Author: Emily Zorea, Youth Services Librarian at Brewer Public Library
The
benefits of play time for children has been long researched, observed, and
promoted by educators, doctors, teachers, and librarians. Play
is even one of the five “magic” words in early childhood literacy (Write, Talk,
Read, Sing, and Play) that we promote in our storytimes and early literacy
education. However, it can be one of the more difficult ones to bring out in
the library in our regular storytime (and similar program) sessions. So, how we
do add more play time to our library programming? I believe that children’s programs
work best when they work as family programs that bring families together. To that end,
how can Play Time not only promote early literacy, healthy social skills, but
also build relationships between child parents and caregivers at the same time?
I
have written down a new goal this year to have more time built into our library’s
programming for play. As the cold Wisconsin winter hit
January, I noticed that my storytime kids were more restless than usual in storytime sessions. No wonder. I would be too if I was inside all the time due
to cold, snow, and ice! It got me to thinking about adding an additional program
to our calendar. This past week, we started offering a “Baby/Toddler Play Time”
at the library. We host it on Tuesday mornings beginning at 10:00 a.m. and it
is open to children ages 0-36 months, with activities planned in a separate
space for older siblings (For this I have a craft project out and our library’s
Legos on the tables in the children’s library so the older kids are close, but
in their own separate space.) Our first week we had planned to offer
“Baby/Toddler Play Time” the weather was so bad we had to close the library
and the highway commission advised everyone in my part of the state to stay
inside (see a cause in that restlessness I was talking about?). So, this past
Tuesday was our first week we held the program. We had two moms come, not bad
for a first time program. I have found it usually takes 3-6 months after we add
something new at the library for it to come to our community’s mind as a new
resource. For the parents and kids who came, it was a welcome break and a
chance for their little ones to gain social skills and for the moms to connect
and swap kid stories. With the parent’s permission, it also gave me an
opportunity to take adorable pictures of their little ones to use in our
program promotion on Facebook, flyers, and in the local newspaper.
To
prep for the program, I filled our Storytime room with toys and brought out a
ball pit and a crawl tunnel that I ordered from Amazon through grant funds. I
wanted the kids to have toys that they probably did not have at home to make
the experience more magical, and more fun for the parents. I did ask that the
kids to take off their shoes at the door before playing.
This
past Friday I was not able to give a regular storytime because I had to leave
for a meeting of the Youth Service Section of the Wisconsin Library
Association. So, although my original plan was to just bring these toys out for
Baby/Toddler Play Time, I left them out for Storytime as well. The kids loved
it. I gave them about 15 minutes of free play, and then I bought out the
parachute. We played “Popcorn Kernels” (Credit: Jbrary) with it for about 10 more
minutes, and then the kids wanted to go back to their imagination games. It was
a perfect break for me to not have to plan storytime for a week, and I think it
was a welcome break for the kids to have a large room to run and play in.
My
goal is add more “constructive play” type objects for the babies/toddlers to
play with in future sessions so that the children can construct
large objects out of smaller ones, or practice their fine and gross motor
skills while pulling scarves out of an empty tissue box, for example. This is a
fun goal, and I am looking forward to learning from my colleagues as I add new
play games and toys for this young age group.
Has
your library offered a Baby/Toddler Play Time? What are your tips and tricks
for making it successful?
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