This week is Resilience Week, and we are again partnering with Greater Richmond SCAN to share titles for young readers that celebrate and uplift stories of resilience. This is also the first week of Mental Health Awareness Month, and we want to share library resources that can additionally support mental health and wellness. Read on to learn more about Resilience Week, and explore recommendations from our librarians.

There is so much for a child to learn about the world around them, and their best tools are movement and play. Movement and play support motor development while simultaneously encouraging curiosity- and are the pillars of the fourth principle of the Basics.

We have a bunch of fun programs coming up this April! Test your knowledge at one of our trivia nights, learn about the weather with hands-on experiments, or learn to create audio recordings for music, podcasts, and more. Here are just some of the awesome events coming up this month.

Picture books are more than colorful images paired with words. Great picture books insist that the reader and the listener actively play and talk. Learning is made dynamic when you add dancing, imagination, and verbal responses. Movement makes literacy fun!

Explore fun kitchen science, challenge yourself with LEGOs, and learn how to bullet journal this March! We have a full slate of events for everyone. Be sure to mark your calendar for our All Henrico Reads virtual event on April 1 at 7:00 pm. Author Robin Sloan will join us to discuss his bestselling title, Sourdough. Read on for highlights from our upcoming programs.

Our librarians at Henrico County Public Library are always ready to provide information and tips on early literacy. But we also love early math! Little ones are ready to tackle math concepts well before they reach kindergarten, and it starts with counting, grouping, and comparing. These three foundational concepts set the stage for mathematical understanding. Here are our tips to count, group, and compare, the third principle of The Basics.

One of our favorite ways to experience books is to listen to them. Audiobooks allow a full, immersive experience with different voices for characters, multiple narrators, sound effects, the works! You can customize listening speed, listen on the go, and find narrators you enjoy, who inspire you to keep listening. Some wonderful audiobooks happen to be for the tween crowd. These audiobooks are targeted at ages 8-12 and include adventure, fantasy, ghost stories and more. Read on for our picks – all of which are available through our digital collections for easy streaming.

Recreate the serendipity of discovering a book on the shelf at the library by requesting a Book Bundle for curbside pickup. Librarians will surprise you with a selection of staff-favorite titles from a variety of genres and for readers of all ages.

Language learning starts early, and the best way to build vocabulary is through interaction. Talking, singing, and pointing are hallmarks of language learning, and the pillars of the second principle of The Basics. The Basics are a set of principles that help families maximize early learning so you can build a foundation for your child's cognitive, social, and emotional growth. In the second post in this series, we are sharing tips for “Talk, Sing, and Point”, the second principle of The Basics.