43
Poland library hosts Baby Brilliant
Photo
Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Youth services librarian Vikki Peck led the children in the song "The More We Get Together" during the Baby Brilliant event at the Poland library.
Photo
Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.A young boy played along during the song "Where is Thumbkin?" during the Baby Brilliant event at the Poland library.
Photo
Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.A crowd of more than 30 adults and children attended the Baby Brilliant event for children ages 6 to 23 months at the Poland library.
By TIM CLEVELAND
As it has for many years, the Poland library hosted a Baby Brilliant story time for children ages 6-23 months on Nov. 5, giving them a head start on learning early literacy skills.
The 6- to 23-month-old story time is done every Wednesday at 10 a.m., with the 2-3 year-old Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. and the 4-5 year-old Thursdays at 1 p.m.
“My son’s 26 and I used to bring him to story time at Poland library,” said youth services librarian Vikki Peck, who led the story time. “It wasn’t exactly the same format, but I think the library’s been doing story time for a long, long time. I’ve worked here for four years and it’s been pretty much the same format.”
Peck led the children in songs such as “The More We Get Together,” “Where is Thumbkin?” and “B-I-N-G-O.” She also read from the books “Crawl!” and “Rain, Rain Go Away!” during the 30-minute program.
“We do a lot of singing, a lot of finger plays, kind of rhyming things and some short books,” she said. “They’re little. They can’t sit still for a really long story time.”
Peck said parents who bring their children to the story times will be helping them learn skills they will need when they begin attending school.
“Just developing a positive association with books and learning that reading is fun and books are fun so that’s always going to be a happy memory for them,” she said. “Some kids go to school and not ever really having touched a book. It’s really important that they know what a book is, how to hold it, how to turn the pages. They know that when they see print, it’s not just random marks. Maybe they haven’t learned how to read yet, but that is some kind of a code they need to learn.
“A lot of the rhyming songs we do really help kids to develop a natural ear for language so that they’re able to play with words. Those are all things they need to learn how to do when they’re babies so that they’re ready when they get to school. A child that gets to school and hasn’t learned how to do those things is really going to be far behind on learning to read.”