A Message from Bev Bos

Hi Fellow Child Care Professionals,
I received this message from Bev Bos on Friday and wanted to share. In all the centers that I've been in and out of in the last 10 years or so.... I too have been concerned about the lack of singing and fingerplays and chants in programs..... it's not just about language development, which is very important but about the emotional connections too. I've highlighted in red the passages from Bev that I thought were most meaningful. Feel free to comment on what spoke to you.


---------- Forwarded message ----------From: "Bev" <bevbos@turnthepage.com>To: Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 16:30:54 -0800Subject: A message from bev bos
Dear friends, One of the issues we have been talking about for a few years now is how we tend to get things out of order when it comes to working with young children. Going back thirty years ago I used to caution adults about this very thing when I would say, “We put kids on two-wheelers when they should be on trikes and we put them in Trans-Ams when they should still be on bikes!” It was a line that would always get a lot of nods in agreement and a few laughs but in all this time I don’t think we progressed very far. One area where this is glaringly true is in language and literacy development. Michael and I have hammered away at how children are thrust into the literate world with exposure to letters and such at earlier and earlier ages. The assumption being that the second a child cracks open a book they then begin their journey towards becoming a literate and articulate human being. But as educators like Barry Sanders, author of “A is for Ox,” remind us -- orality has got to come first before literacy. I love the way he describes it -- “literacy fits over orality like a glove” and “orality thus serves as a necessary and powerful foundation for the construction we call literacy. Children need to hear language in order to learn language.” Those of you who work with young children would probably agree with me when I say how shocked I am at how many kids don’t know any of the nursery rhymes or fingerplays like the ones our parents or teachers taught us. Their language is often just a repetition of the things they’ve heard on TV or at the movies rather than coming from another live person. That’s the beauty of fingerplays and stories -- to use Margaret Read McDonald’s words who described it as “the gift of shared imagination.” What’s missing today is the intimacy in early language development that used to begin for the child at their mother’s breast or during bathing or diaper changes when what some folks describe as “mother-ese” would gently guide the child down the path toward becoming a literate person. Unfortunately, for far too many young children’s their first exposure to spoken language bursts out at them from a crib-side monitor or in the repetitive jingles of commercial TV. Our concern about this growing “out-of-order-ness” was the driving force behind the decision to publish the book “Chants, Fingerplays & Stories” a couple years ago. We wanted provide people with a resource for learning or re-learning something we felt very strongly about. At the very least we were determined to get them down on paper as a way to preserve them. And at best we thought that maybe we could somehow slow down their disappearance from young children’s lives. Never did we imagine that the reaction from teachers and parents would be as positive as it has been. But now there’s another problem. Many of you have suggested we make a recording of the chants and fingerplays -- especially since some of them have a definite tune or musicality to them. Thus began a pretty lively debate between Michael and myself. My immediate reaction was not to do it. Just like with our music CDs, my hope is that folks would listen to the CDs and learn the songs then sing them rather than letting the kids listen to a CD. I was relying my years of experience working with young children that reminded me that CDs don’t stop when a kid wants to say something or add something to the song -- they just keep blazing right along. Besides, I also know they would rather hear your voice (in person) than mine coming out of some electronic gadget. So, as with the music CDs, I feared it would be too easy to just “pop in” a chants and fingerplays CD and have the kids listen to it. Michael was just as adamant that we should do it. He said that part of the charm and fun of doing chants and fingerplays is in how they sound. And, if not being able to feel comfortable in singing them for not knowing the tune is keeping them out of the lives of children then we need do something about that -- now! I had to admit that sometimes I’ve heard myself say after hearing a new chant “Oh, I’ll never remember how that goes by the time Monday morning rolls around.” So now, after all this time, I’m officially here to say -- he was right. So for all you folks that have bought the “Chants, Fingerplays & Stories” book you can now purchase an audio CD that covers the material in the first half of the book -- all the chants and fingerplays. For the stories at the end of the book -- you are on your own. Read them aloud at first, if you must, but do try your best to learn them and tell them, too. Below you will see the links for the three new products that are now available to you. If you already have the book you can purchase just the CD. Or, you can purchase the Book and CD together. You can even purchase the Book by itself, too. Thanks to all those of you that pestered me about making a recorded version of the book. Here it is -- I hope you like it and I hope these wonderful little nuggets of orality make their way into the lives of children for generations to come. Love, Bev

PS - Just a word of thanks to those that attended our recent "Good Stuff for Kids" Conference here in Roseville CA. Despite the rain it was wonderful to have you here with us. We hope all of you had safe travels back to your loved ones and thanks again so much for coming -- we hope to see you again sometime soon.