Talk with your child about what you’re going to hunt/gather before you go to do it. Even if your child won’t be with you, you can still teach them the basics and include them in the preparation. Where you will go? How you will prepare? What tools do you need? What will the weather be? Read More
Parent Center
Alaska Native Heritage Month
It’s Native American/Alaska Native Heritage Month: a time to celebrate the rich cultural past, present, and future of the first peoples of Alaska. This month we are excited to share ideas to honor Alaska Native subsistence. Hunting, fishing, gathering, and eating together supports a connection to the land and each other as well as lifelong Read More
Ways to Support Healthy Brain Development
Supporting your child’s brain development is not hard. Like many other things, it’s making the conscious effort to do what you can when you can. Being a loving and patient caregiver is the biggest thing that will aid your child’s development. Remember that you are a guide for your child. Every day interactions are the Read More
Healthy Brain Development
Expecting parents usually talk about how they hope their child is born healthy and happy. There are so many pieces that make children healthy, and for Children’s Health month we are going to focus on early brain development. Believe it or not, our brains develop the most between birth and age three. By the time Read More
Fun Books for Practicing How Books Work
Off to See the Sea by Nikki Grimes (Toddler, Preschool) With phenomenal mixed-media illustrations, this story is about a reluctant bath-taker and his mother who weaves a magical and persuasive tale to convince her child to get clean in the tub. The story is simple, but the creative way the words swirl on the page Read More
Ways to Teach How Books Work
As you read with your child, take time to point out various features. You don’t need to do it every time you read aloud, but try to add them in when your child is in the reading zone: Book parts: front, back, spine Title of book, name of author/illustrator, where you begin reading Language: a Read More
How Books Work
Do remember learning how a book works? Not how to read the words, but do you remember learning which direction to turn pages, how to know the front from the back, or how to scan the words across a page? These rules are language based and vary. It may sound funny, but we all need Read More
Ways to Build Narrative Skills
What can you do to encourage your child to build their narrative skills? Ask open-ended questions that encourage conversations and have no right/wrong answer Talk about the order things happened during the day (first, then, last) Use a wordless book that your child can use to tell you a story After reading a book, mix Read More
Tell Me About It!
We are all wired to be storytellers. This means it’s easy to lay the foundations needed to understand and retell stories in your child from a young age. By reading together, your child learns to use descriptive words as well as the different parts of a story (beginning, middle, end). These narrative skills not only Read More
Books for Kid Experts
Let’s Build by Julie M. Fenner (Infant, Toddler) Young children are fascinated by building sites and the big pieces of equipment necessary to change the landscape and raise new structures. This interactive book lets your child play along and help this critter crew build a brand-new park for everyone to enjoy. ▸ Get it at the Read More
