Library News: October 5th, 2023
This week, we’re focusing on two books about parenting available at the Marcellus Township Library, but does reading parenting books really help one become a better parent? The website the "TODAY Parenting Team" (community.today.com) offers this: “Reading one [a parenting book] can show you care about raising your children and are willing to do whatever it takes to do it right. It can also give you a sense of being in control rather than the frazzled parent who doesn't know where to turn. You may also find advice about those difficult situations that tend to crop up once in a while during the course of parenting.”
Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors: Brain-, Body-, Sensory Strategies That Really Work by Robyn Gobbel. In her book, Robyn Gobbel, a parenting and neuroscience expert, reveals how all behavior, no matter how baffling, can be explained and remedied. Parents just need to look past the behavior and understand what is going on inside their children. Gobbel decodes the latest brain science into easy-to-understand principles and metaphors to help parents become experts in their children's behaviors. She covers simple ways to help parents regulate and connect with their children using brain-, body-, and sensory-based strategies to overcome day-to-day challenges. The author also provides parents with the knowledge to understand and regulate their own brains so that they don't flip their lids when their children flip their lids! This book can be the lifeline for parenting or caring for any child with baffling behaviors and hidden challenges including kids who have experienced adversity or those with additional needs.
Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic—and What We Can Do About It by Jennifer Breheny Wallace. This book has been described as the definitive work on the rise of the "toxic achievement culture" that is overtaking kids’ and parents’ lives because it provides a framework for fighting back. Students today face unprecedented pressure to succeed in the ever more competitive race to secure the best possible future. Their schedules are jam-packed, and they fill every waking hour with resume-padding activities, even sabotaging relationships with friends to get ahead. Family budgets and schedules are stretched to the breaking point by tutoring fees and athletic schedules. Unfortunately, this drive to optimize performance has only led to skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, and even self-harm in our highest achieving schools. Parents, teachers, and community leaders are all trying to determine how we can teach students to strive towards excellence without crushing them in the process. Children are internalizing the message that they have no value beyond their accomplishments, and this message is being reinforced by the media and the greater culture at large. Through her own research and interviews with leading child psychologists, Wallace shows what kids need from the adults in the room is not more pressure, but to feel like they matter and have intrinsic self—worth not contingent on external achievements. When parents and educators adopt the language and values of "mattering,” they help children see themselves as valuable contributors to a larger community. Ironically, children who receive consistent feedback that they matter, no matter what, are more likely to have the resilience, self-confidence, and psychological security to thrive. The author packs this book with memorable stories and offers a powerful toolkit for positive and much needed change. She offers an urgent and humane view of the crisis plaguing today's teens and practical framework for how to help.
Upcoming events:
Yoga with Dave Sivley, October 9 - Nov 27, Mondays at 6:30 PM. Bring your mat, water and a towel along with $5.00 per session payable to Dave.
Preschool Story Hour, Wednesdays 10:15 AM. Stories, music, movement & crafts for ages 0-5 and their parents/caregivers.
Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, presentations by Madalene Bigbear. Wednesdays at 6:00 PM on October 4-18th.
Game Night AND Movies & Popcorn, October 25th and the last Wednesday of each month at 6:00 PM. We'll have fresh popcorn and a movie during game night! All ages are welcome!
First Thursday Book Club 2023, October 5, 2023, 12 NOON-1 PM. Join others to chat about what you have been reading or to get suggestions from others
Pickles - An Introduction to Fermented Foods & Beverages, Thursday, October 5th at 6 PM. Farmer & chef, Austin Kane from Huss Project/CINO will be here every other Thursday to present on nature, gardening and cooking. October 19th: Food Forests - Permaculture Design & Implementation.
Busy Like a Bee- Intro to Beekeeping, Thursday, Oct 12th at 4 PM. Abby David from Huss Project/CINO will bring unique nature and gardening activities for students in 5-8 grades every other Thursday. Snacks will be provided! October 26th: The Composition of Compost.
Crochet Class, instructed by Korinne New. Bring 1 skein #4 medium weight yarn (lighter color is recommended for visibility), crochet hook size 5 or 5.5 mm, scissors. Thursdays, October 19th-November 9th at 6:00 PM.
Lego at the Library, Fridays 3:00-4:30 PM. Build & create with our Lego & Duplo collections! All ages are welcome (but parents are responsible for preventing choking risks for small children)! Donations of gently-used Legos will be greatly appreciated!
Blind Date with a Book. During First Friday, October 6 from 5 PM to 7 PM. We wrap books in paper, providing just a few clues as to what may be inside. If the clues intrigue you, check out the mystery book for your blind date with a book. Don’t judge a book by its cover & expand your reading repertoire.
Hatchery Tour Roadshow, During First Friday, October 6 from 5 PM to 7 PM, Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery will be bringing a LIVE Lake Sturgeon and more and will be set up outside of the library on the front lawn.
Annular Solar Eclipse, Saturday, October 14th 10 AM - 2 PM. Join us for an eclipse craft & receive a free pair of eclipse-viewing glasses (while supplies last). Peak viewing is expected at 1:03 PM.