This Week at the Library

I hope you enjoyed the snow! It didn't seem to cause too many problems, and if you have older children, I'm sure they appreciated the snow day. I'm pretty much always there on snowy days since I can easily walk. I enjoyed walking on Thursday, even though I could have driven. It's so pretty!

Baby Time

Our babies this week were quite close in age to each other, but we got a good illustration of how much alike, yet how different they all are. At one point, every baby had an object in his or her mouth, drooling and chewing happily. Yet at the same time, some babies crawled on all fours, some log-rolled, some jungle-crawled, and some walked - and it didn't necessarily follow that the older ones walked and the younger ones rolled. Each baby will hit the milestones in his/her own time.

Toddler Time

On Thursday, we had only three little girls show up. It made for a very different dynamic, fun and more personal. We had an excellent illustration of the power of doing everything twice. When it came time to do "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear," I started the song and began doing the motions. The girls just stood and watched me and didn't participate at all. Then I said, "Let's do it again," and restarted the song. This time the moved right along with me. As I frequently tell the parents at Baby Time, the first time through is for it to sink in and get familiar. The second time is when they think "Oh yeah, I get it. I can do this!"

Our books this week were:

It Looked Like Spilt Milk, by Charles G. Shaw. The children love guessing the animals - "Great Horned Owl!" (ha!) and saying "But it wasn't a Great Horned Owl!"

Come Along, Daisy!, by Jane Simmons. I appreciate how this book teaches a valuable lesson without the child even knowing it.

Preschool Storytime

Our theme this week was "Hats." It's so much fun coming in with a pile of hats on my head and letting the kids guess how many there are. Then we count them and talk about the purpose of each one.

We read:

Stormy's Hat, by Eric Kimmel. (My first storytelling class in college was from him at Portland State.) I read this on Tuesday. A true story about how the engineer's cap was invented.

Who Took the Farmer's Hat?, by Joan Nodset. Children love stories where they figure something out that the characters in the story don't.

Whose Hat?, by Margaret Miller. Guessing books like this make the kids feel smart.

Go Ask Giorgio, by Patricia Wittman. I read this one on Wednesday. Poor Giorgio keeps getting asked by the townspeople to do more and more jobs - with a hat for each one. Finally he says "Three hats only!"

Old Hat, New Hat, by Stan and Jan Berenstain. Bear tries on dozens of new hats, but decides his old one is best.

I told the story Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, by Judi Barrett. This story has nothing to do with hats, but it has an amazing hat prop to go along with it.