Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The Return of Story Time


For many months now, Dashiell and I have had to skip story time at the library. First their was a scheduling problem due to D's nap times, then our yoga class interfered with it. Now, finally, we've returned to the library for story time! Yay! However, we've had to switch to the toddler hour instead of the baby hour, and I have to say the first week was a tough transition! Baby story time was calm and organized. Our first week back (2 weeks ago), it was anything but calm and organized. It was total chaos! There were at least 30 kids, plus just as many parents, and the woman running the story time was a sub and was not used to this size of crowd. Plus she felt the need to speak in that high-pitched-phony-kids voice the whole time, and didn't follow the format any of the kids were used to. So, yeah, kids were running amok, parents were chatting with each other instead of participating, and mayhem ensued. So last week, we skipped it. Found something else to do that Weds. morning instead. This week we decided to brave it again, and I'm so glad we did! The regular story time librarian was there (Trish, who Dashiell still remembered from his days at baby story time, at least 6 months ago), the format was the same as for the baby story time, and Trish calmly explained the "rules" prior to beginning--the kids will run around, don't worry if they don't want to sit still, but the parents should pay attention and participate. It was just so much better! Yes, Dashiell ran right up front and gazed lovingly at Trish for the first few rhymes, and he visited with other kids and parents, but he knew where I was and would come back to me often. Since the parents were paying attention, occasionally the kids would pay attention too! Amazing concept.

So yes, we will be back to story time as often as we can go. Thank heavens we found it again!

On a side note, I had planned on posting many more pictures than just this one of Dashiell playing with the globe at the library, but alas the pictures in my camera are stuck there until we find the computer cord for it or buy a card reader. I think someone just learned the fun of hiding things.

1 comment:

Lori/RachelsMommy said...

So glad you got back to it and are enjoying story time! I am still hoping to get us regularly going to one. Rachel attends two classes at Gymboree and that and other things we do keep us on the go. I think she would really enjoy story time at a library or bookstore, though.I had to smile when you described how Dash acts when you are there. Rachel is the exact same way...loves her teachers and even sits on one's knee when we do the microphone in music class:)...she adores her. She also interacts with othert parents and a little with the kids, but she has to have Mama in her sight at all times:)...so cute...looking forward to more pictures!...Lori & Rachel