Funny Farm for Babies

This week's Baby Bookworms theme was "Down on The Farm."  It was great fun for all.  The books contained plenty of good rhyming and rhythm so they were fun for me to read aloud.  Bright illustrations held the audience visually and the fun stories had the adult partners in the audience smiling and laughing and participating.  I read four books, two are new and two from previous blog entries.  We sang several songs, including "Five White and Fluffy Sheep" (to the tune of "Five Green and Speckled Frogs") and "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" although we switched Old MacDonald to "Farmer Joe" to match the book.  The favorite was our tickle for today:

Milk the Cow (Baby Tickle)

(Tune: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”)

Milk, Milk, Milk the cow 

(gently stroke baby’s arms, legs or hands)

Milking’s what we do

And when the milking is all done,

The cow says, “Moooooo!” 

(Tickle baby’s tummy)

I'm rather embarrassed to say that I don't have the source for this one.  I checked my usual resources and then even did a google search where I found a number of other variations, but not this version.  Thank you to whoever I borrowed this from, it was a big hit with my babies and their adult partners!

Here are the new books we read:

Baby Animal Farm by Karen Blair
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Babies meet baby animals on a farm, what could possibly be cuter than that?  Simple text ("Follow the ducklings. Quack, quack, quack.")  and soft illustrations of happy babies toddling after animals, petting and feeding them make this a very engaging book.  This is a good book to use to introduce new vocabulary to very young readers who will learn the words for animal babies of all kinds like, piglets, calves, kids and lambs.


Peek-a-Moo! by Marie  Torres Cimarusti
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Big bright pull down flaps show a variety of animals playing "Peek-a…" and you finish the phrase with the sound the animal makes: for example, "Peek-a-Oink!" when you see the top of a pig peeking out from behind the flap.  Everyone had fun finishing the phrase with the animal sounds.


Here are the two old favorites:

Baby Bookworms and Moms

My Baby Bookworms story time fell on the Monday after Mother's Day, but is it ever wrong to celebrate Mothers?  At the library, we have a "Mommy and Me" yoga class that runs about thirty minutes and then after about a fifteen minute break, I present a Baby Bookworms story time.  We have a great group of regulars and it has been great fun to see the babies and their moms bond and make friends in this group.

Here are the books:

Five Minutes' Peace by Jill Murphy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I discovered this book many years ago when I was home raising three young children and wondering if I would ever enjoy a hot meal or converse with an adult in full sentences ever again.  Mrs. Large yearns for just 5 minutes peace.  So she sneaks off to the bathroom to enjoy a soak in the bath with tea and the paper...and enjoys about  a minute of "heaven" before, one by one, her three youngsters invade the bathroom, and finally end up in the tub with her.  She sneaks back down to the kitchen where she enjoys three minutes and forty-five seconds of peace before her three wet young find her, wrapped in towels.  This is my mother's day gift for the moms in my story time audience, and every single one can identify with Mrs. Large and her desire for just a few minutes of peace.  But they can also identify with the love and humor that fills this book about that very special bond between mothers and their children.


Benjamin's Bugs by Mary Morgan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a sweet little book -  that is not so much about bugs as it is about a boy and his mother...and her love for him.  Chosen for a bug themed storytime, I used it instead for my Mother's Day storytime. This is a small book, with tiny, detailed illustrations so it would not work well for a large group.  Benjamin spends most of the book being a youngster (The characters are porcupines) and being distracted while taking a walk with his mother.  He also tries out some independence - climbing trees and trying to catch fish in a pond....finding out the hard was that it is a good thing that his mom is nearby.


Seven Hungry Babies by Candace Fleming
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
While the rhythm isn't perfect, the humor in the illustrations make up for anything lacking.  Seven chicks hatch with a mighty crack and immediately demand to be fed.  Mom does her best buy by the time she feeds all seven she is exhausted.  There is a nice twist at the end, that made all of the moms in my story time audience laugh out loud.  Great read for Mother's day or to add to a bird themed story time.


Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
With wonderful read-aloud rhyming text and adorable illustrations the parents in my story time audience smiled in recognition of a bed time routine.  Mother Llama reads a story, kisses her little llama good night and turns out the light and heads downstairs to finish the dishes and her evening routine.  Llama llama has other ideas, though, and spends much of the rest of the book creating "bedtime drama" that sends mother back to comfort her panic stricken little llama.


The Moms in my audience loved the books…and don't tell anyone, but that is the real target audience for a baby-lapsit story time.

Babies Invade the Library

This week's post is about my public library job. The branch is located in the northern suburbs of San Diego. The schools are good, the houses on the newer side and the kind of community where there are a lot of moms home with their kids. We are a very diverse community with one thing in common - all the residents want the very best for their kids and want them to succeed. Many of the parents in the community value the library and the services and programs it provides for their children.

Probably because we are in a community with good schools and lots of parental involvement, we have a very active children's area - filled with waves of children all day.  There is a play area, where moms and toddlers socialize after story times, tables with crayons and coloring sheets and drop-in crafts on Saturdays.

And there are the babies.  Babies in strollers or in a mother's arms at the library because of an older sibling's needs.  Lots of babies.

So, this month we launched our Baby Bookworm Storytime and Baby Signing Storytime on alternating Mondays.  We have contracted with the presenter for the Baby Signing program, and her first presentation at our library was a great success.  Last Monday was our first Baby Bookworm Storytime...and that was all me.

I was pleased that I had twelve baby/toddlers in my audience.  Four were truly babies in their mothers' laps, and three were on the older side of "toddler" but the program and the audience were well matched.  The atmosphere was cozy and friendly, the audience participated in the songs and rhymes that we did and listened to the tips and advice that I gave out along with the stories.

Our first theme was "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and the weather cooperated since we were experiencing some of the coldest temperatures we have had in five years.  (Okay, so I know this is San Diego were 50 degrees is cold!)  We all learned our opening song, "If You Want To Hear A Story" (Tune: "If You're Happy and You Know It") and Moms got comfortable manipulating their baby's hands and arms.  We moved on to an action rhyme:

and then I read the first book:

I Am Small by Emma Dodd
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The world is very big for a very small, very cute penguin.  With good contrast, simple shapes and a very simple, touching text, this book if perfect for a very young storytime audience.  There are snowy scenes and scenes where our little penguin stands against an enormous cloud filled sky, on the edge of a very deep ocean filled with swimming penguins, and curled up with with it's mother.  Many of the pages have cool silver metallic sparkles.  A touching story of the love moms have for their children that made the moms in the audience hug their children a little tighter.

We did a finger play,

Warm hands, warm hands

(rub hands together while saying the first 3 lines)

Do you know how?

If you want to warm your hands

Blow on them now!

(blow gently on baby’s hands)

and then we were snowflakes. If the children were walkers, they were encouraged to get on their feet and whirl and twirl like snowflakes:

Snowflake, snowflake falling down down (Flutter hands down) 
Twirling, whirling to the ground. (Touch floor) 
Softly, landing on my nose (touch nose) 
Softly landing on my toes. (tickle baby’s toes) 
Snowflake, snowflake falling down. (Flutter hands down) 
Twirling, whirling to the ground (Touch floor)

Then I read:

I Like It When . . . by Mary Murphy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another cute small penguin tells the reader about the things he likes to do with his adult penguin.  Simple text and pictures with simple shapes and bold colors make this a perfect book to read to very young storytime audiences.  I like it when...you hold hands with me...let me help...dance with me...hold me tight...and (of course!) read me stories.  Simple, but engaging.


We ended with a tickle:

And then a closing song.  Adults were encouraged to reach into a bin of board books to read more to their children and introduce and to get to know one another while the young ones played with toys.  All in all a great success.