GetNetWise is currently coordinating "Families Online Week," a public awareness campaign to encourage parents and their children to go online together during the holiday season and to find safe enriching activities appropriate for children of various ages. Families Online Week will take place the week of December 26th through January 3rd. Activities will use the theme of New Year resolutions to highlight the message of encouraging parents and kids to go online together. Parents/caregivers can guide their children on the Internet and use the occasion to make "New Year Online Resolutions." A set of New Year resolutions that pertain to online safety for parents and kids are available at http://www.getnetwise.org/resolution.
Fore more information about participating in the Families Online Week initiative, please contact Jim Browne at (202) 638-4370; e-mail:jbrowne@getnetwise.org <mailto:jbrowne@getnetwise.org>.
Reprinted in Library Administrator’s Digest, December 2000 from the "Cross Reference", Fairfax County, VA Public Library, October 2000 issue.
FATHERS AND SONS
A year ago last August, a mother-daughter book discussion group was organized at Kings Park, Virginia. It is a small but enthusiastic group of mother and daughters, readers whose tastes run towards fantasy and historical fiction. How would a father-son group fare, we wondered? Sadly lacking in males at KP, we were delighted when Oakton High School English teacher Troy Ketch volunteered to facilitate the all-male group. Troy was eager to begin the group with a discussion of Harry Potter. However, last fall all three HP titles had record-breaking holds. For several months we tried vainly to interest young males and their dads in an organizational meeting of the CAGs (Calling All Guys) group to determine what titles they would like to read. This plan had worked fine with the mother-daughter group. Alas, we had not even a vague show of interest from the male counterparts. Then the list of holds on an HP book was clearly shortened, we sent out flyers advertising that the group would be reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. The response was immediate and enthusiastic. Boys and their dads excitedly signed up for the discussion. Even girls attempted to join the Harry Potter reading group. Troy reports that the men are as excited as the boys about the Rowling series and the opportunity to share their reading with their sons. Several fathers have remarked that this low-key forum has brought out a shy or introverted reader. It is considered not only okay but really cool to be involved with the adventures both magical and adolescent of Harry and his friends.