Trainings for MGOL Hatchlings’ Facilitators

About Mother Goose on the Loose: Hatchlings

Mother Goose on the Loose: Hatchlings is a unique offering under the Mother Goose on the Loose® umbrella that shares the importance of early reading, singing, talking, and playing with babies to build early literacy skills and strong family bonding. Via critical community partnerships and outreach, Hatchlings carries on the mission of reaching young families while also helping libraries to reinvent themselves as providers of critical baby development and early literacy learning to families who are unaware of these concepts.

 

Hatchlings currently consists of two parts:

• Baby on the Way (formerly “Ready to Hatch”) is for expectant parents. Itis a stand-alone session hosted in a participating library and/or community space that focuses on expectant families, many of whom may be non-library users, historically underserved families, or families from under-represented populations. It empowers parents by providing informal instruction in early brain development and connecting it with the important role that parents play in their child’s development.
• New Baby and Me (formerly “In the Nest”) is for parents with newborns. It is a series of four consecutive sessions for parents with babies from birth to four months old.  While reinforcing positive early literacy behaviors, it also supports new parents through the major life transitions of birth, parenthood, sibling adjustment, and acclimating to public spaces with newborns. At the end of each session, parents are given materials that will help them continue talking, singing, sharing books, and playing with their babies at home.

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

 

About the Training

Facilitators-to-be will 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. They will gain knowledge and confidence in providing effective early literacy trainings for expectant parents and parents of young infants.

One trainings prepares facilitators to implement the Hatchlings “Baby on the Way” program for expectant parents, the other prepares facilitators to implement Hatchlings “New Baby and Me”. 

Both trainings 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

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
  • Planning with community partners
  • Drumming up an audience
  • Using a timeline
  • Purchasing items needed

 

Part 2: Training  – The training piece prepares facilitators to implement each specific Hatchlings program: 

1. Providing an overview of all materials 
2. Familiarizing facilitators with all of the relevant songs and rhymes
3. Explaining the script format; giving practice facilitating the scripts and using the panels to help facilitators feel comfortable and confident 
4. Identifying strategies to adapt scripts and panels in ways that personalize them but stay true to the content.
5. Discussing considerations for presenting virtual as well as in-person sessions
6. Introducing the PowerPoint(s) and discovering uses
7. Exploring multiple ways to find community partners
8. Brainstorming marketing techniques to attract audiences and ways to handle siblings
9. Re-examining the sample timeline designed to aid with marketing, purchasing, and promoting the program
10. Introducing strategies for individual libraries’ and community partners to promote their own programs and services to program participants and identifying methods for sharing 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 each training.

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

Costs for Ready to Hatch (Baby on the Way) trainings:

• Please download the Hatchlings Training Proposal here for all information and prices. 
• Attendees are expected to use the Ready to Hatch (Baby on the Way) Instruction Guide below; use of the panels is optional. Printed materials are available for free download from the MGOL Website (address to be given during the introductory webinar) or can be ordered from the MGOL Store.

In-house costs:

• • The estimated cost for Ready to Hatch materials is $8 – $12 per participating family (excludes shipping & handling, dependent on current prices and discounts.  5-10 families at a time are recommended for each session.
  • The in-house fee will depend of which supplies you choose to offer. If no funding is available, the Hatchlings program can be successfully conducted using the program content and activities, with suggestions to families for homemade creation of program materials used, (e.g., homemade shaker and puppet)
  • We recommend 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.
  • For a complete breakdown of the 2023 Hatchlings program materials information, click here. 

Arranging a training:

If you would like to organize your own Hatchlings training to bring Hatchlings to your area, please contact Betsy directly:

A scheduled online series of Ready to Hatch (Baby on the Way) webinars will be beginning at the end of January, 2024:

• Fee per person: $320. To find out more and register, click here. 
  • Group rates available for groups of 10 or more.

 

• Fee per person:  $320. To find out more and register, click here.