(By the way, this is why I usually don't have new blog posts on Thursdays or Fridays - my nose is buried in my new books! I actually have to ration myself and only check out one or two books a week or else the family might starve while the ants feast on the crumbs all over the messy floor! Then I have to power-read through the books I did check out so that hopefully I can finish them by Friday night to salvage the weekend.)
The storytime we go to is geared toward the three and older crowd, with the librarian reading lots of books interspersed with a few songs. Both kids are working on being able to sit still through this first 30 minutes of storytime. But when I strategically came late one day, that backfired on me - all the cushions in the story room were taken and the kids had to sit straight on the floor! Oh, it was terrible! But after that come the kids' favorite part - craft time! The librarian always prepares a gluing/coloring art project to go along with that day's theme (ie. dragons, trucks, pigs, etc.). Sarah loves playing with the glue sticks - stacking them, taking the tops on and off. Nathan, on the other hand, takes his art projects pretty seriously and works diligently to finish them.
After the kids finish with their projects, we head to the picture book section and both kids LOVE to find books for us to check out. Nathan usually gravitates toward the board books, probably because they are most accessible and he can easily see their covers. Sarah is actually helping him branch out with her example of wandering into the rows of shelves and emerge clutching a picture book or two (or four). Once I can convince Sarah and Nathan that they've selected enough new books for the week (although I never want to discourage their love of reading, there are only so many books we can read in a week with our busy schedule. Maybe come January I'll have a different tune!), we go to the computer to check out our books. This library has kid-friendly self-checkout stations and Nathan and Sarah both want to check out their books without any help from Mommy. I'm usually apologizing to a line of people waiting behind us by the time we are done! With the books that both kids pick out (plus mine from the reserve shelf) we usually have 20-25 new books to take home each week. Added to those still at home, the kids currently have 66 books checked out from the library!
Out of all the books we read last month, here were some of our absolute favorites.
"The Little Fish that Got Away" was one that Sarah randomly picked up off the shelf, but was (and still is) one of the kids' favorites.
"Chalk" is one that I reserved based on a recommendation and when we opened it to read for the first time I realized there were no words! I thought, "What a terrible book! This will be the first and last time that we 'read' it, I'm sure!" Boy was I wrong! It became Sarah's favorite book, though Nathan loved it too. By the time we had to return it to the library last week, both kids could narrate the story for us. Sarah's would go something like this "Wain (rain). Caulk (chalk). Sun. Bight! ('bright' - covering her eyes with her hands) Orange. Buh-fie (butterflies). Cool!" We had to take it back to the library a few days ago, but still when we get ready to read before naps or bedtime, Sarah still says "No caulk" (we can't read "Chalk" today).
And "Pete the Cat Wheels on the Bus" quickly became a favorite with both kids. I'm working on getting Sarah on video singing and doing the motions for that book!
The tripod that I bough for my camera has become a big hit with the kids, and has also exponentially increased the number of pictures I have with them. Of course, the picture series usually looks something like this...
Actually I deleted at least three of the most blurry and heads-cut-off-because-you're-too-close-to-the-camera pictures! Nathan's favorite tricks are obscuring his face with his hands or intentionally looking away from the camera. Sarah just gets tired of the whole thing and won't look at the camera after the first few shots.
And since you're wondering, Nathan is proudly holding up his library card and also a smashed penny that Brian pressed with him at Fanuiel Hall one evening last week.
For "We're Going on a Bear Hunt", I had to make a rule that we couldn't read it before naptime or bedtime since it riled the kids up so much. Nathan would always laugh so hard when the family is running away from the bear and gets back to the house and runs up the stairs then runs back down the stairs and shuts the door with a "bam!" (which has now morphed into a favorite saying "Shut the door! Bam the door!")
Nathan can sing the whole song (and probably recite the whole book) for "The Spiffiest Giant in Town."
And this last one, "The Little Engine that Could" already got returned to the library, but we read it multiple times a day every day when it was first checked out. Nathan actually found this one by himself. We have the much shorter board book edition from Brian's childhood (currently in storage), but Nathan fell in love with this longer version. I'm sure its because he is so fascinated with trains! And then, randomly, he asked about it again today before nap, with Sarah echoing "eh-eh cou" (engine could). Guess we might be reading this one again soon!
LOVE! You learned the Bear Hunt in Weierhof's preschool and we recited it for years...patting our thighs at different speeds for the footsteps...doing the hand motions...rubbing our hands together for walking in the grass or something... Mimi
ReplyDelete