This Week at the Library

Baby Time

It's great to see newcomers at Baby Time! Moms are making friends and sharing stories and ideas, and babies are squealing to see so many new faces just their size.

This week we got to bring out the hand puppets and the new books from the county library outreach. Our first set of books was Eric Carle's 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo. We talked about the concept of "one to one correspondence" which is the stage where children relate counting numbers to counting actual objects. We can help teach that by touching their fingers to the objects we're counting while we say the numbers.

Toddler Time

This week I read Opposites by Robert Crowther, and it's amazing how it can hold their attention for so long. The book is a work of genius at illustrating the concept of opposites with moving parts. A word of warning though - if you buy a copy for yourself, you need to keep it on a high shelf so your child always looks at it with you or it will be destroyed in about two sittings.

Our other book was the Caldecott Honor book Freight Train by Donald Crews. Some children's book authors are so amazing! This book has 54 words and manages to teach colors, the names of different freight cars and introduce words like "trestle" all while delighting the reader with incredible artwork.

Preschool Storytime

Do you know the difference between monkeys and apes? Monkeys have tails, apes don't. I learned that when I spent a few years as a zooguide at the Metro Zoo (Washington Park Zoo at the time). So technically, Curious George is an ape, not a monkey like the book says. But we love him anyway.

Our books this week were:

Maggie's Monkeys, by Linda Sanders-Wells. This book is definitely worth checking out or buying so you can read it several times with your child. It has a beautiful but subtle lesson about family loyalty and being a good big brother (or sister). I didn't have this book on Tuesday, so if you came that day, please get ahold of this book! It's wonderful.

Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. Try saying that name five times fast! This book from 1940 stands the test of time.

The Escape of Marvin the Ape, by Caralyn Buehner. I can't believe that I discovered for the first time this week that the police officers are on every page!

We did the fingerplays "Five Little Monkeys Swinging From a Tree" and "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." I also told the story Monkey Face by Frank Asch and illustrated it as we went along.