In a book titled Reader Come Home by neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf, we are cautioned to not expose children younger than five years to screens. The book is presented with thoughtfully documented science of the brain that shows us how our circuitry is changing with digital reading. Wolf advocates biliteracy, teaching young children “to read physical books where we are reinforcing the brain’s reading circuit through concrete experience, then later to code and use of screens effectively.” All her arguments resonate and reinforce our imagination for the library at Bookworm and the work we do with book joy for parents and children from the very start of life.
So, a serious dilemma presented itself to me when we could not invite children into the library space for our weekly story hour. We do not know what this means to the children, but we know what it means to us. The library would come alive on Saturday mornings as witches, goblins, superheroes would run around on book treasure hunts, matching clues with books, browsing and being read to in joyous encounters for us.
Saturday’s were not happy anymore and so we did a round of talking together and decided that we will attempt a preschool story hour online. I was worried that we would forget what we understand about screen time and the brain. But I reluctantly agreed to attempt this. Somehow the loss of the children and that interaction appeared more important. So with a brave heart and a hopefully steady internet connection, we announced our preschool morning. 
The first session, the first moment was joyous because two of our steady participants were online and M said, “ I missed you ” and K said, “ When is the story going to start ?”. It seemed alright to expose these children to screens. The real world had slowed down and I hoped our brain circuitry was catching up.
However in planning and thinking about the time we choose to spend with preschoolers I have attempted some really simple doable activities that I believe are supporting concrete experience in a way that I did not imagine before. The digital epoch is here and I think it is our responsibility as educators to straddle ways we understand are helpful to override ways that we know are harmful.
Some decisions I made was to find books that allowed a balance of storytelling, picture looking and talking.
My plan does not stretch to longer than 20 minutes of screen time over 1-hour duration. So there is movement, running around, dance, drawing, writing and search and finds built into our class.
Since the children are young, the mere passivity of being focused on a screen and attending to one spot for long periods of time disturbs me. I break up my plan into looking and doing components. The longest looking segment is when we look at pictures in a book together. But I plan in a way that breaks this up after 4 – 6 pages with my appearing again and having a brief conversation/recall or a short movement piece. Since the children are comfortable for most of the time, often my plans are easily aborted because someone will run off to fetch a purple dragon toy that he remembered because of the green dinosaur in the book and someone else may say, ‘ can we continue the story’ or ‘ wait, I will show you my book ‘ and so we bring our concrete worlds to the screen.
We also do search and find activities through our online time together. I have used key objects from the story that could open up our talk on prior knowledge as triggers and so the children go on treasure hunts into their own homes. We have enjoyed How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers through play. I may ask for something that was picked up on a walk or something one may take with for a walk and my screen gets crowded with twigs, a hat, an oversized pair of sunglasses, a water bottle, a stuffed toy, a pebble. We then may look at Footpath Flowers by JonArno Lawson and Sydney Smith and marvel.
I find that if there is nothing to look at beyond my face, which many of the children know well from touch and experience, they need to have stimulation to observe closely, attend to both a big picture and small details and respond and enquire at all times. So I have begun to bring objects to the screen. We had a dress-up day some weeks back where we wore hats and scarves and transformed ourselves into characters as we read Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman. We have brought bangles and flowers to enliven Carmela’s Wishes by Matt de la Pena illustrated by Christian Robinson and we continue to allow the children to lead.
Last Saturday I chose Valentino by Andrea Wolf, illustrated by Alexander Wolf as my book choice. I put together a small library with miniatures and stick puppets to tell the story but I kept it alive in the sense that I was popping up from behind the library, moving my screen to make eye contact with the children and put them in the spotlight and such. My intention was to keep the interactions alive and bi-directional. The children never disappoint me. They were transfixed for a few seconds and then I could see their eyes move, their fingers pointing to objects in the library, their smiles and frowns when they were trying to understand Valentino’s motivations in the library and the quick and spontaneous responses to questions that emerged from the story. It was almost like having them at Bookworm. Almost ….
I have also been struck by how intently the children want to write and draw. After I come to the end of the story, my mental energy is almost drained but it gets renewed by one or the other voice that says, “what are we doing now? Can I make a library? I also have a library. May I show you my library? Or wait, I want to tell you a story – let me get my shiny pens” and other such random but endearing talk bits that keep me connected for the hour. I have been renewed in my understanding that the reading brain is not a passive circuit and as long as there are the material, an actively engaged adult and a willing child – the circuit glows.
The children drew their library this past Saturday and if I needed any more purpose in life this was it. Thank you, M, M, K, K and R you made a reader like me come home!
