31 Days - Library Story Time

This post is part of my Thirty-One Days with a Two-Year-Old series.

Does your library have a story time for toddlers? Mine does! Most of the libraries with which I am familiar have an open children's story time at least one day during the week. The library in my parents' town has several story times throughout the week, some for specific age groups and others that are open to any age.

The library in my town does things a little differently - they have four different story times, one for each age group of 3-12 months, 12-24 months, 2 year olds, and 3-5 year olds. Parents have to register their child(ren) for the story time (there are four different sessions each year) and they use a lottery system to accept kids into the program due to limited space in the library. The children's librarian tries to fit everyone who wants to participate into the story time groups, so we've never had a problem getting into one.

Anyhow, we have an awesome story time program. It's an hour filled with music, stories (of course), and other activities. Sometimes the librarian will pull out musical instruments for the kids to play with, or one of her great big puppet stuffed animals. The baby and one-year-old story times end with the librarian blowing bubbles for the little ones to pop. The two-year-olds (and, presumably, the 3-5 year olds) get too rambunctious for bubbles, so they do a craft at the end instead - today's was coloring with crayons and gluing leaves onto paper. The benefit of registering for the program is that we see the same kids week-after-week and throughout the year.

Piper-Girl loves story time and will sing all of the songs that we've learned there with me at home. The summer before she turned one, she was the crazy-hyper child at story time, always running around in the back. However, she's become rather shy over the past year, so most of the story time is spent with her sitting quietly on my lap. It's the only time that she sits still! Even so, story time is one of her most favorite activities. Don't you just love it when your child asks, "Bi-braer? Bi-Braer?" (Or is Piper-Girl the only 2-year-old who regularly requests a trip to the library? :) )