Parens, grandparents Bond with Babies and Books at Mahoning libraries

Staff report

CANFIELD

Parents and grandparents sit together in the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County Canfield branch’s meeting room, singing along to nursery rhymes. Babies play on the floor on top of a quilt or sit on their parent’s laps as the youth services librarian leads them in song.

“This is the way we wash our face, wash our face, wash our face,” Romie Policy, the librarian leading the program, sings. “This is the way we wash our face early in the morning.”

Each baby has its own brightly colored toy to shake to the rhythm, and the babies and adults clap together as the song ends.

The library offers this program, “Bonding with Babies and Books,” weekly at the different branches: Austintown, 10 a.m. Tuesdays; Boardman, 10 a.m. Tuesdays; Canfield, 10 a.m. Thursdays; and Poland, 10 a.m. Wednesdays.

Policy said the program aims to help the babies learn to socialize with other children and develop early literacy skills.

Read more about the program in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.