Author: Gwendolyn Haley

Go for the gold in reading

Posted in Explore and Discover on June 30, 2016 at 6:00 am

By Gwendolyn Haley We are getting ready for the Olympics in my house. While we aren’t usually a sports family, I have been known to force my family to watch swimming events all day long. Next month, the eyes of the world will turn to Rio for the XXXI Olympiad. One way to prepare for […]

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Family mystery solved at the library

Posted in Explore and Discover on May 12, 2016 at 6:00 am

by Gwendolyn Haley Recently, my father and I were trying to solve a family mystery. He is the sole surviving grandchild on his mother’s side. So if he doesn’t remember something about the family, there is no one left to ask who would know. In our collective family knowledge, we were aware that his grandfather […]

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Middle school math is KILLING me

Posted in For You, Parents and Teachers on March 24, 2016 at 6:00 am

By Gwendolyn Haley Middle School Math is KILLING me. It started when our oldest daughter hit 7th grade and started Algebra. During the first open house of middle school, the wise and kind math teacher warned all the parents that “this first semester is a killer.” Truth. I spent one harried evening working on a […]

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Library Hack: How to plan the perfect Valentine’s Day date

Posted in Explore and Discover, For You on February 9, 2016 at 6:00 am

By Gwendolyn Haley Valentine’s Day is not a big deal for my husband and me. As two working parents with three kids at home, we usually don’t have the time or the energy to go all out on a romantic date. This year, I’m going to plan a low fuss, low stress date night using […]

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In praise of reading aloud as adults

Posted in Explore and Discover, For You on January 20, 2016 at 6:00 am

By Gwendolyn Haley When my husband and I were newlyweds we lived overseas in a place with very few English speakers. Since we didn’t speak the language, we were sometimes a little starved for entertainment beyond the random English language movie on TV (a pastime we dubbed “Mystery English Language Theater” or “How we stopped being […]

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4 Things to consider before letting your preschooler use a tablet

Posted in For You, kids, Parents and Teachers on November 18, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Gwendolyn Haley I admit it was a rookie mistake. I had just upgraded my smartphone but all the apps were still loaded on my old phone. I thought my then 5-year-old would enjoy playing some of her games on it during a family car trip. After putting it in airplane mode, I passed the phone […]

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Discover endless possibilities within your reach

Posted in For You, kids, Parents and Teachers, Teens on September 15, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Gwendolyn Haley I just bought a cartful of school supplies for my three kids. We love new pens, pencils, and notebooks at our house. They represent the endless possibilities a new school year brings. I get excited just thinking about everything that my kids will learn and create over the next few months. One […]

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Book a Librarian: Face-to-face, personalized service

Posted in Explore and Discover, For You on September 2, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Gwendolyn Haley Friends and family often use me as their personal librarian. I have personalized reading lists, found materials in the right Lexile for a friend’s precocious 8-year-old, got my mom set up to use the eBooks from the library on her new eReader, and researched the market for a friend starting a new […]

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Summer beverages: your library on the rocks

Posted in Explore and Discover, For You on August 13, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Gwendolyn Haley The 641s is one of my favorite sections of the library to browse. For those of you not quite as familiar with the Dewey Decimal System, that’s also known as the cookbook section. There is always something new and delicious to check out, especially during this time of year when the grilling […]

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Why my children study a foreign language

Posted in For You, kids, Parents and Teachers on July 23, 2015 at 6:00 am

By Gwendolyn Haley They don’t believe us when we tell them, but our children will thank us for this one day. You see, for the last few years, my husband and I have required our three daughters to study a foreign language; specifically, Mandarin Chinese. Why Chinese? We taught English for 18 months at a university in the People’s […]

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