Get ready to ring in 2012! Come to the Pittsfield Branch Library on Friday, Dec. 30 from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. and create some hats and noisemakers to help you bring in the new year.

This is for preschool through 5th grade children. All supplies will be provided. For more about this holiday, click here.

Greg and Laura will be telling and singing and clapping with goofy stories and songs on December 28 at 2 pm at the Downtown Library for a silly storytime. Can a little boy from Italy trick a big slimy ogre? Can a grumpy bachelor find his true love through magic? Join us for good old fashioned family fun!

The AADL has some great new and classic youth holiday DVDs that are perfect for kids and for the whole family! Check out Disney's Prep and Landing. It's a story about some high tech elves who make sure that all of the houses are ready for Santa's visit on Christmas Eve. One of the elves doesn't get promoted to the head of the Naughty List and instead, ends up working with a newbie elf. How will things turn out in the end? You'll have to check it out or get on the hold list to find out!

We also have Disney's Beauty & The Beast: Enchanted Christmas which tells another classic Beauty & The Beast tale in a special edition holiday DVD!

AADL also has Maccabees: The Story Of Hanukkah, which is an animated youth DVD that goes back in time to the second century BC and details the origins of Hanukkah. Or, take a peek at the newer Sesame Street DVD, Shalom Sesame. Chanukah, The Missing Menorah, which depicts all of the Muppet friends searching for a missing menorah in hopes to find it in time for Chanukah.

If you and your family are interested in learning about different holidays around the world, check out Elmo's World. Happy Holidays. In this special edition of Elmo's World, Elmo is getting ready to celebrate Christmas, but instead he ends up learning all about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas and more!

Or, if you are hoping for a classic, we have A Charlie Brown Christmas on DVD and on Blu-ray too!

Circle K Logo

Tutoring sessions will resume on Sunday afternoons on January 22 and Monday and Wednesday evenings on January 23. Homework Help will continue throughout the winter and spring. Please read on for more details about homework help at AADL.

Looking for help with your homework? Look no further than AADL’s Downtown Library. The University of Michigan Chapter of Circle K is once again providing tutoring for students in grades K-12. Stop by the Youth Department Story Corner Mondays and Wednesdays between 4:00 and 8:00 pm to take advantage of this great service!

If you would like homework help over the weekend, U of M’s Chapter of Alpha Epsilon Delta will again be providing tutoring at the Downtown branch. They will be joined by the U of M group, Operation: Educate Children. Sessions will take place each week from 3:00 - 5:00 pm.

AADL also provides access to Brainfuse, an online tutoring service. Live tutors are available from 2:00 -11:00 pm every day!

AADL has all sorts of things to help you. Check the Homework Help page for the following:

Brainfuse Live Homework Help: Available 2-11 p.m. every day. Students can connect with tutors who can help with skill development and assist with specific homework needs.

Drop-in Homework Help: Resumes the week of January 22. Sunday tutoring will be available 3:00-5:00 p.m. On Mondays and Wednesday tutoring will be available 4:00-8:00 p.m.

AADL Databases for research projects for kids, high school papers, or even for preparing for those tough college entrance exams.

AADL Select Sites offer some of the best information resources on the Internet. Librarians have carefully selected these sites so you can trust the information found here for your research project.

Reading Skills need a boost? Scroll down at Homework Help. If you’re a beginning reader that needs to practice, click on one of the A-Z Levels links for a list of books available at the library. If you’re a reader that needs to improve your reading but find it hard to get excited about long boring books, check the HiLo Books list and click the links to find some books that you’ll enjoy.

Back by popular demand, Victoria Duranona will lead us through yoga poses while we play and sing on December 27th at 2 pm at the Downtown Library. Kindergarten through third graders will enjoy all the action, while learning how to focus and relax. While you are here, check out new Parenting and Yoga books to help children become comfortable and productive individuals.

Join Joe and his fans for clever songs about ecology on December 29 at 2 pm at the Downtown Library. Audience participation is key and the whole family will be bopping to the beat and working off holiday calories, while enjoying Joe’s tunes that celebrate our natural world.

From his humble beginnings to world Champion, the story of Joe Louis is told in the pictoral biography. The fight between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling is highligted as color lines are crossed to support Joe Louis on the eve of World War II. Kadir Nelson’s illustrations are stunning.

Children love stories, reading them, hearing them, telling them. Stories help children experiment with language while practicing their ability to both imagine and describe their world.
Before your child is ready to write themselves, but when they are old enough to read and listen to stories, combine their love of your stories with your literacy to help them create their own book. Dictating stories for your child is an excellent way to practice their Vocabulary and Narrative Skills, both identified as Key Early Literacy Skills.
Staple together a couple of pieces of paper with their favorite crayons and markers nearby. Ask your child to tell you a story, which you then write down onto the paper. Don't worry too much about editing, since it is important that the child see that the story is their writing from their words.
After you’ve written down their story, have the child illustrate their story. They may want to have some of their favorite books nearby, so that they can emulate the style of those works. Be ready to read for them bits of their story from each page so that they can more closely match the picture to the part of the story.
After the story has been illustrated, take the time to have one or both of you read the story aloud, giving extra attention to the accompanying artwork and allowing the child to further embellish and explain that artwork and their story.
When finished, make sure to keep your child’s work, to be used as both a reading resource and as a memory of their writing life.

Looking for entertaining yet educational activities for family car trips, snowy days stuck inside, or something to read on the bus? Check out a Fandex Family Field Guide from your neighborhood branch library. These full color, die-cut cards are great for upper elementary and middle schoolers for learning about a wide range of topics, such as Presidents, Mythology, Dinosaurs, Painters, and plenty more.

For example, the Presidents Fandex presents a chronological field guide to all 44 of America's chief executives. "Which President made the Louisiana Purchase? Which President won a Nobel Peace Prize? Which President also served as chief justice of the Supreme Court? Who was in office during the Teapot Dome scandal, and who endured the childhood nickname "Useless"? From the historic Founding Fathers (three of whom died on the Fourth of July) to the 19th-century forgettables (Fillmore, Tyler, Pierce, et al.) to our current leadership, Presidents lets you finally get it straight."