Storytime

Storytime at the library is aimed at 3-5 year olds. As often happens we do get younger children attending, and sometimes we may get an older sibling or two. But this week I had three children much older than my usual pre-schoolers. One girl about 7 with a younger sister and two boys, about 8 and 9. For a second this threw me. I aim my program at the children that attend- and a lot of this group are in the younger age group. Two and three year olds. Can I tell you how much they all enjoyed the stories. We read to small children all the time. Building a great rapport with the child, promoting a love of books and reading. Yet so many people stop reading when the children are school age. There is the assumption that now they are learning to read, they don't need to be read to. These children, especially the two older boys, LOVED being read to. In fact both of them, and their young four year old friend, came to sit by my side. Our theme was elephants and the stand out b...

We all tell stories, some of us even make a living out of it. At the moment I've been doing a few extra Storytimes and we are now endeavouring to not only make them fun, interesting and educational (who knew 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, once I caught a fish alive was about counting?) but dynamic and interactive as well. This often means bringing in puppets, props or toys and using these to help tell a story. A few weeks ago I told the story of The Three Little Pigs. I used some puppets and a white board. For each pig we drew their house. First a straw house, then the log house, then the brick house. The children had to help the Big Bad Wolf huff and puff the houses down. The kids loved it. When it was time for the brick house there was so much huffing and puffing that I hate to think how much spittle I was covered in. Stories, of course, are everywhere and we hear them everyday. It doesn't take much to make them come more alive for children. Little Miss and I made a unicorn s...