MGOL in Orlando, Florida

June 13, 2024| Dr. Betsy Diamant-CohenPositive Reinforcement

In January, I started advertising webinars on Humantix. Having individual sign-ups is very different than being hired by a library system to run a webinar for them. Since I have just started doing this, the groups that participate are small, and there is a lot of interaction.

One of my trainings has been for the Mother Goose on the Loose: Hatchlings programs. Three librarians from the Orange County Library System in Orlando signed up and the conversations have been inspiring. They have already been presenting Mother Goose on the Loose to the public for years, and they recently started offering MGOL Goslings for parents with babies in Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Now that have started adding Hatchlings and adapting it to fit in with their regularly scheduled Mother Goose on the Loose programs.

Emily Gringas, one of the librarians who is part of the cohort, said:

I’m trying to think of ways to bring this awesome program to more people because everyone who has experienced it, at least with us, has really found benefit … Just as a sidebar: [Natasha and Emily used to present MGOL together at a different location.] The kids who we used to have at this location are now coming back and they can say my name now, and Miss Woxie and Miss Emily, it’s so adorable. And they’ll look for us. It’s so sweet.

I’ve even had some parents come up and say, “My child learned to talk, learned to do this specific skill because of you.”

And I have to turn around and say, “No, it’s because of what you are doing. You’re their parent, you’re their teacher.” And they answer, “No, it’s the information that you’re bringing to us.”

So I want to get this information to as many people as possible, and I’m trying to think of more people to bring in whether it is having them help spread the word of mouth and the resources, or having them join us or bring us a location to bring this information.

Emily sent me the following article about the celebration for 100 years of the Orange County Library System and it the photo is of one of her MGOL participants who made up a happy song about coming to the library.

It’s great to see how MGOL has spread its wings!!!!

https://www.cfpublic.org/2023-11-08/orange-county-library-system-turns-100-still-finding-ways-to-be-an-agent-of-service

Children and Climate Change

January 24, 2024| Dr. Betsy Diamant-CohenChildren's Health, Climate Changeadvocacay, Climate change

Did you know that children are uniquely vulnerable to health impacts caused by climate change?

Climate change affects all of us, and recent studies point to the adverse effects it has on children. There is a movement to untie early childhood professionals to learn about the seriousness of the situation and to advocate for children’s health.

Recently I attended a webinar, “Collaborating for Kids: Climate Change, Environmental Justice, and Advocacy” presented by the Campaign for Grade Level Reading (CGLR). Dr. Joshua Sparrow from the Boston Children’s Hospital Spoke with Dr. Rupa Basu from the EPA on the impact of extreme heat on babies. He recommended viewing this video of Dr. Basu talking about climate change on premature birth and low birth weight.

Dr. Sparrow also spoke about The Early Years Climate Plan and he encouraged us to check it out at: https://www.earlyyearsclimateplan.us/ In addition to having great information, this is one of the most beautiful websites I have seen!

Interested in joining the Early Years Climate Task Force? Find out more about it here.

Facilitator Trainings for MGOL: Hatchlings

January 3, 2024| Dr. Betsy Diamant-CohenPositive Reinforcement

About Mother Goose on the Loose: Hatchlings

Learn how to reach families before and after birth, through this interactive program that shares the importance of early reading, singing, talking, and playing with babies to build early literacy skills and strong family bonding. Gain knowledge and confidence in providing effective early literacy trainings for expectant parents and parents of young infants.

Hatchlings currently consists of two parts:

Baby on the Way (formerly “Ready to Hatch”) is for expectant parents;
New Baby and Me (formerly “In the Nest”) is for parents with newborns.

Trainings are available online as well as in person. Hybrid trainings are also possible.

About Hatchlings: Ready to Hatch (Baby on the Way)

This training prepares facilitators to implement the Hatchlings “Baby on the Way” program for expectant parents. The training will:

Provide an overview of all materials, familiarize facilitators with the songs and rhymes,
Explain and provide practice facilitating the scripts and using the panels, so facilitators are comfortable and confident
Provide an opportunity to discuss considerations for virtual and in-person sessions, program customization, and ask questions
Discuss marketing strategies

“Ready to Hatch” (Baby on the Way) Training Overview

Part 1: Introduction to Hatchlings – This introduction explains what Hatchlings is, and emphasizes the importance of planning ahead. It covers:

- Marketing strategies
- Finding community partners
- Drumming up an audience
- Using a timeline
- Purchasing items needed

Part 2: Training – The training piece prepares facilitators to implement Hatchlings: “Baby on the Way” for expectant parents by:

Providing an overview of all materials related to Hatchlings: Baby on the Way
Familiarizing facilitators with all of the Baby on the Way songs and rhymes
Explaining the script format; giving practice facilitating the scripts and using the panels to help facilitators feel comfortable and confident
Identifying strategies to adapt scripts and panels in ways that personalize them but stay true to the content.
Discussing considerations for presenting virtual as well as in-person sessions
Exploring multiple ways to find community partners
Brainstorming marketing techniques
Examining a sample timeline designed to aid with marketing, purchasing, and promoting the program
Introducing strategies for individual libraries’ and community partners to promote their own programs and services to Baby on the Way program participants and identifying methods to share their materials.

Part 3: Office hours

During online “office hours”, libraries and their community partners can confer with Dr. Betsy. They will then be given a break-out room where they can being planning their collaborative program, with Betsy on hand to answer questions or offer suggestions.

In addition, Betsy will be available during the entire year following the introduction to Hatchlings to answer questions and provide advice.

Part 4: Debrief

A final online or in-person meeting for sharing observations and discussing ways to continue offering Hatchlings programming in the future wraps up the first official training period.

Certificate of completion available upon request with successful completion of post-test.

Cost of scheduled online training:

Fee for all online trainings and meetings mentioned above: $320. To find out more and register, click here.
- Group rates available for groups of 10 or more. Contact info@mgol.org for more information.
Fee for printed materials to be ordered from Booklogix (Instruction Guide and Panels) $79.00 plus shipping and handling in the US (this is a separate fee and will not part of the course registration) WWWWWWWW

In-house costs:

Fee for supplies: This in-house fee will depend of which supplies you choose to offer. Facilitators will need supplies to present the program. A list of the resources and prices will be provided; since it is recommended that a maximum of 15 families attend a session, the approximate cost at the present time is $800 to have everything ready to go.
It is recommended that parents receive a “gift” after the session (such as a board book), which they can use to practice the skills they have learned at home.
If funding is an issue, “gifts” for families can be replaced with different board books already in the library.

https://events.humanitix.com/mother-goose-on-the-loose-hatchlings-baby-on-the-way

Tickets for good, not greed

Upcoming Webinar

December 18, 2023| Dr. Betsy Diamant-CohenPositive Reinforcement

Upcoming Webinar:

Resources for Freelancers and the Self-Employed

September 11, 2023| Dr. Betsy Diamant-CohenPositive Reinforcementconsultants, freelancers

If you are self-employed as I am, the Freelancers Union can be a wonderful resource for you.

One of my friends here in Baltimore told me about it when Mother Goose on the Loose, LLC was just about 10 years old. At that time, the Freelancers Union in Baltimore was still having monthly SPARK meetings with speakers on different topics useful for consultants. The meetings were a wonderful place to network and meet other freelancers who did different types work than I did with MGOL. One person I met was an editor who did some work for me when I was designing my first online course, and another was a grant writer who successful wrote a grant for me.

Once the legal clinic at the New York Freelancers Union were scheduling free 30 minute meetings with lawyers, so I was able to use that benefit. Plus, when I needed to purchase business insurance, the negotiated group prices of the Freelancers Union were the best around. They also have group prices for health insurance and dental insurance.

Don’t take my word for it; if you are a one-person company or are thinking about forming your own LLC, organization, or company, check them out at https://freelancersunion.org.

Another great resource is the Small Business Association (https://www.sba.gov/).

Through the SBA, you can get a mentor, usually a retired business person, who can guide you through the steps of starting your own business, and running it. The SBA offers classes on a wide variety of topics from “How to Create a Business Plan” to “Finding Funding During COVID.”

The SBA also provides link to other resources, such as:

Membership is free for both the Freelancers Union and the SBA.

Since librarians love to share information, I wanted to share this information with those colleagues who do free-lance consulting or have their own businesses.

The Mother Goose on the Loose Blog