Greater Portland Mothers of Multiples Club is a local support group for mothers and expectant mothers of multiples in the greater Portland, Maine area. The group offers a variety of opportunities for moms to meet, get acquainted, find support and enjoy their children.

Meetings are held at the Barron Center, 1145 Brighton Avenue Portland, Maine 04102 ( map), on the first Wednesday of each month at 6:30 PM.

Resources

Board Books Generally good for infants and toddlers. A Mother for Choco - Keiko Kasza A Snowy Day - Ezra Jack Keats The Alphabet Book - Eastman (Seuss) Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? - Martin/Cole Cats Pajamas - Sandra Boynton Fiddle-I-Fee - Sweet The Foot Book - Seuss Go Dogs Go - Dr. Suess God Loves You - Bostrom The Going to Bed Book - Boynton Guess How Much I Love You Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb - Dr. Suess Hush Little Baby - Sylvia Long In The Garden with Van Gogh The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear - Wood Mama Mama/ Papa Papa The Mitten - Jan Brett Mouse's First Spring - Sandra Boynton Mr. Gumpy's Outing - Burningham Noah's Ark - Brett The Napping House - Audrey and Don Wood Polite Elephant - Richard Scary These Are My Hands - Martin/Archambeault The Very Busy Spider The Very Hungry Catepillar - Eric Carle Tumble Bumble - Felicia Bond

Other Books 45 Devotional Stories For Little Ones Antler, Bear, Canoe - Betsy Bowen Bear Snores On - Wilson Bear Wants More - Wilson Blueberries for Sal - McCloskey The Cat in the Hat - Seuss The Cat in the Hat Comes Back - Seuss Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - Martin & Archambeault Christmas Collection - Jan Brett Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type - Cronin Clifford the Big Red Dog (any) Down to the Sea With Mr. McGee - Van Dusen Earth Song - Rogers Fast Food - Saxton Freymann Going Lobstering - Jerry Pallotta Green Eggs & Ham - Seuss Harold and the Purple Crayon - Johnson Hop on Pop - Seuss How Kind - Frank Asch I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! - Beaumont I Already Know I love You - Billy Crystal If You Give a Moose A Muffin - Numeroff If You Give a Mouse A Coke - Numeroff If You Give a Pig A Pancake - Numeroff If You Take a Mouse to the Movies - Numeroff If You Take a Mouse to School - Numeroff The Little Engine That Could Make Way For Ducklings - Robert McCloskey McElligot's Pool - Seuss Mooncake - Frank Asch Muncha Muncha Muncha - Fleming My Goodnight Storybook - Susan Lingo Noises at Night - Beth Raisner Glass and Susan Lubner Thomas the Tank Engine (any) When Cows Come Home - Harrison

Taken from Literacy's Beginnings
Supporting Young Readers and Writers page 144
By Lea M. McGee and Donald J. Richgels

"Parents seem naturally to encourage their children's active responses to books. Before infants learn to talk, parents elicit babbling, pointing, and gestures. As infants approach their first birthday, parents encourage their children to respond to utterances that sound more and more like words-they expect their children to label pictures. Parents do the pointing, gesturing, and naming. They show their children how to point and gesture appropriately by taking their babies' arms and waving "bye bye ." Similarly, parents praise any gesture a child makes with a book, such as patting it, and treat the gesture as if their child had spoken about the book. They say, "Yes, you see that kitten," as the child slaps at the book over the picture of a kitten. Gradually, a routine emerges. Parents ask a question, baby responds with a gesture or sound, and parents reinforce the response by answering back as if the child responded in exactly the manner the parents intended. These routines provide a scaffold for the child's successful participation in bookreading. (Snow, 1983)

An Educator, Ninio(1980) found three kinds of routines in bookreading. The first routine is called the Name Routine. Parents point to part of a picture, call their children's attention to the picture, and provide the name of the object: "Oh, look at the bird." Then, to whatever response the child gives (pointing, laughing, looking), the parents give positive feedback: "Yes. That's the bird." The second routine is called the Where Routine. Parents ask a where question: "Where is the bird?" Either the child points to the bird and the parent provides positive feedback or the child points to the wrong object and the parent provides information about the name of the object the child pointed to. The third routine is called the What Routine. Here parents ask, " What's this?" while pointing at the tail of the kitten. The What Routine also expands into the Who Routine: "Who is this?" (Chapman, 1986). The object of this routine is for the child to provide the names of specific characters.

When children begin listening to parts of texts read aloud, parents use other routines that are still intended to elicit responses from their children. One routine parents use is the Pause-for-Repeat Routine (Altwerger, et al., 1985; Chapman, 1986). In this routine, parents might read a short text segment and then use a rising intonation followed by a pause to invite the child to join in. At first, parents reread the text, but gradually they expect their children to repeat the text fragment. A similar routine is the Fill-in-the-Blank Routing (Chapman, 1986). In this routine, parents read a short, familiar text phrase and pause before saying the final word. They expect the child to supply the word.

These bookreading routines are derived from observations of parents and children as they interact with books. Most parents would be surprised to know that they use them. What parents think is important during bookreading is to help their children respond to and enjoy the bookreading experience, not to engage their child in a routine."


I highly recommend viewing these websites by yourself first and then with your twins. It can be very tiresome as you navigate the sites with two little ones that want to touch the mouse and keyboard.

www.starfall.com
A great site for alphabet letter activities. Good for early letter recognition and early phonics awareness. Also there are monthly calendars you and your child can create as well as activities. Easy and fun.

www.kididdles.com
A list of song lyrics. If you are like me, I forget the words to some songs and hum. This site can help you remember! Look on the right of screen for Lyrics homepage and click on that. Then you can click on list of songs. Songs that have a note by it are the ones that have music.

www.mothergoose.com
A site that includes games, crafts, clip art, recipes, and rhyming activities. There are over 360 Mother Goose Rhymes listed. A link from the site takes you to Monkey Music which helps children to learn how to use the mouse. The home site looks like a store but keeps looking and you will find the free activities.

www.Noggin.com - my sons love this because they watch the shows. Tricky though because some games use the mouse and some use the keyboard.
www.Thomasthetankengine.com
www.Tweenies.com - let's you choose to use a mouse or keyboard