Dolly Parton's Imagination Library

Kyla reading books!



Through Alaska's Kids, the moms group that I am part of, I heard about this great program where your child can receive a book each month until they turn five for free. I signed Kyla up and we just recently received her first book, The Little Engine that Could. Based on when I signed Kyla up, she will receive 43 books for free through this program. It is a Foundation created and supported by Dolly Parton to keep children interested in reading.

Through my education background and work in Early Childhood I think reading is extremely important for our children and have worked in several programs to promote reading in early childhood and help get children up to grade level in literacy. I would like to recommend each of my friends and family with young children to check out the website and information below to see if this program is offered in your area so that your child can receive these books too! Kyla has a TON of books and we spend time reading them everyday, but it will be fun for her to continue to increase her collection of books through this program.

From Dolly Partons Imagination Library Website: ImaginationLibrary.com

In 1996, Dolly Parton launched an exciting new effort to benefit the children of her home county in east Tennessee. Dolly wanted to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families. She wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create. Moreover, she could insure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s income.

So she decided to mail a brand new, age appropriate book each month to every child under 5 in Sevier County. With the arrival of every child’s first book, the classic The Little Engine That Could ™, every child could now experience the joy of finding their very own book in their mail box. These moments continue each month until the child turns 5—and in their very last month in the program they receive Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come.

Needless to say the experience has been a smashing success. So much so that many other communities clamored to provide the Imagination Library to their children. Dolly thought long and hard about it and decided her Foundation should develop a way for other communities to participate. The Foundation asked a blue ribbon panel of experts to select just the right books and secured Penguin Group USA to be the exclusive publisher for the Imagination Library. Moreover a database was built to keep track of the information.

Consequently, in March of 2000 she stood at the podium of The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and revealed the plan for other communities to provide the Imagination Library to their children. And as only Dolly can say it, she wanted to “put her money where her mouth is – and with such a big mouth that’s a pretty large sum of money” and provide the books herself to the children of Branson, Missouri and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – communities where her businesses now operate. If other leaders in their communities were willing to do the same, well something big might just happen.

You know what? It did!!

David Dotson, Executive Director of The Dollywood Foundation, Dolly Parton, Lady Jackson, President of the Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation, and Phil Bredesen, Governor, State of Tennessee.

Here’s how it works:

A community must make the program accessible to all preschool children in their area. The community pays for the books and mailing, promotes the program, registers the children, and enters the information into the database.

From there The Dollywood Foundation takes over and manages the system to deliver the books to the home. You can find out more of the operational details on other pages in this website – so what are you waiting for! Hundreds of communities are providing books to hundreds of thousands of children.

The Crystal Gallery of Ice

Kyla looking at the Ice Turtle


Ice Skating in Town Square


Kyla watching the Ice Skaters and wishing she could join them


The Grinch sliding down a chimney


Salmon Sculpture


Kyla with the Dog Sculptures


Dogs


A Volcano Goddess

Today we went to Town Square to look at the Crystal Gallery of Ice. We went as the ice sculpture competition was coming to an end so the sculptures were just getting their final touches. At night they were going to be all lit up for judging, but we figured we better go during the day before it was way too cold.

It was neat to see all of the great sculptures and watch the ice skaters. Kyla was very envious of all the kids out skating and was really wanting to join in on the fun.

Bows, Bows, Bows...

Kyla with her bows


So Funny!


Bows Galore!


Funny Girl


Pretty Girl


Pretty in Pink


Kyla has become obsessed with bows in the past couple of weeks. Before we had to sneak a bow in her hair and as soon as she discovered it was there she would pull it out. now everytime we are in the bathroom she says "bow, Bow, bow" until you give her not just one bow, but her little purse full of bows. She is very picky about which one she wants in her hair at the time and sometimes wants them all in her hair. She thinks it is really fun to keep handing you bows until they are all in her hair and then she rips them out and wants to do it again. I am glad that she finally likes them and will keep one in her hair because she has a lot of cute bows!

Our Little Snow Angel

Our Snow Angel


Brrrr.....


Pretty Smiles!


Big Blue Eyes!


So Cute...


Kyla has been happily playing outside all week even with the freezing cold weather we have been having. She does not care if it is only 10 degrees out, she still insists on going out and enjoys every second of it. She never minds that it is so cold and then when we get inside she says "Brrrr". Kyla is now wanting to sled down steeper hills rather than just the drive way and loves making snow angels and having snow ball fights. I can't wait to get some stickier snow so we can build a snowman too!

Puzzles and Coloring

Having fun with crayons


So Proud of herself


Busy Girl


Working on her Ballerina Bear Puzzle


Kyla loves her Elmo Puzzle Book



Making sure all the pieces are in place



Kyla has enjoyed working hard on puzzles and learning to color lately. She has mastered all of her puzzles and puzzle books and now needs tougher ones. She is very quick at getting the puzzle pieces in place. Kyla also loves to color now. For a long time she had no interest in coloring, but now loves to scribble on her coloring table that plays music. It is nice to have her finally interested in some quiet calm activities, rather than constantly running wild.

Happy New Year!

Sitting Pretty at her new table and chairs!


Pretty girl!


Having fun in the kitchen!


Out for a snowmachine ride with Mommy


Party Shirt!


Cheering for the New Year!!


So excited to party!


Jon went out taking beautiful pictures of Mt. McKinley during sunrise


Jon and Kyla out on the lake snowmobiling


Having so much fun out on a ride


Grandpa's 49th birthday January 1st


Playing blocks with Gineveve at the cabin


Sitting on a horse saddle at a bar waiting for the fireworks


Fireworks!!!


Happy New Year!!!




We celebrated New Years Eve at my parents cabin in Petersville this year. We had a good time snowmobiling and sledding with Kyla, but it was also pretty cold. On New Years Eve we went out to watch the fireworks with Kyla. She really enjoyed watching them while running around and cheering! Luckily the fireworks were at 10:00 so she did not have to wait up until midnight for them. We were suprised how well she did staying up until 11 p.m. It was really pretty watching the fireworks go off over Mt. McKinley.

We had a great 2009 and look forward to an even better 2010!

Happy New Year!!!

Enjoying New Toys!

Kyla loves her new cars and little people parking garage


Playing with her little people carnival set


Kyla absolutely LOVES her new babies


Playing with her entire set of little people




Kyla is enjoying playing with all of her new toys very much! She has so many toys and is happy spending all day playing. She loves to sit at her new table coloring and doing puzzles, she has an entire new little people village that keeps her busy, and lots of musical toys and blocks. She is very very happy with all of the toys!

Yesterday was Jon's Birthday and we left Kyla with my moms while we went to Alyeska Resort for a very fun day. We went to breakfast in the morning and then went skiing for a few hours. It was my first time skiing in a long time so I could not last the whole day. After skiing we met some of Jon's friends for lunch at the Sitzmark. It was a very fun day and we look forward to getting out and go skiing together more often.

Tommorrow we are going to head up to my parents cabin to have some fun snowmobiling, sledding and celebrating the New Year with lots of fireworks.

Merry Christmas!!!

Cousins on my stepdad's side of the family


Stepdad's Parents and Siblings


Visiting with Family


Gift exchange


Cousins


Having a Good time


My parents new Wii and games, everyone bought them Wii stuff for Christmas


Kyla sitting at her new table


Opening lots of Presents


Wanting to play with all her new toys


Kyla's Christmas Ornament from Grandma Mary and Grandad


Kyla with her new CD Player


Baby!!!


So Excited!


Kyla's new pots, pans and apron


Santa brought Kyla a ball, it was the only thing she said she wanted


Kyla's new Crayola coloring table which plays music


Opening Presents


Kyla's new little people castle, she has lots of little people toys now.


Cabbage patch baby with carrier


Our Stockings


Kyla's toys in stocking


Kissing her new baby



We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was so much fun to see the joy that Kyla had in opening her presents and visiting with family. It seemed like Kyla knew exactly what to do on Christmas Day. We woke up and she looked at the Christmas tree and said "on", she wanted the Christmas lights on. We went down stairs and she pulled at her stocking so I took it down and she immediatley took her new toys out of the stocking. In her stocking she had my little ponies, a baby and training pants. She was so excited about the baby, she kept saying "baby" and gave her lots of kisses.

After Breakfast it was time to open presents, lots and lots of presents. The first few that she opened she was very concerned about garbage and had to take each tiny scrap to the garbage bag to throw away. But, after opening a few presents and seeing the good things inside she became less concerned about the garbage and starting tearing into the presents. She wanted to play with each present and try on new clothes before opening the next present. She had lots of energy to open presents until we got to the last two and then she decided she had enough, so I had to open the last two.

For Christmas Kyla got a ton of fun new presents. From her Grandma Mary and Grandad she got a CD player, little people blocks, pajamas, a Christmas Ornament and a couple books. From her Grandma and Grandpa in Alaska she recieved a baby, a cabbage patch kids with a carset and bottle, a crayola coloring table, a little people carnival set, lots of new clothes, foam blocks, bath toys and little cars. From Aunt Shannons Family she got new kitchen pots,pans and utensils and an adorable apron. Aunt Marcies Family got her a new princess sippy cup and clothes. Mommy and Daddy got Kyla a table and chairs, a little people Castle, parking garage and barn, pajamas and a Mickey Mouse Music DVD. Santa brought Kyla two my little ponies, a talking and singing stuffed animal my little pony, a baby and a ball. Kyla loves all of her presents and is having a great time playing with them. We are very greatful for all of the gifts she was given.

After our fun Christmas morning we went to my Grandma and Grandpa's house for lunch with my stepdads side of the family. We had a great time visiting with everyone and had great food. The entire side of the family was there except for my sister and her kids who are in California and are busy packing for their move to Hawaii in four days.

We ended our Christmas Day playing with Kylas new toys for hours and having a great dinner. Once we put Kyla to bed we all stayed up learning how to play my parents new Wii system that they got for Christmas.