Newest Guessing Jar Winner! *Bubbles!*

This week's guessing jar was bubblicious!  Congratulations to Ava L, our most recent Guessing Jar winner!  Ava guessed the EXACT right number of pieces of bubblegum in our jar.  And then she chose her prize - a bubble machine!

This week, be sure to stop in and try to guess the number of STARS in our Guessing Jar.  You'll have a chance at being our next winner!

Guessing Jar Winner!

Congratulations to Vera, this week's Guessing Jar winner!  This week, instead of guessing how many of something was in a jar, the task was to guess how fast a cheetah can run.  Vera guessed the cheetah's speed exactly! (They can run up to 70 miles per hour.)  She chose her prize of a giant bouncing ball.

Would you like to win a prize?  This week's guessing jar is filled with bubble gum.  Come in anytime this week and guess how many pieces of gum are in the jar for your chance to win!

Yay Watertown! You've Given Geese!

Congratulations, Watertown readers!  We've attained our second reading goal.  Together, you've read over 1000 hours and that means we'll be donating a flock of geese to Heifer International, in addition to the flock of ducklings you donated when you reached 500 hours.

If you haven't signed up yet for Summer Reading, there's still time!  Come on in and get your own reading log that we'll keep here, and you'll get to stamp a box for every 15 minutes you spend reading (or being read to).  We'll keep track of all your hours, along with everyone else in the town, and work toward donating even more animals!

And if you have already been reading and helping us attain our hours, GREAT JOB!  Keep up all that reading and pretty soon we'll reach our next goal.  If we can collectively read 1500 hours we'll donate bunnies!  So keep reading!

Another Guessing Jar Winner!

Congratulations to Elizabeth, this week's Guessing Jar winner!  Her guess of 212 goldfish in the jar was the closest, and she chose a Crayola Art Kit as her prize!

This week kids are trying to guess the top speed that a cheetah can run (in miles per hour).  There's still time to come in to the library throughout the rest of the week to take a guess, and maybe you'll win a prize!

Early Literacy Tip from Nursery Rhyme Time

This morning was Nursery Rhyme Time, a program for pre-walking babies and their caregivers that we do each Tuesday at 10:30 am and 12:00 noon.  Throughout the program we share a variety of quick early literacy tips as we do rhymes, sing songs, and read stories.  Periodically, we provide small handouts with extra tidbits, and on this blog we'll give more in-depth information about those tips.

This morning's tip was:

Why is it that some babies sleep through the night right away, while others take what feels like years?  One possibility is the speed at which parents attend to their child when he or she cries.  In her new book BringingUp Bébé, Pamela Druckerman explores French parenting and found that French parents wait up to five minutes before picking up a baby who’s crying in the night, and that their children tend to start sleeping through the night between two and six months.

I just started reading this book, and so far it's fascinating.  On the topic of sleep, Druckerman discusses the issue with both French and American doctors, and cites a few useful studies.  As stated above, she discovers that French parents practice what Druckerman dubs "La Pause" or "The Pause."  When their babies start crying in the night, they don't immediately pick them up.  Rather they spend a few minutes observing them.

Babies, just like adults, need to develop their own circadian rhythms.  They go through sleep cycles, and they usually lightly wake up in between these sleep cycles.  Adults do it to - approximately every 90 minutes - but easily fall back asleep and usually don't even know they've woken.  When babies are between cycles, they often move or make small noises, and sometimes they even cry.  But if parents let them, they usually enter right into another cycle pretty quickly.  If parents pick them up, they wake up fully and get used to fully waking up between sleep cycles.

So when your baby starts crying during the night, first just observe.  Give your baby a few minutes to see if he or she really needs you to do something, or if this is just a break between sleep cycles.  Perhaps your baby can go back to sleep independently, and perhaps he or she will begin sleeping through the night much sooner if you practice "La Pause."

Another Guessing Jar Winner!

Congratulations to Maya, who won the second week of our Guessing Jar!  She had the closest guess as to how many bubble-makers were in the large jar.  There were 24 in the jar, and she guessed exactly 24!  She chose her prize of a play-doh activity kit!

Would YOU like to pick a prize?  You've got a plenty more chances.  Each week we've got a guessing jar full of something to estimate.  The closest each week picks a prize.  Today and tomorrow there's still time to guess how many goldfish crackers are in the jar, and starting Monday we'll have yet another fun thing to guess.  So come on in and try your luck!

We Did It! We're Donating Ducklings!

Congratulations, and GREAT JOB Watertown!  Together, our Summer Reading participants have read a little over 500 hours!!  And you know what that means: you've read enough to donate a flock of ducklings to Heifer International!  Keep reading, and let's see how quickly we can make it to our next goal!

And if you haven't signed up yet, there's still time.  Stop in anytime during our open hours to have your reading count toward our great goals!

Our First Guessing Jar Winner!

Congratulations to Katherine, our first Guessing Jar winner of the summer!  Katherine had the closest guess of how many pennies were in our guessing jar (there were actually 702).  She got to pick a prize and chose a LEGO playset.


Interested in winning a prize like Katherine?  Come on in to the library each week and guess how many objects are in the guessing jar.  This week we're guessing how many bubble makers are in the jar.

Halfway to our first Reading Goal!

It feels like Summer Reading has just begun, but Watertown kids have already logged 250 HOURS!!

That puts us halfway toward our first goal!

If we read 250 more we'll be at 500 hours, and we'll donate a flock of geese to Heifer International!

So keep reading everybody!  And keep logging those hours.  And if you haven't signed up yet, there's still plenty of time.  Come on in anytime during open hours and sign up to help us reach our ultimate goal of reading 2000 hours and donating a pig!

Another book review!

We recently had a whole family review one of our Advanced Reader Copy books!

Presidential Pets: The Weird, Wacky, Little, Big, Scary, Strange Animals That Have Lived in the White House by Julia Moberg.

Here's what they thought:

Jenny - Age 6 1/2
I liked the funny pictures.  It was good.  I thought it was interesting.

Emily - Age 9
I liked it because you got to learn about presidents and you got to see the animals that they had.  I liked the book.  I learned some new things about the book and some things I already knew.  I think the book was good for a little older kids because it had a lot of words but I still liked the book.

Daddy - Age 45
It looks like a kids book and is illustrated that way but then gives very adult facts so I am not sure who the book would appeal to.

Thanks for your review!  Happy Reading everyone!