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...

Part of my day job is working with children and their parents. From new born babies all the way up to teens and I'm always amazed when someone will ask 'but how do you make books fun?' To me, it's very very simple. You begin when they are babies and make books a part of their life. You give them books before they even know what they are about. You let them feel them, play with them, yes even bite them (it's how babies learn). And you read to them, whenever, wherever. A board book takes only a few minutes to read. But what it offers up to children is 100 times more. It promotes brain development, improves concentration, builds up a child's imagination, teaches them new things, helps with language skills and vocabulary. The list goes on and on.... It's also a great way to strengthen your relationship. But the main thing is to make children realise that books are FUN. Recently we had two of the grandchildren here, and as naturally as co...

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...

I decided, since our Book Club was on my day off, I would begin picking LIttle Miss up after school and take her. It gave the two of us some Grandmother / granddaughter time as well. We would park at the library, skip  walk to the shops and have a cappuccino/ milkshake/ drink of some description...and usually a cake. Then we would wander back to the library and fun would begin. Little Miss really enjoyed them. The games, the craft activity...even choosing a new book or three to take home. This is what libraries are great at...making reading fun. It doesn't matter if your child is an avid reader or not....it's all about making books a part of everyday life and the library a welcoming space. Huge part of my job is reading to little ones. From babies to toddlers and school age. But my main sessions are with babies. Some are a mere three weeks old, some are four months old. Some are crawling, some are toddling. The whole concept is to get them interested in books and make...

We all read to our children...I'll take a step back and say we SHOULD all read to our children. To the majority of us it's natural to have a baby/small child in our arms and a book in the other. And we read to them. It's a huge part of my job. I read to babies...I read to toddlers....I read to preschoolers...I read to school-age children. In fact I'll read to anyone and everyone. There are several library users who have limited sight and like help choosing their audio books. I enjoy reading the blurb out loud....most times putting on voices as I go along. (who doesn't?) And by now we all know how good .... important .....VITAL it is to read to children. Reading to babies and toddlers comes naturally to us...but we tend to get to an age when we stop reading to our children. Usually this is when they are able to read by themselves. When they can enjoy a book alone. But why do we stop reading out loud to them? At work we read to children all the time...

It was Father's Day recently and along with the 'hello how are you phone call' and chat to my dad, and our children coming up to spend the day with their father...it always brings to mind what are my strongest childhood memories of my dad. Fishing...digging for worms and teaching us how to bait a hook because he wasn't going to do all of our lines! Gardening...both my parents were keen gardeners and my sister and I have both got the bug. And then there was reading. We had this huge book of Fairy Tales..not your pretty and dainty tales, these were the original Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson tales full of witches and dark tormented forests and slicing feet to fit into slippers. Still remember the Tinderbox and the dog with eyes as big as saucers.... Dad would read to us. We loved to snuggle up, all of us either on a bed in the girls room or a bed in the boys room...listening to these tales. Then the scurry back to bed (probably before the witch got us)....but ...