In 1996 California voters were presented with a ballot choice to legalize medical use of marijuana. What was touted at the time were uses for glaucoma (stimulating blood flow to the eyes, I think), and a cure for nausea and increased appetite for cancer patients.

I don’t think many of us who voted for it (including myself) read the proposition. It seemed innocuous enough. If a person wasn’t hungry after chemo they could light up and get the good old “munchies.”

I knew that worked. I started smoking marijuana in 1960s and quit about the time the term “a bud of pot,” or an “O-Z of pot” was used instead of the term, “a lid of pot,” in the late 1980s to early 1990s. It also was about the time pot became so powerful and so rich in THC, it nearly immobilized me instead of giving me a buzz. I never really found it to be harmful to me at the time, or addicting. I just liked the buzz.

Then somewhere in the 80s my wife and I looked at each other and asked, “Geez, how long has it been since we smoked pot?” The answer was three years. The urge to smoke it had just worn off without our being aware of it. We were at a stage of life where we really enjoyed our sobriety.

There were many children of the 60s like us across the U.S. who enjoyed marijuana. We had no idea where it was grown – probably Mexico – with names like Oaxacan Brown and Acapulco Gold. We just used it to relax. What harm could there be in approving it for medical use, if it helped poor chemo patients and folks going blind? None.

What harm could there be for these patients growing three to six plants in their backyard, since they didn’t sell pot in drug stores? Probably none.

How about access to marijuana? Heck, no problem there – during my 20 years of smoking marijuana, I think I’d only had trouble finding it once during a month long stint of -40 degree weather in Minnesota in the 70s. Access to pot was definitely not a problem, and I lived on a meager pension.

I wish I had that 1996 medical marijuana vote back. I had no idea the law would be hijacked by so-called entrepreneurs.

Little did we know that the poor California legislators felt “left out” of the loop and had to weigh in.

However, until the California 420 law, things seemed to be running fairly smoothly. A few “patients” grew their own pot. A few new medical conditions were being added to the list.

Then with SB 420 the proverbial STUFF hit the fan. Suddenly people found that according to the state, they could legally grow up to 99 plants per patient. The GREEN RUSH was on.

Friends of mine who had money and had never grown pot or smoked it for 20 years were suddenly talking about forming collectives and making tons of money. Some followed through. After the fact, they started studying the medical benefits of marijuana. Soon there were, supposedly, over 400 things that pot could cure or help.

The Green Rush, like the Gold Rush, brought danger and lawlessness. With the Gold Rush it was the promise of quick riches and a moneyed future that put stars in the prospector’s eyes. While the West boomed in population, there was chaos and lawlessness. In the end, the only ones who made money were the pimps, Levi Strauss and the people selling picks and shovels. But throats were cut, people lost all they owned, men were shanghaied and claims were jumped. Only time healed these wounds.

In the Gold Rush in Alaska, livestock was kicked off the ship far from the dock and men waited on shore to steal the cattle and horses of the people on board because theirs had been stolen when they arrived. So it goes with the Green Rush as bodies are found in pot fields, alongside roads, home invasion and murders increased, neighbors of pot growers are intimidated into submission, wildlife is poisoned, streams dried up, rivers run at 1/10th capacity and people are afraid to venture out.

Lawlessness

And so it goes with the Green Rush. Suddenly growing pot for medicinal reasons only, and up to 99 plants, was interpreted as, “Pot is legal to grow in California – move there and get rich!”

The lazy legislators had failed to do their long range planning or thought about the future. They left out the cost of damage to the environment. They left out from seed to flower to dispensary tracking to legitimize “medicinal purposes,” and they left out the hard work it would take to regulate it like alcohol or medicine. They just threw a BS law at the public and let us roll in its wake.

The only thing they did right was to not hinder the county’s right to rule on dispensaries and controlling marijuana grows. But while they piled on new financial burdens to local law enforcement and code enforcement, they never offered us any money to offset these costs.

Soon, as you drove across the Rodman cutoff, trees began to disappear and ugly board fences and motor homes began to dot the scenic hillsides. It was only a visual fraction of what was happening. Heavy equipment started driving down my fire road – tearing it up – that I just invested $1300 in improving. No grower stopped and offered to offset my costs.

They had total disregard for county code. A once scenic area where kids road motocross bike and folks enjoyed horseback riding and hiking became still. There were now strangers with guns and guard dogs that naturalists were afraid to go near. People who stopped on the hill to take in the night skies had spotlights shined in their eyes and were questioned why they were on public roads.

Horses and goats were attacked and killed in Middletown, children threatened by guard dogs and people. Most often at arrests, at each illegal grow, loaded firearms were confiscated along with oxycontin, meth and other harder drugs were seized.

The Lake County Board of Supervisors put together a “more than fair” ordinance for growing and by today’s standards was very lenient. However, because it didn’t allow the growers who were hijacking the medical marijuana issue to grow up to 300 pounds and 100 plants in their backyard, they organized and with a measly couple thousand signatures and were able to derail it. They wanted no ordinance. Without an ordinance they figured they could grow as much as they wanted.

However, they were outsmarted by the BOS, which came out with an emergency ordinance, which put fair rules in place. However, this was not without consequence, as pot people were brought in from outside the country from the Bay Area, Humboldt County, Santa Rosa and Sacramento for a show of pseudo solidarity and disrupted our political process.

Then the growers threw together their own proposal, Measure D. It was so destructive to our environment and our neighborhoods it was defeated by a 66 percent to 34 percent margin.

Now Lake County citizens have seen the potential destruction of our county and the destruction done to our environment firsthand by these growers that have hijacked the medical marijuana laws. Lake County citizens have made their displeasure with these criminals known to the BOS, and a more stringent ordinance was passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisor to protect that 66 percent of our citizens who voted down growers' plans.

Now that ordinance, Measure N – a common sense measure – is on the ballot. Measure N is the last bastion between common sense growing and full-scale takeover by growers.

If Measure N fails to pass, anyone can grow 99 plants and the citizens are helpless against it. The growers, after being defeated once, now have another measure in the works for November. If Measure N fails, why would the growers want a measure? Lake County will have the most wide-open marijuana growing laws in California!

If Measure N passes, then the growers will put their opposing measure on the ballot and we will vote that measure down.

All of my environmentalist, eco-friendly Democrat friends and my conservative Republican friends are united on this. It is fully bipartisan.

Yes on Measure N is endorsed by members of the Lake County Board of Supervisors, Lake County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, Lake County Chamber of Commerce, Kelseyville Business Association and Marv Butler, candidate for District 3 supervisor.

I believe the citizens who voted down the growers' measure before will turn out at the polls and vote yes on Measure N in June!

Greg Cornish lives in Nice, Calif.

The theme this year for the Lake County Library Summer Reading Program is “Paws to Read.”

The Summer Reading Program encourages children and teens to read over their summer break from school.

Starting May 31 children can come to the library to register for the Summer Reading Program and receive a library game card.

Once they receive a game card participants receive credit for each library book they’ve read when they return them to the library.

All participants will receive a prize but if you sign up as an Independent Reader and read 25 books or 1,000 pages The Friends of the Lake County Library donates a book to the library with a special bookplate inside the book commemorating the achievement.

There are also a variety of programs for children and teens at the library during the summer that promotes reading.

The Summer Reading Program is one activity that can help prevent learning loss over the summer.

Students who don’t participate in educational activities over the summer generally lose some of what they have learned the previous year when they go back to school.

This means they start the school year at a disadvantage and teachers have to spend the beginning part of each school year on remedial education.

This loss builds up over time and students who consistently don’t engage in academic activity over summer can end up falling far behind their classmates.

Reading just five books over the summer can help prevent the loss of reading skills. The Summer Reading program is a great way to promote reading over the summer because children are encouraged to find and read materials that interest them.

Students read more when they can choose their own materials from a wide selection and are able to share their choices with their peers.

There have been many studies that show that students who read often achieve higher academic success than students who read rarely.

Also, students who read just for fun are more likely to do better in school. A study performed by Dominican University in 2010 found that students who were part of a library summer reading program had better reading skills at the end of the third grade than students who didn’t participate.

Reading helps develop more than just literacy and a child’s vocabulary. Reading can enhance critical thinking, empathy and the ability to see things from a different perspective.

Literary characters can also serve as important role models for children often teaching them courage, determination, and loyalty.

Reading is such an important activity for children and is truly one of the major keys to maturing into a happy, capable adult.

For more information about the Lake County Library Summer Reading Program contact the main branch of the Lake County Library in Lakeport at 707-263-8817 or visit the Lake County Library Web site at www.library.lakecountyca.gov .

Christopher Veach is the county librarian for Lake County, Calif.

I am opposed to and alarmed by the proposed legislation SB 837, which I believe is set for vote in the Senate on May 2.

I am more than concerned that the foundations of preschool and the entire child care profession are being challenged in this bill and that we are abandoning over 150 years of solid research and losing valuable expertise because of SB 837's wording.

My main concern is that this will be harmful to 4-year-olds.

SB 837 will take the current state funded preschool for 4-year-olds and require that these children be moved from pre-school and put into Transitional Kindergartens (TK). The elementary schools will get new funding, which has been traditionally funneled to preschools. Preschools are horrified because they realize they are losing state funding for all 4-year-olds and many child care facilities will have to close. Jobs will be lost.

Moreover, I have a fear that 4-year old boys will be put on anti ADD/ADHD drugs, such as Ritalin or Strattera, to calm down their natural 4-year-old energy, because the environment and curriculum will be inappropriate. Preschool and Kindergarten are radically different both in environment and curriculum.

The ratios in a preschool are much smaller. Some preschools are as low as 1 teacher to 5 children ratio, Title 5 requires no more than 1 to 8. In a kindergarten, the ratio changes to 1 credentialed teacher and 1 aide to 20 four and five-year olds. This is a safety issue. In preschools, we have licensing requirements that address safety. However, kindergartens are NOT required to follow these regulations.

In addition, this bill will take away parental choice. Many parents choose to put their preschoolers in Family Child Care Home Environments where the ratios are often small and in a more relaxed homelike setting. These licensed facilities give parents child care choices that SB 837 will remove.

Another senseless part of this is that I will be demoted to the position of aide, even with my doctorate, four degrees in child development, 31 years of experience in the field and 12 years of teaching college Early Childhood Education (ECE) courses. “Dr. Aide” doesn't sit right with me.

The way this bill is written, teacher credentials trump everything and there is no language about equivalency. Child Development experts and Early Childhood Educators complete their student teaching hours in preschools and not elementary schools. This bill sees the ECE student teaching as an invalid student practicum experience.

Lastly, to add insult to injury, our own ECE research is being twisted and used against us to justify taking jobs away from dedicated and skilled preschool teachers and child care providers. The research being referred to in the bill (see below for more details) to support TK is well known and documented research in preschool classrooms. There is no longitudinal research on TK because this is a new concept. Preschool research dates back to the early 1960's with Head Start and the Perry Preschool Project.
 
The bill misstates the longitudinal research because it is not TK research! This is preschool research and translating it to TK is completely misleading.

There are other key issues:

Qualifications
 
1. The qualifications for Transitional Kindergarten in SB 837 are completely inappropriate and will even exclude most ECE College Professors. Even a beginning K-6 teacher with a teaching credential will trump a professor with a doctorate. As the bill is written, a credentialed teacher with zero ECE units is designated as more capable and on a higher status and pay grade than a teacher with an AA, BA, MA, or Ed.D/Ph.D in Early Childhood Education/Child Development.  There needs to be a clear and easy path for equivalency to address these qualified individuals. In addition, the teachers have up to five years to get 24 ECE units. This puts 4-year-olds at risk in the TK classroom, for at least the next five years.
 
2. Associate teachers, who have a minimum of 12 ECE units will have the same job classification as current Teacher Aides/Assistants in existing elementary school classrooms, positions which require no course work in ECE or Child Development.
 
3. Child Development Teachers with AS degrees, who at Yuba College have a minimum of 30 ECE units, at least 16 units of General Ed, and 108 hours of supervised student teaching experience, will have the same job classification as a current Teacher Aide/Assistant in existing elementary school classrooms. Again, these Aide positions require no course work in ECE.
 
Curriculum and environment
 
1. The Preschool Foundations and Frameworks, which are based on current brain research, were created by the leading experts in the ECE field. The bill states that these foundations will continue only until standards are adopted for TK and there is no indication that the foundations will be used as a template for these standards. This seems like redundant work when we already have something that works so well. 

2. The foundations are built on a play-based curriculum, which is the most appropriate and foundational experiential modality for young children. This bill does not address this and does not even mention the word “play” as the vehicle to deliver the educational experience to 4-year-olds. The committee of National experts that put the Foundations and Frameworks together worked diligently to produce sound and appropriate research. The Foundations are tailored specifically for 48-60 month aged children (4-5 years).  Why can’t these be the set standards?  I am concerned that the newly adopted standards that are mentioned will not reflect developmentally appropriate practice (DAP).  Why reinvent something that clearly already works very well?
 
3. The current legislation designated a 3-hour TK program. How are educational standards maintained beyond the 3-hours designated for the TK programs? Are 4-year-olds going to be in the presence of much older children in after school programs with broad age ranges and increased ratios of up to 90 children in the gymnasium? This is not age appropriate for 4-year-olds socially or emotionally, nor is it safe. This bill hasn’t been well thought out.

Assessments
 
1. The Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) is currently being used for State funded programs as an assessment tool and is often used in addition to the portfolio method of observation and assessment. Will this be continued and how will kindergarten teachers manage this robust type of assessment with higher teacher-child ratios? Currently, kindergarten teachers are not trained on DRDPs. Will they be adequately trained?
 
2. In ECE, we recognize the importance of classroom environment with open selves and many center choices for young children who are still exploring. The Early Childhood Environmental Ratings Scale (3rd ed.) (ECERS-3) is our universal standard assessment tool. The bill doesn’t mentioned using the ECERS-R for creating classroom environments. Traditional kindergarten classrooms are inappropriate for preschoolers.  This bill does not address the classroom environment or acknowledge that kindergarten classrooms will need to be modified to deliver developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) for 4-year-olds.
 
3. The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) instrument has been adopted as a standard for evaluating teacher-child interactions and has strong research-based evidence to support its efficacy. Will this be abandoned? There is no mention of how teacher-child interactions will be evaluated if this bill is passed. In contrast, many current kindergartens are not approaching education from a "child development" paradigm. Inappropriate teaching materials, activities, and skills are expected of children when they are not developmentally ready to accomplish them.  Worksheets, workbooks, testing, individual desks, and ability-groupings are instituted earlier and earlier, and can lead to our 4-year-olds failing and becoming full of anxiety and depression and "turned off” to school.
 
Misleading
 
The term “TK or Transitional Kindergarten” is confusing and implies that 4-year-olds will be in kindergarten.  Will it look like kindergarten?  A classroom specifically designed for four-year old children should not look like a kindergarten classroom.
 
In addition, the misuse of the reference to research in the bill, which uses ECE research and misstates it as TK research, is wrong and misleading. This is only being done to justify taking jobs away from dedicated and skilled pre-school teachers and child care providers.

The bill misstates the reference to research and reads:
 
line 20 (9) Numerous longitudinal studies have shown that high-quality
line 21 transitional kindergarten programs decrease grade retention and
line 22 special education placements and increase high school graduation
line 23 rates, college enrollment rates, and earnings in adulthood.
line 24 High-quality transitional kindergarten programs also decrease
line 25 taxpayer costs on criminal justice and welfare.

This is not TK research! This is preschool research and translating it to TK is completely misleading.

Private local providers

The bill needs to authorize school districts to use private local providers for transitional kindergarten.  The wording should be strengthened to place private local providers as the first option for school districts.  In other words, school districts would only develop their own programs if there were insufficient private local providers to provide transitional kindergarten.

Summary

Early childhood education and kindergarten are entirely different environments. ECE specialists and educators provide a safe, stimulating, and developmentally appropriate environment.

We encourage a hands-on approach, which is based on sound theory and over one hundred years of research and experience in our profession.  Our goal is to create a life-long love for learning in all children.

We are extremely concerned that inappropriate TK programs could destroy everything that our profession has worked so hard to create and decimate an essential part of every 4-year-old's learning foundation.

Dr. Laurie Daly, Ed.D, is professor of Early Childhood Education at the Yuba College Clear Lake Campus in Clearlake, Calif.

The recent Hidden Valley Lake Community meeting on April 27 to discuss rebuilding the Hartmann Golf/Restaurant complex made one thing perfectly clear to everyone in attendance: the five members of the golf clique that dominates the seven-member HVL Board of Directors have little intention of listening to community feedback about the high price tag of their proposed plan.

They made it quite clear also that they have little intention of allowing members of our community to vote on this project, a right that is mandated by the Davis-Stirling component of the CA Civil Code governing Homeowner Associations, as well as by our own CC&Rs.

For Madeleine and me, just arriving here in Hidden Valley Lake about 18 months ago, it seems like we have walked into a wrongdoing in progress.

We can either turn away and get on with our busy lives, and allow the misconduct to continue because it’s trouble to get involved with these kinds of things. Or we can try to act to stop it, and help bring fairness and caring to the situation, if that’s possible, which thankfully a number of concerned residents are already doing.

In fact, it’s been inspiring to witness the creativity and perseverance of the many people here who are working for a more equitable allocation of funds.

Understandably, the perpetrators don’t like any meddling with their plans. In this case, it seems a tiny elite of Hidden Valley Lake, about 1 percent of the residents, have succeeded in seizing control of the board and aggressively pushing through an agenda that benefits their interests to the detriment of the vast majority of the residents.

While it’s well understood that only about 10 percent of the HVL residents use the golf course, and about 5 percent are members of it, what seems especially interesting is that it seems to be just a small minority of this 5 percent, the particularly hard-core golfers, who are pushing hard for the expensive ($5 million to $7 million) version of the Hartmann complex. This 1 percent apparently learned a few decades ago the importance of getting what it wants by dominating the Board of Directors.

In contrast, most of the golfers are aware that their pastime is a heavy load for the other 90 percent of HVL residents to carry, year after year, averaging around $700,000 annually.

Demanding an unnecessarily expensive new golf clubhouse/restaurant complex on top of the huge annual subsidies for golf and burgers is unseemly to most of the golfers, but to the 1 percent, it seems there is a sense of entitlement.

“What’s good for the golfers is good for the community” seems to be the mentality, and it reflects the basic attitude of entitled elites in governing bodies at every level of governance in societies around the world, unfortunately.

The argument is that even if we never set foot on the golf course or in the clubhouse, pro shop, bar or restaurant, that these automatically raise our property values, and make our community more valuable.

This is an enormously dubious claim. It flies in the face of our experience moving here, for example, where we saw clearly that home prices in HVL are lower because many potential buyers don’t want to be burdened with ever-rising annual assessments of close to $2,000. And as these assessments go up, property values here tend to go down.

The board’s golf clique, with it’s anti-democratic and relentless pressure to spend millions of our dollars on this Hartman project is not only harming the other amenities and services, which are cut in order to pay for this boondoggle, but also attacking our basic financial stability and viability.

There is no assurance that the larger economic picture is improving, and a lot of evidence that it isn’t and won’t. Golf could easily become less popular here in the coming years, given that there are many other courses around and if people have less disposable income, they will golf less. So it is risky to commit ourselves to an overly expensive project in these uncertain times.

Additionally, think of what we could be doing with the millions of our dollars that are going into the golf course, restaurant and now the Hartmann complex! Wouldn’t it be terrific to have leadership that would encourage the membership to come up with ideas that would benefit the community as a whole?

Funds that are disproportionately directed to chemicals and petroleum to run a golf course that is off-limits to the very residents who are paying for its upkeep could go instead to help beautify and maintain our wonderful lake.

Golf courses are plentiful, but a spring-fed lake like we are blessed to have here in dry Northern California is a rare and precious jewel, and we are not giving it the attention and care it deserves.

And funds that have been cut from security could be restored, and we could have better buildings and programs for our kids and youth, and more activities for adults and seniors, and more hiking/walking trails and community gardens and spaces, and upgrade and beautify our parks, and perhaps set up funds to help residents beautify their properties, and create amenities that serve the broad spectrum of people who live here. Not to mention just saving the money.

This is our community! We are not medieval vassals working in a feudal system to support the lords of the manor in their high-consumption lifestyle.

It’s past time for the residents of Hidden Valley Lake to wake up to the fact that we are being deceived by the chicanery of the golf clique, and to take back control of the governance here.

Let’s make an effort to understand what’s happening, and spread the word to our fellow residents so that we can not just stop the unfair and unhealthy allocation of resources, but move forward to make Hidden Valley Lake a vibrant, creative, forward-looking community that will attract people because of its beauty, dynamism and positive community spirit. That is probably the best way to raise property values as well.

It seems the two most important things are first, to broaden the base of people here who understand what’s going on, and educate and mobilize people so that we’re more numerous and informed. As we build a strong and solid grass-roots movement of caring residents, our success will be assured.

Secondly, we need to set a spending cap on the Hartman project. The board has failed to do this properly, and so we as a community are called to decide how much we’re willing to spend to rebuild/renovate the structure. I propose a spending cap of around $2.5 million to $3 million.

I’m deeply grateful to the creative and hard-working folks at HVL United and others who have helped raise consciousness about this. And it’s also important to remember that we’re not criticizing individuals, but rather pointing out behaviors that aren’t helpful and fair, and that our goal is to create a positive alternative. It’s time to shed more light, and inform more people here. Any ideas about how best to do this would be helpful!

Dr. Will Tuttle lives in Hidden Valley Lake, Calif.

I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like getting a cough, runny nose, ear ache, or plugged up sinuses. As a frequent babysitter for two cute grandkids, I get a lot more of these infections than I used to.

And as a primary care doctor for over 30 years, I have seen a lot of patients bothered by these symptoms. It is always a challenge to help people feel better.

Doctors and other primary care clinicians can prescribe medicines which help the symptoms. These include cough syrups, nasal sprays, and sometimes antihistamines or decongestants.

But one type of medicine which we are more cautious about prescribing is antibiotics. In fact, you may have already experienced going to the doctor’s office with an infection and being dismayed to be told you do not need antibiotics.

Why are doctors becoming more reserved in using antibiotics for colds, coughs, sinus infections, and ear infections?

The answer has nothing to do with saving money or cutting costs. Antibiotics are actually pretty cheap, most of the time.

There are two main reasons. One is that antibiotics are often not needed. The other is that antibiotics can actually cause you problems.

In this article I want to talk about the first reason in a little more detail. In part two, I will talk about the possible problems from using antibiotics.

Most upper respiratory infections, including sinus infections, ear infections, throat infections, and bronchitis, are caused by viruses. Even if you have green or yellow mucus, or even if you have a fever or feel very tired, the odds are that your infection is from a virus.

Antibiotics do not work against viruses, so they will not be any use. The body’s immune system can almost always fight off viruses by itself. It may take a few days or even a few weeks. But eventually your body will fight off the virus.

The best treatment is home remedies, including rest, fluids, and acetaminophen or ibuprofen for aches and pains or fevers.

If your symptoms are really bothersome, there are prescription strength medicines available to help you feel better.

But what if your respiratory infection is from a bacteria, not a virus? The normal immune system can fight off many bacterial infections also, without needing the help of antibiotics. After all, antibiotics only came into use about 80 years ago.

Prior to that time, for thousands of years, the human race survived even though infections of all kinds were pretty common.

Many people came down with bacterial infections of various kinds and were able to fight them off without antibiotics.

Over many generations, the human immune system grew stronger because it had to learn to ward off both bacterial and viral infections.

There are certainly times when antibiotics are needed to fight bacterial infections.

There are many kinds of bacterial infections which can only be cured by antibiotics. A few examples include pneumonia, blood stream infections, meningitis, bone infections, and many others.

But for common respiratory infections, such as sinus infections and ear infections, even if they are due to a bacteria, the body’s immune system can often fight them off all by itself.

In the next article, I will talk about why antibiotics can sometimes hurt you, and a little bit more about how antibiotics can best be used.

Dr. Richard Fleming is regional medical director of Partnership HealthPlan of California.

Beginning in the month of March all branches of the Lake County Library will have special play tables with manipulative toys and games for young children and their families.

We often think of play as the opposite of work, but for young children that couldn't be further from the truth.

For children, play is how they learn about the world.

A baby's playful babbling teaches them how to make all the sounds they'll later need to say their first word.

A toddler banging on pots and pans learns that different pots make different noises.

When playing together a child might learn that some children are bossy while others are shy.

When a child is engaged in self-directed, imaginative play they are learning about the world around them and developing their emotional self.

Recent studies show that a child's emotional development begins early in life and is very closely tied to their cognitive, language and social skills.

This means that early emotional development lays the foundation for future academic achievement, mental health, and the ability to be a successful member of society.

It's important to lay down the foundation of emotional development so children have the skills necessary to learn and thrive later in life.

These skills are often referred to as "executive function" and are skills such as focus, self-control, communication, making connections and being able to take on new perspectives.

These skills are the "how" of learning, which enable children to be prepared for the "what" of learning such as reading, math, and science.

A simple activity like playing with blocks teaches a young child so much.

A young child who picks up a block and feels the angles and curves of the different shapes is learning the fundamentals of shape and proportion.

When they pick out a blue block from the yellow ones they are learning to compare and differentiate by seeing patterns.

When they build a tower only to have it topple over they are subtly learning principles of physics and support.

Best of all is if all this learning is self-directed. When children have control over the direction of their own learning they are setting up the building blocks to be inquisitive, engaged life-long learners.

Let your local library be that place where your child can experiment and explore in order to learn about the world around them.

Besides our play tables, and of course our large selection of books for children, we also have weekly story times at two of our branches.

At story time children are encouraged to imagine, play and develop while listening to stories, singing songs, and creating crafts.

Lakeport Library has story time every Friday at 10:15 a.m. and Redbud Library in Clearlake has story time every Thursday at 11 a.m.

Middletown Library will have a monthly story time starting in April.

Check our Web site at www.library.lakecountyca.gov for more information.

Christopher Veach is the county librarian for Lake County, Calif.