's "Some Pig," a tie in with Charlotte's Web, a Day of the Dead jack-o-lantern, and a howdy partner cowboy pumpkin. This is just one of the many fun things you can do @ your local library.

This month, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution declaring October 20th to be the National Day on Writing. The National Writing Day Project is sponsored by NCTE--National Council of Teachers of English. Check out their site for the National Gallery of Writing where you can submit stories, poems, recipes, emails, blogs, audio, video, and artwork. The gallery will open to the world on October 20 so now is the time to get going. The site features an online tutorial to aid you when making your submissions.

Whether they're Galas, Granny Smiths, Yorks, Winesaps, or Ginger Golds, apples are one of Virginia's loveliest and most useful crops and were much enjoyed by the early colonists and pioneers as well as today's families. Crisp, sweet apples-- harvested in the chilly days of October, can be part of your celebrations in November and December. Click here to learn more about local apple festivals, apple recipes, apple crafts, and apple books for young readers.

October 5-30

The Library of Virginia, with support from Capital One, is pleased to honor eight distinguished Virginians as African American Trailblazers for their contributions to the state and nation. Through education, advocacy, entertainment, or armed rebellion, these individuals demonstrate how African Americans have actively campaigned for better lives for themselves and their people.

The honorees are Dangerfield Newby, Evelyn Butts, Amaza Meredith, Claudia Whitworth, Oliver White Hill, John Cephas, Edna Lewis, and Leland Melvin. Find out more about each trailblazer by visiting the Library of Virginia web site.

England Run, our newest branch in Stafford County, is taking shape. See recent photos of the construction. 
England Run is located at the intersection of Plantation Drive and Lyons Boulevard, and is scheduled to open in fall 2010. 

See the England Run branch page for more information.

Porter:
Friday, September 4 - Thursday, September 10 (Library closed Sunday, September 6, and Monday, September 7)
Friday, October 2 - Thursday, October 8

Salem Church:
Friday, September 18 – Thursday, September 24
Friday, October 16 – Thursday, October 22

Headquarters:
October 17–21, 2009: Fall BIG Book Sale

See more book sale dates.