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Austintown library hosts Baby Brilliant event
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .At the "discovering stories" activity area at the Baby Brilliant Open House, Lorenzo Delos Reyas attempted to tell a story with finger puppets to his mom, Maria Delos Reyas.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Children's librarian Hayley McEwing (left) focused her story time on houses and where people and animals live. McEwing asked her brilliant guests to to point their hands up in the air to pretend to be a house, and guest Solenna DeJesus (right) happily obliged.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .During the Baby Brilliant Open House on July 14, Eli Solvesky (center) did his best impression of a pointed roof during a story time about homes and where animals live.
By SARAH FOOR
Once a month, the Austintown library hosts a Baby Brilliant story time, where little ones under 2 are welcomed to learn important pre-literacy skills through stories and games. In a special Baby Brilliant open house on July 14, the library provided even more fun for the beginning readers.
The first part of the event included a story time by children’s librarian Hayley McEwing, where she explored homes and where different animals live. The group played hand games, memory games and stretched and danced during their story time. McEwing invited her guests to think about where home is for animals of many types.
“Did you ever realize that snails bring their homes along with them all day? They can live in the shell they carry around,” McEwing pointed out.
“But people couldn’t live in a shell,” Solenna DeJesus earnestly observed, to which McEwing laughed and agreed.
After the discussion of homes, the group moved to the library’s activity room, where the facility offered a wealth of activity areas that explored literacy skills. The brilliant babies discovered print, sounds, stories, words, letters, and books through different games and projects.
The “discovering stories” area had the young guests attempt to tell stories to their parents with a hand puppet.
“We teach these skills at all of our Baby Brilliant programs, but our open house today is about giving parents lots of concrete new ideas to use in teaching their child to read,” shared library early literacy expert Starr Jones. “We’re teaching the right tools to make great little readers.”