Flying to Atlanta to Learn to Read

By car, shuttle bus, plane and train, Carol and I (and our puppets) made it to Atlanta!

After going up the city's longest escalator...

we checked into our hotel, which is the shiny cylindrical one in the middle

with a view from the 23rd floor! There are 73 floors all together. 

Then we went to our conference where Mem Fox read stories to us. Mem Fox is beloved story book author from Australia, and she spoke about the incredible importance of reading-aloud to young children. From these early experiences, young children learn to speak, listen, read, and most importantly love books. For the youngest children, she talked about the centrality of rhyming, repetition, rhythm. I think of books like "Chugga, Chugga Choo Choo," and "Llama Llama Misses Momma." For slightly older children she said that it is important that the book change the child's "emotional temperature." It should make them think and feel something, engage them in the emotional process of the story. And afterwards, instead of the rote question and answer we adults are so prone to, she delightfully suggested a gossip session, where you can hash over the story and images with the children connecting them to stories from your life or ideas and fantasies of the children.
On her website, she has a wonderful section for teachers and families on  how to read outloud. I really encourage you to check it out as it is a wonderful reminder of the *magic* that is reading together with young children.
It is so wonderful to be surrounded by such a confluence (over 25,000!) of amazing early childhood professionals! We are excited for the sessions in the next few days, and for our big presentation on Saturday!

Carol has lots of ideas to share.

We are right next to beautiful Olympic Park.

And we are very glad that we are not going to this conference which did not look nearly as exciting as ours!