Library Storytime
I started looking up to see what kinds of activities we can get into in our new area. Now that I have “days”, I feel like I can do stuff with him – and that it’ll be good for both of us to get out. Not for Boof though. She hates it when we leave. One of the first places that I looked was at the library website. Libraries are such a great resource for kids programming – especially during the week. The main branch of the county library is only about 5 minutes away, and the website shows that they have lots of stuff going on. Some of the programming is on break for May, such as the Toddler story time on Tuesdays, but they’ll start up again in June. The summer will also have additional programming for the summer reading programming, though I’m not sure how much of that will be good for Jenson’s age. They are still having Family Storytime are Saturdays, so we decided to check it out.
We were the first ones there, and he was super shy as he usually is. Two other kids showed up – they were probably between 4-6. He started to warm up once he saw them playing on the story rug and interacting with the “teacher”. They did a little dance to a song – kind of like “if you’re happy and you know it”, but not. He didn’t do the motions, but I moved his arms accordingly. For “Harold and the Purple Crayon” she gave the kids paper and a purple crayon so they could draw along with the story. Jenson sat on my lap and scribbled, while Lo drew some of the pictures. Jenson was more brave for the next stories and started roaming around the room and trying to “sneak” out the door. As much as he loves books, he really wasn’t interested in listening to the story. But that’s okay…he wasn’t disruptive or anything. He liked sitting in the little chair.
The last part of the craft was painting inspired by famous paintings. That was obviously going to be above Jenson’s level, but the teacher was nice enough to make a toddler-friendly “painting” activity by sandwiching paint in between taped down saran wrap. This would allow him to mix the colors and kind of feel the paint, but is mess-free. Mostly. He pretty quickly tore the saran a bit and got some paint on his hands. I patched it with some masking tape and he kept playing for a minute or two, mostly trying to tear it again. Soon enough he was like “all done, all done” and wanted down, so that was the end of craft. It was a great idea though! I think something more sturdy than saran would be great – maybe some packing tape over the saran or something….
(Apparently I look really skinny in this picture – I’m not – it’s a camera illusion – I’m just normal me. All pictures from this point on will be taken at this angle.)
He played in the kids’ area of the library for a bit in the toy house. The we checked out the “Space” exhibit which was celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Hubble. It was really cool. He didn’t want to go instead, but he enjoyed moving the space rocks (tinfoil balls) from the pan to the bucket. It was set up so older kids could put their arms through the dryer vent arms and into the gloves and move the space rocks from the tray to the bucket from inside. There was a computer inside with fun lights and shapes and controls. Lots of fun.
He also got a free comic book because it was Free Comic Book Day…it was Gronk or something like that. Not really for his age…I opened it and it was something about eating cats, but whatever, lol. Comics aren’t really my thing, but Lo likes them.
Hopefully Toddler Storytime will be a good fit for him and he’ll be more interested (or all of the kids will be less focused, like him). I’d definitely take him back to this one though. The teacher didn’t seem to mind at all. He’ll start to do better with the paying attention eventually. It’s a great time to get out – at 11 a.m., so it’s right before lunch and then nap time.