Babies' Night Out

Babies may not need a night out, but let me tell you - their parents sure do. As a children's librarian, I often forget that most parents don't remember Mother Goose rhymes, or fingerplays, or even little songs. Heck, I didn't even remember most of those things when I had my first daughter. That is why I decided to conduct a program specifically for parents with newer babies. The age limit for this program was babies birth to 6 months and their caregivers. One thing I was adamant about was no younger siblings. I know this is hard to do for most parents, but the reasoning behind it was I wanted the parent to be able to focus solely on baby. Sure, we have Baby Storytimes, but most of the time older children are in there as well and, at least at my current library, it's really crowded.

So far I've only had one session (part of a three-part series) and I had 3 babies and their caregivers. It was a lot of fun, and the parents were really excited to learn the games and rhymes. I conducted it like a regular Baby Storytime, but this week I added in 3 "games" the parents could play at home with their child.

Here's a quick layout of my plans for the first program:

Song: Humpty Dumpty (from the CD Wiggleworms Love You)

Rhyme: Humpty Dumpty

Book: You and Me, Baby by Lynn Reiser

Game: Happy Feet

Song: Baby Hop (from the CD Diaper Gym)

Rhyme: Here are Baby's Fingers

Book: Peek-a-Boo Baby by Margaret Miller

Game: Where is My Baby's Belly Button?

Song: Baby Hokey Pokey (from the CD Babyface)

Rhyme: Bumblebee, Bumblebee

Game: Buzzy Bee

Song and Bubbles: I Can Sing a Rainbow (from the CD Wiggleworms Love You)

I got the games from a great book called Baby Play and Learn: 160 Games and Learning Activities for the First Three Years by Penny Warner.

One thing I would recommend if you decide to do a similar program is market it and advertise. Get fliers out to the maternity ward for your nearest hospital, pediatricians, mothers groups, and more.

Tween Ink! Journal Writing for Tweens

Ever since I've started to do children's programming, I've always wanted to try some kind of writing program. I had my chance last month to do a Journal writing program for 4th - 6th graders. This was a three-part series, with each week having a different topic.

Week 1: How to Get Your Journal Started
This session we discussed a little about why we journal, and the different kinds of journals you could have (travel diaries, shared journals, blogs, etc.) Then we spent the rest of the hour decorating journals I had bought at Staples. I really lucked out with finding about 25 journals on-sale for only $0.70 - $1.00 a piece. The kids then decorated their journals with fabric, felt, stickers, ribbons, and other odds and ends that staff members donated.

Week 2: Discovering Topics to Write About
This session we discussed and shared different topics to write about. Because there were so few of us (only 3 attendees), we all sat at the same table and spent most of the time writing and sharing our responses to the prompts. I had the tweens different writing exercises that I found in the book "Keeping a Journal" by Trudi Trueit. Some of the exercises we did included: Freewriting Activity: Set a timer for 3 minutes. Begin writing whatever pops into your head: the weather, your pet, a hobby, school - anything. Don't worry about spelling, grammar, or punctuation. Don't cross anything out. And whatever you do, don't stop. If your mind goes blank, simply scrawl your name until something else strikes you.
The Real You Activity: Answer the following questions and work to go beyond the simple explanation "because I do" to find a deeper reason. If you can't come up with a reason for each response, leave that part blank and try again later.

1. My favorite color is_______because:




2. My favorite subject in school is________because:




3. I am afraid of_______because:




4. The thing I most admire about myself is________because:

After we did the writing exercises I had the participants write their own prompt on a piece of paper, and then we drew them one-by-one from a bowl and shared the topics and wrote our responses.

Week 3: Using Popular Books to Create Entries

I knew I could pull in the boys this week because I used Diary of a Wimpy Kid in the fliers. My plan this week was to booktalk different books that used journal and diary formats. Some of the titles I had displayed included:
Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf by Jennifer Holm
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Dork Diaries by Rachel Russell
Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow
Safari Journal by Hudson Talbott

I was also going to talk about the 1001 Journals project.

However, things don't always go as planned when programming for children. My numbers for this program were small, some of the reasons being Spring Break and not enough promotion of the program. Would I try this program again? Definitely.