And now for something completely different

With apologies to Monty Python - yesterday I did something completely different which was a lapsit storytime. There were 6 moms there and about a dozen children all under two. I hope the mom's and kids had half as much fun as I did! Three weeks ago, I met with the children's librarian at the Miramar Marine Corps Base Library and volunteered to do this...and immediately began wondering what I done! OK, I know kids and I know books and I have done a few storytimes in my time....for older kids - "but what will I do with the baby-o?" (Quoting the title from one of the resources I used to prepare for this event.)

Well, I did what I have been trained to do - I went to the library and checked out a big stack of resources and possible books to read to this age group. And then I read. I learned about child development, early literacy skills, the difference between prewalkers and walkers...and pretalkers and talkers. I smiled over pages of rhymes, fingerplays and songs. I poured over lists of suggested books and sorted through hundreds of pages of text as well as dozens of websites to help answer questions about the ideal length of a lapsit story time (around 20 minutes), whether it is better to have a theme or no theme and other pressing issues.

Finally, I made my final choices...I decided on a theme: "All About Me" and chose 4 songs (all short) three fingerplays and four books. (Ten Little Fingers by Annie Kubler, illustrator; Here Are My Hands by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault; Whose Knees Are These? by Jabardi Asim and Whose Nose and Toes? by John Butler) The theme was all about baby and baby's body. I encouraged (and for the most part got) participation and everyone left, 25 minutes later, happy. The program was...about 5 - 10 minutes too long.

I will do another of these programs in two weeks - the theme? All About Me - Dressed for Halloween. I have a few Halloween books that I am thinking about using - mostly about dressing up and going trick-or-treating. If anyone out there has suggestions for the perfect lapsit read aloud or rhyme/fingerplay please let me hear it. I'll trade - here is a great early literacy web resource: http://www.hclib.org./Birthto6/EarlyLit_Choosing.cfm. I especially enjoyed seeing the videos of the fingerplays.

It has been very discouraging having this shiny new MLIS degree and not having a job. This was a great reminder of why I went to school and why I enjoy working in public libraries. Let's hope I get the chance to do this on a regular basis soon.