The Benefits of the Library Story-Time
/I love the library! It’s one of my favorite places to take my grandchildren while on a date. (We do special one-on-one outings. They call it their date with G-Ma.) The library offers great programs for kids and adults. It’s cheap! It’s educational! It’s fun!
Recently, my 3-year old grandson, Carter, and I visited the Rancho Cordova Library, a branch of the Sacramento Public Library. I timed the outing to catch the 10:30 AM story-time (for 2-5 year olds.) The story-time was followed by a gardening program for families. It was fabulous and well worth the little extra drive time.
At the last Bunco game I was sharing with one of the young mothers what a great time my grandson and I had. I asked her if she ever went to story-time with her young son. She told me, “No, we have plenty of books at home, and we read all the time, so we don’t need to go to story-time.” I thought about how Carter loved the stories and the songs. He loved watching the other kids play. There were so many other benefits of going. She didn’t know what a wonderful opportunity she was missing!
In case you haven’t taken advantage of this great opportunity yet, let me give you an idea of what happens at story-time.
Most story-times happen in meeting rooms at libraries, but at some smaller libraries, the story-time is held in the middle of the library or the children’s book area. Most are 30 minutes long.
Generally, the children sit on the floor and a children’s librarian leads the activities including group introductions, songs, rhymes, and so on. However, the primary focus is on books. The librarian will read stories aloud to the children, helping them to get excited about each story.
The activities vary a little depending on which age group the session is aimed at. Story-time for babies and young toddlers may include more songs than stories, especially finger rhymes and lap-sits - songs where you bounce baby on your knees.
At the end of the story-time session, families can browse through the books that were used in story-time and other books on the day’s theme, and may choose to take some of those books home with them. We always choose some books to take home as a “treat.”
Of course it’s important for you to have books at home, to read books out loud to your child, and to let your child explore books on his own. But there are other benefits to adding library story-times to your scheduled activities. Here are just some of those benefits.
Storytime—
- Helps children learn some essential school readiness skills, like how to sit still for an extended period of time and how to pay attention to an adult other than his parents.
- It encourages families to come to the library and check out materials.
- It introduces authors and illustrators to families in a fun way.
- Good oral reading skills for parents and caregivers to follow are modeled by the children’s librarian.
- It introduces songs, finger plays and nursery rhymes to parents and children that can be enjoyed at home.
- It offers the opportunity to meet other parents in your area.
Story-times are a nice option for a family activity. They’re free, they’re easily accessible, and most do not require advance planning. My favorite thing about story-time is that it helps turn a trip to the library into “an event.” If you treat story-time as a special family time that you look forward to, your child will be just as excited about it as they are about your other special family outings like going to the movies, the park, or baseball games. They will think of reading as an exciting social activity.
