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News release

A Summer Reading List and Activities to Help Your Child Succeed in School and Life

July 11, 2016

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

MomsRising Blog Suggests Books to Read Together to Help Children Develop Social Emotional Skills
Educators and child development experts agree that social emotional skills are crucial building blocks for children’s future success. These are the skills that help children understand and manage their emotions, feel and show empathy, establish and maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions.
 
To support parents as they work with their children on developing those skills, MomsRising, the online grassroots organization for moms and everyone who has a mom, has developed a reading list and suggested activities to use this summer and prepare younger children for the upcoming school year. The list includes five children’s books, each of which addresses a different social emotional skill, and suggested activities to help children build those skills.  The list includes:
  • I Like Me, by Nancy Carlson, which focuses on self-awareness;
  • Mindful Monkey, Happy Panda, by Lauren Alderfer, on self-management or mindfulness;
  • Yoko, by Rosemary Wells, on social awareness and appreciating and respecting other cultures;
  • Frog and Toad are Friends, by Arnold Lobel, on building relationship skills; and
  • The Berenstain Bears books by Stan and Jan Berenstain, on responsible decision-making.
 
A variety of fun activities are suggested to further explore the lessons in each book, including collage-making, role-playing games, and making “friend coupons,” giving parents and other caregivers a variety of ways to help children build these crucial skills.
 
“We know parents are busy, which is why we've put together some fun, easy ways parents can address social emotional skills with their little ones,” said MomsRising Executive Director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner. “Summertime is a great time to help children prepare for the upcoming school year with the skills they need to not only succeed in the classroom, but also in life. All these books are readily available at libraries and bookstores and the activities are fun for parents and their children.”
 
The activity list is a part of MomsRising’s early learning and child care campaign, which includes Strong Start for Strong Cities, a new guide developed in collaboration with the National League of Cities and School Readiness Consulting to help city leaders develop affordable, high quality early learning programs that help children develop social competence and academic skills. MomsRising members across the country began delivering copies of the book to mayors’ offices this month.
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.