This was written by guest blogger, Volunteer Reader Program Intern, Andrea Alvarez. 

For the past two years, Volunteer Reader Khushbu Vyas has been commuting from Ballard every Monday and reading to the children at Little Eagles Child Development Center in downtown Seattle.

Today, we had the opportunity to meet and catch up with Khusbu. Her warm personality made our visit extra-special, and her face lit up as she sang the praises of the Little Eagles Center staff and its children. For her, volunteering has been…

Earlier this week, our Public Policy department decided to reach out to community members involved in our Volunteer Reader Program. Via e-mail, we asked volunteers to do more to help support early learning in our state.

 Volunteers were asked to sign on to a letter thanking our King County Legislature for its outstanding bipartisan effort to support early learning in Washington. We were very excited when enthusiastic and highly positive responses came flying in. In all, a total of 35 Volunteer…

In a recent research study performed by Developmental Studies staff at Purdue University, it was found that there is a link between a child’s interest in literacy and their behavior.  The study focused on low-income preschoolers ages 3-5.  One specific finding of the study noted that book choices available to children are important and that parents and teachers need to ensure that there are a variety of books available that both girls and boys would be interested in.  United Way of King County’s Volunteer Reader…

Thanks to the combined advocacy of our United Way constituents nd partner organizations, United Way of King County was able to achieve many of its legislative asks even in one of the most challenging economic years on record.  Below is a summary of the outcomes of our main advocacy efforts for FY 2011-2013.

 2011-2013 Budget Outcomes

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Congratulations to our colleagues at the King County Library System for being named the Gale/Library Journal 2011 Library of the Year, arguably the biggest honor in the library world. One of the busiest libraries in the U.S., KCLS serves more than 1.3 million King County residents each year, circulating more items than any other library system in the country. Some of the lucky recipients of KCLS services? The thousands of preschoolers who’ve been paired with adults who share books with them weekly through…

When Volunteer Reader Tammie Treibley enters the classroom, she loves hearing the children exclaim “Ms. Tammie is here!”

 Tammie starts with the book “Waddle!,” and asks the kids, “Can you waddle like a penguin? Can you hop like a frog?” Tammie explains that the children “love to act out the actions with the book”.  The book never fails to capture their attention.

 Another crowd pleaser is “I Stink,” a story about a trash collector truck.  Tammie highly recommends the Volunteer Reader experience for anyone who enjoys…

Created for children 3-5 years old and their parents or caregivers, Small Frye brings children’s stories and contemporary favorites to life in the Frye Art Museum galleries.

Through tales and songs, Small Frye introduces children to a wide variety of words and sounds, preparing them for reading and writing. Movement and play are incorporated into story time, fostering creative thinking and problem solving in an interdisciplinary environment.

Stories of transformation and renewal are the themes for May and June with librarians from The Seattle Public…

On May 25, 2011, the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a competitive $500 million dollar state-level grant to the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge. The Race to the Top challenge focuses on the improvement of early learning and development programs for young disadvantaged children. “For kids, high quality early learning programs mean they will enter school better prepared with a greater chance of finishing high school and college,” said Vice President Joe Biden,…

Volunteer Readers sometimes ask how to keep a child engaged if he or she is not interested or not paying attention.  Volunteer Reader Jessica Cothran recently shared a strategy that has worked well for her. She brings the book “Chalk” alive by imitating the illustrations within it.  The book doesn’t have words, but the children look at the pictures and soon realize what’s drawn with the chalk comes to life in the book. 

Jessica and a child mimic the action in the book by…

Volunteer Reader Susan Acala is a retired teacher and fluent Spanish speaker who has participated in the Volunteer Reader Program this past school year.  She has shared her love of reading with the children at Sherwood Forest Elementary Head Start in Federal Way. 

We recently added bilingual selections to the site’s book bin to enable volunteers to read in both English and Spanish. Susan also brought in a rebozo, which is a long woolen or linen scarf worn over the head and shoulders by women…