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Parents, babies enjoy new story time at the library
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .The focus of the Lapsitters story time was teaching literacy skills. Caleb White (front) climbed into the lap of his mom, Mandy White(back), and they enjoyed a story together on Jan. 19.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .Kerry Bettross (left) played a game of peek-a-boo with her young son Allen Bettross during the Austintown library's Lapsitters story time.
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .After the Jan. 19 story time, parents and their young children were welcome to stay in the library activity area to socialize and play. Siblings Caleb White (left) and Charis White (right) played with toys together after story time was over.
By SARAH FOOR
The guests at the Austintown library’s Lapsitters Baby Brilliant story time on Jan. 19 were too young to read, but librarian Cindi Hickman knew they could still learn valuable literacy skills.
With rhymes, songs and stories, Hickman focused on teaching the babies about discovering sounds. The story time theme was ‘kisses’ and Hickman recited poems like “Blow Me a Kiss” and “The Kissing Rhyme” as parents followed along. During readings of “Baby Love” by Naomi Kleinberg and “I Kissed the Baby” by Mary Murphy, the babies present at the story time received plenty of kisses and erupted in many giggles.
Austintown children’s librarian Kathe Orr said the Lapsitters story time is a new experiment at the library.
“Previously, our baby brilliant story times featured those from about 1 to 3 years old and we found that even in that two year gap, there is a big difference in skills. By offering Lapsitters for the very young, we can work on literacy with parents and babies with great focus and teach more specific skills,” Orr explained.
Mother Jessica Liccata used the library visit as a time to learn with her son, Dylan, but also to be social with other parents.
“Dylan obviously isn’t a reader yet, but I think it’s important for him to get his hands on books and see people talking. It’s also great to meet other parents who have babies who are Dylan’s age — there is definitely an understanding between people who are dealing with the same things,” Liccata said.