Astro Babies

I am a person who loves taking pictures and documenting things. When I was a really little kid, my parents bought my a "kids camera", having no idea how much money they'd be spending on film over the next few years. When I was in my 20's I won a travel contest (a trip to Australia!) because I wrote an essay promising lots and lots of documentation (and, by the way, did deliver lots and lots of documentation). So when I say that I ran this whole program and totally forgot to take pictures until the last five-minutes, you know I must have really been enjoying myself!

I had 6 babies join me for my space-themed baby class, Astro Babies. It was back in August and I am only writing about it now, but better late than never, right? We had a great time! Here's what we did:

This was my plan (red = ipod, blue = song I sing, green = book):

1. A New Way to Say Hello by Big Jeff
2. Goodnight, Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

3. Zoom, Zoom, Zoom *

4. Moon, Moon, Moon by Laurie Berkner (with the basic arm-movements that Laurie herself does in the video for this song).

5. Peek-a-Boo Space by DK Publishers **

6. Pete the Cat: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by James Dean ***

7. Rocketship Run by Laurie Berkner #
8. Yellow Star (parachute + stars) ##

9. Outer Space is Where I'd Really Like To Go (parachute + stars) ##

10. If You're Happy and You Know It (parachute + stars)

11. Blow a Kiss by Laurie Berkner (parachute + stars + bubbles)

* Zoom, Zoom, Zoom can best be explained by my friends at Jbrary, from who I steal basically everything I ever do:



The verses are a little out-of-order in the video above because this is the video for the "extra verses" which I do after the first verse. But the first verse does come at the end of this video, when they show a fun way to end the song (which I don't do). This is the best video on Jbrary for showing all 3 verses I do in one single link.

** Peek-a-Boo Space is, admittedly, not the best baby book I've ever used in my life but it WAS a decent baby book-- especially if you only read the pages on the right side (the left ones make it way too long for kids this age) and, most importantly, it was an available and an on-topic baby book. I really like to have 1 or 2 (usually just 1) board book class set per baby program for the kids and caregivers to share together for a few minutes and, overall, this one fit the bill.

*** Both of my girls LOVE James Dean's Pete the Cat: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I don't know what it is that makes it so perfectly engaging for little ones, but even I find singing the full song with all its verses to be soothing and beautiful (and trust me, it's not my singing voice!). This was on Sadie's Top 5 list when she was just 3-months old and it would have been on it again and again if I'd allowed myself to do duplicates. For Astro Babies, I had to gather my courage because reading this book basically means singing a song alone in front of everyone for about 2-3 minutes. It's a little scary but, from time to time, I think this book is worth it. The song and the illustrations together just really work well together.

# Ok. I write about Rocketship Run a lot. Sometimes it seems like I write about it in every blog post I do. But this was my first time ever doing it with babies so, again, it deserves some space!

This is my Rocketship Run "kit:"

In Musical Kids, I do Rocketship Run every week, starting in the 17-30-month-old group, and then also in the 2.5-5-year-old group. With these kids (and also with the school-age kids I did it with in 3...2...1... Blastoff) when I hold up one of these signs, the kiddos all run up and touch their rockets to it, like they're really "going" to the sun/moon/etc. I'VE NEVER TOLD THEM TO DO THIS, and yet every week, it happens. They all do it! It's so funny to see! They totally invented it and it's continued on from week-to-week and from class-to-class. For years!

Obviously, things went down differently with the babies. There was no running. But it was actually super gratifying to show the pictures along with the words of the song because of the intense amount of language acquisition happening at this age. There is absolutely nothing better than the combination of visual aid and music for language-learning--it hits everything at once--so, even though it was different that I'm used to, it felt really beneficial! And, in the end, the parents and kids had fun playing with the rockets-on-sticks together and just getting in that special bonding time.

## Yellow Star is a song written by me. Sort of anyway. It goes to the tune of Baby Shark and goes like this:

Yellow Star doot doot doot doot doot doot

Yellow Star doot doot doot doot doot doot

Yellow Star doot doot doot doot doot doot

Yellow Star.

Blue Star doot doot doot doot doot doot
Blue Star doot doot doot doot doot doot
Blue Star doot doot doot doot doot doot
Blue Star...

And then also, purple star, green star, orange star, and red star. I purchased two sets of these plush stars from Oriental Trading, cut off the strings and tossed the corresponding colors on the parachute as we sang each verse. I think it worked, again, getting in that music + visual combo. Language acquisition? I'm on it!

### Outer Space is Where I'd Really Like To Go is another demonstration of my song writing skills. I found the basic song here on Kidsparkz, but I modified it a LOT. It's to the tune of If You're Happy and You Know It and it made an ok parachute song. Click here to download the words on a handout,which I obviously had to make because this song is way too long and complicated to teach and then re-sing over and over in a 30-minute baby program. This is how it goes:

Click here to download the handout! 

I followed this up with classic If You're Happy and You Know It, because I'd always prefer to sing the classic song also when I sing an alternative version of it.

What worked least: I think Outer Space is Where I'd Really Like To Go was only ok. It was sort of more effort than it was worth-- writing the song, making the handout, singing 4 verses-- when all of it was just lost on the kids because they were so little. I think it was one of those examples of the theme detracting from the quality of the program, where if I'd just done a few of my really good tried and true parachute favorites, it would have been less work for both me and the parents, and, quite possibly, the kids would have gotten more out of it.

What worked best: This is so crazy but, AGAIN I think I have to say the winner is Rocketship Run! This one's always a favorite in Musical Kids, but it surprised me when it was a favorite with the school-age kids in 3...2...1... Blastoff and now it's surprising me again by working really well with the babies too! This song is magic! It's literally always good.

Toddler Tales 3/13/19

Toddler Tales! I've been on a super traditional toddler story time kick lately and this one, for ages 2-4 at our branch library, was tons of fun! It was a 3-week-session with a different theme each week. The first week we did animals, the second week we did food, and the third week we did bugs. Today I'm blogging about week 2 and my all-time favorite storytime theme-- Food!

First we started with the book Little Green Peas by Keith Baker, which is great for this age group because it gets them to name colors and it's also super silly! Peas flying kites? Peas sailing boats? Peas living in royal castles? So silly! 

Then we moved on to the (loosely food related) Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by James Dean and Eric Litwin. I use this book, basically, as often as I can get away with. It was also on Sadie's Top 5, Ages 18-24 Months list. This one is a favorite for SO MANY kids. If you're not yet familiar, this is the story of cool cat Pete who loves his white shoes so much that he sings about them. The book has singing, color recognition, and lots of silliness! Plus, there's a super-cool, positive message at the end. It makes for a big hit with a pretty large age group. Pluuuuuuus it ties really nicely into this great, simple food song called Picked A Strawberry, thanks to Jbrary!:

When I sing Picked A Strawberry with Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, I usually have us pick strawberries first and blueberries second. This follows along with the order of the berries in the book. Then I have the kids name other things we can pick. For this particular storytime, we wound up picking apples, peaches, oranges, carrots, and bananas. One kid also suggested chocolate! If only!!

Last, we read Hi, Pizza Man by Virginia Walter. This is a great one because a lot of kids don't know it and a lot of parents/caregivers don't either. It's about waiting for pizza and speculating who will bring it. Will it be a pizza man? A pizza woman? A pizza dog? A pizza cat? A pizza snake? Once again, this book has great repetition and lots of silliness. And, instead of having the kids name colors, this time they get to name animal sounds. A little variety!

Then we sang one last song, P-I-Z-Z-A, another perfect tie in, and also taken from Jbrary:



I had all the letters, P I Z Z A, hung up so I could pull them down for a little visual as we sang. See the photo above.

Then it became craft time! We all marched down the hall to the small, sunny craft room to make paper plate personal pizzas (that's a lot of P-words!).

This was a fun craft that required a lot of prep on my part! Each pizza has crayon sauce (I only put out red and orange crayons), collaged paper toppings (This was the majority of my prep work. I cut piles of yellow cheese, red pepperoni, and green peppers.), and tissue paper crust (I cut brown tissue paper squares, thinking the kids would ball them up before they glued, up but some just glued them on as is-- that's ok too!). Here are a few delicious looking finished products:

What worked least: While the pizza craft worked, I had some anxiety about it going in. I worried that it would be too fast. Like, I was afraid that it would only take the kids 5 minutes to make. But actually, it was totally fine! In fact, a craft that took any longer probably wouldn't have held the interest of the kids in this age range anyway. So, aside from the prep work and somewhat obnoxious clean up, all was well!

What worked best: It's a tie between Pete The Cat and Hi, Pizza Man! While Pete The Cat is kind of a guaranteed success, Hi, Pizza Man! is also a fun title that most people don't know, and that gets the kids involved and participating. Overall, basically, this was a storytime worth blogging about.

Sadie's Top 5, 18-24 months

Apologies for this post coming late. I've been on  a bit of a blog-break since I have been on maternity leave. Sadie is now two-years-old and has become a big sister! We welcomed baby Callie in early June and have had our hands full! While I hope to still keep up with Sadie's favorites every 6-months, I've decided not to list favorite books for Callie because 1. They're largely the same books, and 2. Apparently, with two babies, you don't get to read nearly as much as you do with just one. (And you feel very bad and guilty about it.) Anyway, while I'm not sure if this list is entirely accurate because sometimes it's hard to tell and also because, man, toddlers are really freakin' fickle, here's my best guess at Sadie's up-to-age-two favorites:

Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes by James Dean and Eric Litwin is a favorite for SO MANY kids. And mine is no exception. If you're not yet familiar, this is the story of cool cat Pete who loves his white shoes so much that he sings this song: I love my white shoes, I love my white shoes, I love my white shoes. Then he proceeds to accidentally dye his shoes a bunch of different colors by stepping in stuff like a large pile of strawberries and a puddle of mud. But does Pete cry? Goodness, no! He just sings a new song every time his shoes change colors. He's so cool! The moral of Pete's story is, "no matter what you step in, just keep walking along and singing your song. Because it's all good." In our case, Sadie particularly loves naming the things Pete steps in and (sometimes) naming the colors. She also always enjoys shaking her head "no" when I ask her if Pete cries. This is a book that will be a favorite for most kids for many years. We love Pete!

Fruits of India by Jill Hartley might seem like an unusual choice, but at this age, Sadie loves to correctly identify things. And she also loves fruit. I read somewhere that once children learn that every object has a name attached to it, they'll quickly want to learn all of these names. And that held true for Sadie, particularly around the 19/20-month mark. The book is simple. East page just has a picture of a fruit + its name. While some of the fruits in this book are ones we don't see here in the USA, many of them are familiar: bananas, apples, grapes, etc. It's kind of perfect for teaching the names of fruits to kids this age, actually. I would highly recommend this one for kids in this "learning the names of things" age group. Especially fruit-loving kids like Sadie.

Row, Row, Row, Your Boat by Jane Cabrera is a longer version of the classic song we all know, accompanied by adorable animal illustrations (I'm a big Jane Cabrera fan!). A sample verse: "Row, row, row your boat, watch the tiger prowl. If you see is mighty pounce, don't forget to growl." Like with Fruits of India, this book was great for Sadie to learn to name different animals. Her favorite page is the one at the end with Mommy Dog. I think anything Jane Cabrera does it a masterpiece, but her illustrations combined with this song = a major win for us!

Off to School! by Sesame Workshop, affectionately called "Elmo Book" in my house, is a favorite for more reasons than just being about Elmo. While it's true that Sadie does enjoy pretty much any book about the Sesame Street characters, this book has a lot more to give! For starters, while it's an actual story, the language and length, paired with familiar and colorful illustrations are absolutely perfect for this age group. It's also interactive! On one page, it asks the reader to rub Elmo's tummy. On another, it asks to help "pour the cereal into the bowl" by tapping the picture of the box. Another page asks the reader to practice deep breathing (take deep breaths). It's all really great! Cute story, familiar characters, and interactive text. Throw in a little color and object naming and you've got a 10-minute activity! That's something Sadie and mommy can both get behind!

Bath Time! from Sterling Children's Books had a really long run as Sadie's absolute favorite for over a month. It's a very short story that, basically, starts out with the narrator (a bunch of different animals) pleading the reader not to take a bath, then reluctantly agreeing to take the bath, and then admitting that said bath was nice. Each page has a different animal photo/narrator. So, for example, the first page has a picture of a raccoon and says, "I don't want to take a bath!" Then the third page has a rhino and says "Alright, fine. Let's get it over with." Later in the book there is a bear that says "Ooohhh. This water feels nice..." And the very last page has a human baby that says, "Maybe taking baths isn't so bad after all!" It's cute. I originally checked it out of the library because Sadie hated baths and I was trying to persuade her to like them again. Then, one day, she decided she did! Maybe it worked? Or maybe she just saw her friend in the tub and wanted to join her. Either way, we really like this book.

Ok! A month late but I got it up! Next Sadie's Top 5 coming in a few months!

Sadie's Top 5, 12-18 months

While, yes, this post is coming a couple of days early, I can't believe we're just a couple of days away from a year-and-a-half! Where does the time go? I cannot BELIEVE how fast the past 6-months have gone!  Since Sadie's birthday, she's gotten SO much better at sitting through books and will even sit for several books in a row! Some of her very favorites are still some of her past picks (A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy, Toot Toot Beep Beep by Emma Garcia, Sneak-a-Peak Colors by Roger Priddy, Five Little Elves by Dan Yaccarino, and the Margaret Miller Look Baby! books), but in the interest of variety, I've set my rule about only posting books one time each and I'm sticking to it! So with that, here are Sadie's Top 5 for ages 12-18 months, which have not been posted in past lists:

Three Little Mermaids by Mara Van Fleet-- and also the similar Little Color Fairies, Night-Night Princess, and Mama's Pajamas (also all by Mara Van Fleet)-- have all really piqued Sadie's interest on the later end of this age bracket. I tried a few of these with her when she was about 10-months-old and, while she certainly enjoyed them even then, she is really the perfect age for them now, at 18-months. In fact, Sadie is intrigued by these books from the moment she sees the pull-tabs on the covers! She is constantly handing them to me to read to her. They are each SO interactive; the pull-tab covers are just the start! On the first page of Three Little Mermaids, for example, there is an octopus holding a fun, sticky lollipop that Sadie likes to touch over and over again. The book also has fuzzy seals, bumpy star fish, flaps to open, and--best of all--MORE PULL TABS! What's crazy is that, while these stories themselves seem like they'd be too long to be interesting to a child this age (in Three Little Mermaids, all the sea friends help the mermaids prepare for a tea party), I think Sadie is actually focused on the stories! Even when we come across a rare non-interactive page, she still seems engaged. It's so crazy! We can read any of these four selections over and over, or switch between them, and she's happy for a while. So thanks, Mara Van Fleet, for letting this very pregnant momma sit for a few minutes while her active toddler actually interacts with a few books in a row!

Pete the Cat: The Wheels on the Bus by James Dean has been a hit in our house since Sadie was a newborn, but only now has it become one of our solid, regular go-to's. Or should I say, one of Sadie's solid, regular go-to's. She is always yanking this one off her (fairly tightly packed) bookshelf and handing it to me to read to her. She'll sit nicely in her chair while I sing The Wheels on the Bus song (with some fun variations thanks to Pete) over and over, and occasionally point out things like the bird, the dog, and Pete's guitar. Sadie definitely learned the word "guitar" because of Pete the Cat. She's even just begun to mimic The Wheels on the Bus hand motions that I try to do along (as I also hold the book). This is one we're gonna read again and again for a long time in our house!

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell is a CLASSIC that I have been just waiting for Sadie to be old enough for. And now she is! In fact, I think this book has helped Sadie hone in on some of her animal sounds. She's mastered the elephant noise, lion noise, and snake noise, I'm certain, thanks to Dear Zoo. If you're unfamiliar, the premise of this story is simple. The narrator wrote to the zoo to send him/her a pet and each pet that comes back is unfit. The elephant is too big, the lion is too fierce, the frog is too jumpy, etc. But, at the end, the zoo sends a dog (finally!) and it's just perfect! Sadie loves to lift the flaps as we read and she has an easier time finding which end to lift from in this book that in other books. (If you look carefully, there's a small, half-circle cut out next to each flap that guides little fingers to the right spot and I think it really helps!) Just like the dog at the end of the story, this book is perfect for us!

This exact "Slide and Find" version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle is a book that Sadie keeps migrating toward, especially toward the second half of this age-range. She lovessssss to slide the little tabs to reveal the animals underneath. Then, when we finish reading it, she almost always asks for, "More?" so we read it again! Also--here's something crazy-- her favorite animal in the book is not an animal at all but the teacher on the second to last page! She LOVES the "chee chee!" Maybe it's the glasses? Who knows! Another classic book, making our top 5 list today!

That's Not My Kitten by Fiona Watt and Rachel Wells is a favorite from the earlier end of this age range-- one that Sadie still definitely enjoys now but really stood out as a favorite when she was about 12-14-months-old. The first time we read this, the day after her birthday, I pointed out all the "touchy-feely" spots in the book for her and then every time we've read it thereafter, Sadie's felt the spots herself, without any guidance. The "plot" is simple. Each spread says something like, "That's not my kitten, its ears are too soft," or "That's not my kitten, its bell is too shiny," or "That's not my kitten, its paws are too rough" until the last page, when we finally find the narrators kitten and it has a big, soft belly! This is another one I am able to read to her a few times in a row without her getting too antsy. Side note: Sometimes (often), when I read this, I change the word "kitten" to "cat" because  I feel like it makes things simpler for Sadie, but I'll probably stop doing this soon.

Next up... Sadie's Top 5 as a TWO-YEAR-OLD. 😳

Share & Play Babies (5/11/17 - 5/25/17)

I had my last session of Share & Play Babies today and I have to say, this was such an enjoyable program to do! It was a new program that I created for babies ages 3-12 months (with ages 3-5 months being a group previously not serviced at our library!). Inspired by all of Sadie's favorite things, this program crammed a LOT of juice into a three 30-minute windows (one per week).

For every single parent/baby pair in the class... this was their first library program. That means that, in the three Wednesdays that I held this program, I reached a total of nineteen new library users! That is SO awesome. So exciting! So important! So much pressure!

Each week, the format of the class was as follows:

1. Open play (with music) + introductions (8-10 minutes)
2. One book read by me (2-3 minutes)
3. One book, passed out as a class set, read individually between parents and babies (2-3 minutes)
4. Simple finger play songs (2-3 minutes)
5. Baby soccer (with music) + clean up toys (5 minutes)
6. Shaker + puppet song (2-3 minutes)
7. Parachute time (5 minutes)
8. Goodbye song (2-3 minutes)

I'll explain all the details below.

1. Open Play: I have done programs involving open play in the past, but have always thrown it in at the end. In the past, it typically felt awkward and forced for me. And it included a lot of me feeling sort of useless, smiling, and only saying things like "Awww, so cute." But after attending a few baby programs with Sadie while on maternity leave, I learned a lot about well done open play. First, I decided that open play works better at the start of the program. This gives everyone a chance to settle in, get comfortable, even come in a few minutes late without too much pressure. Second, I learned that it works well when combined with introductions. This organically opens up the conversation floor a little and is just a good way to get to know who's in the room. Plus, it turns out that chit-chatting with moms during open play is a lot easier when you have your own baby! Who knew?

This was also the first time I ever had the parents do formal introductions of themselves. I'd asked them to tell the group their name, their baby's name, and how old their baby was. As a program attendee (and specifically one who also attended my first baby program just a few months ago), I liked doing this--it made me feel more comfortable. So for this room full of first time program attendees, I included it. I think it worked well and kind of broke up the open play time, without taking the toys away from the babies. I had them do this each week, even if they'd come before, because it's a good little ice breaker and, honestly, we could probably all use the refresher.

Here are how the toys were typically set up before the start of the class:

2. One book read by me: After about 8-10 minutes of open play, each week I read the class a book. I left the toys out too because (a) I'm not really a stickler for making kids (especially babies) pay attention to me, (b) I believe babies can benefit from hearing a book while also playing with or chewing on a toy, and (c) Just why NOT let them play with a toy a little longer if that's what they're currently in the mood to do?

Throughout the three weeks of this class, these are the three books I read:

Baby Parade by Rebecca O'Connell
Charlie Chick by Nick Denchfield
Pete the Cat: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by James Dean (Please note: This is a lot of singing.)

3. One book, passed out as a class set, read individually between parents and babies: This was an exciting new thing that we haven't done in our library before (but I'd done in the past when working at a different library). In advance, I ordered shiny new class sets of books specifically for this program, inspired by--you guessed it--Sadie's Top 5 Lists! Throughout the three weeks of this class, I had parents share the following books with their babies:

Sneak-a-Peek Colors by Roger Priddy
Toot Toot, Beep Beep by Emma Garcia
Counting Kisses by Karen Katz

Here are a few moms and caregivers sharing Sneak-a-Peek Colors with their little ones:

4. Simple finger play songs: For most of the parents and caregivers in the program, this is was chance to sing some "old favorites" together with their babies. Both repetition for kids and re-teaching parents childhood favorites are always great! However, for a few moms who were from other countries (at least two, maybe three, in my class) this was a chance for them to learn NEW songs--important, almost vital, songs that their kids will be singing for years to come! Here are the songs we wound up covering over the three weeks:

Five Little Monkeys
Itsy Bitsy Spider
She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star *
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
Where is Thumbkin

* I had an embarrassing moment here in week 2 of the program, where I started singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star but accidentally did the hand motions for Itsy Bitsy Spider! It called for a hearty do-over! So grateful for the wonderful families that I work with who aren't too judgmental!

5. Baby soccer: This was really fun! It may have been the highlight of the program! I stole the idea for this from a baby program that I attended with Sadie at my local library. For this, I brought out a decent-sized ball (see below), had the parents/caregivers lift their babies by grabbing them under their arms (also see below), and then making the kids "kick" the ball around the circle to each other. It wound up being a really awesome team building activity, working together, and making sure everyone had a chance to play. We did this for about five minutes and I almost felt bad ending it!

6. Shaker + puppet song: This is 5 minutes of programming that I get to borrow directly from Musical Kids. Here are the songs I used each week:

I Know a Chicken by Laurie Berkner (with chicken puppet)
The Owl Song by Playdate (with owl puppet)
This Land is Your Land by Josh Levine (with dog puppet)*

* There's no correlation between dogs and This Land is Your Land. I just needed another song and another puppet and I like both of these.

7. Parachute time: I am a huge fan of parachute time with babies. It always works in Musical Kids. Always. One thing that changed parachute time from how it usually goes in Musical Kids to how it wound up going in Share & Play Babies, was having the foam mat on the floor. Since I had everyone sitting, tightly packed around the foam mat, the parachute wasn't able to extend out to its full diameter, so there were several bunches and folds in the middle. Basically, a lot of extra fabric going on. It didn't really matter, just sort of changed the dynamic from what I am used to.

Here are all the parachute songs I wound up using throughout the three-week-class. I'll write out all these rhymes/chants at the end of the post!:

The Colors Over You
Peek-a-Boo!
In and Out the Window
The Wheels on the Bus
Come Under My Umbrella
If You're Happy and You Know It
Let's Go Riding in an Elevator

8. Goodbye song: Another few minutes borrowed from  Musical Kids (and basically every other non-craft program I ever do). Our goodbyes are sung to Laurie Berkner's Blow a Kiss. Always a favorite for me!

Parachute songs, in detail:

The Colors Over You (to the tune of Twinkle, Twinke, Little Star)
Red and green and yellow and blue
These are the colors over you
Red like an apple, green like a tree
Yellow like the sun, and blue like the sea
Red and green and yellow and blue
These are the colors over you

Peek-a-Boo! (to the tune of Frer Jacquez)
Where are you hiding?
Where are you hiding?
I can't see you
I can't see you
Are you over here?
Are you over there?
Peek-a-Boo!
Peek-a-Boo!

In and Out the Window
This one's on Jbrary! Watch below:




The Wheels on the Bus (done with babies lying on their backs)
The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round (move baby's legs in a circle)
The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish (move baby's legs back and forth)
The windows on the bus go open and shut (open and close baby's legs)
The windows on the bus go up and down (move baby's legs up and down)

Here are a few pictures from Wheels on the Bus, which we ended with every week:

Come Under My Umbrella (to the tune of The More We Get Together)
(Fast shake) There's thunder and lightening and wind and rain
There's thunder and lightening and wind and rain
(Lift the parachute up high in unison) Come under my umbrella, umbrella, umbrella
Come under my umbrella, it's starting to storm

If You're Happy and You Know It
If you're happy and you know it lift it high...
If you're happy and you know it shake it fast...
If you know it shake it slow...

Let's Go Riding in an Elevator
I'll let Jbrary illustrate this one too. I do it with the parachute instead of scarves and sing it a lot slower (for emphasis, I guess):




What worked least: The third/last week of this program (the week that I used the books Pete the Cat: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Counting Kisses) I zoomed through the open play and the books too fast. By the time I'd finished with everything I had planned, there were still 8 minutes left of the program! And the goodbye song is only only 2-minutes and 47-seconds long! So I wound up doing 5 bonus minutes of open play at the end... which was fine but a little awkward since we'd just cleaned up the toys. What's funniest here is that I purposely didn't read Counting Kisses along with the group after I'd had them read it individually for fear that it would take too long! I should have!

What worked best: Parachute time is always a favorite in any program and this was no exception! And actually I've found that, even as a patron with my own baby, I am sort of bummed when a program doesn't include any parachute time! It's always a great success!

Sadie's Top 5, Ages 0-3 months

Hi! I'm back from maternity leave and, while I love and even kind of missed my job, it's incredibly difficult to be away from my daughter for so long. So I've decided to start a new feature on my blog that's inspired by her! It's called "Sadie's Top 5" and I'm going to do one of these posts every three months.

Sadie and I read a lot of books together and I've very quickly built her quite an extensive home library. I've never done reader's advisory on my blog before (because, honestly, I think it's the hardest part of my job), but now that I have my own little 3-month-old authority, I'm going to recommend her personal favorites! So today... Sadie's Top 5 for ages 0-3 months:

1. Sneak-a-Peek Colors by Roger Priddy taught Sadie how to lift up her head. For real. This is her absolute favorite! It was the first book I could really get her to focus on and, in fact, she focused on it so hard that I was able to lure her to lift her head up to see it! What you can't see from the picture above is that each colored ring on the cover of the book is actually the perimeter of a hole. So as you turn the pages, the holes get smaller and smaller until you finally reach that all elusive, super-awesome, shiny mirror at the end. That mirror freakin' rules. Sadie is happy just staring at it for several minutes in a row. This book is basically a MUST for one-on-one reading with tiny babies! Sadie recommends it highly.

2. My Soft-and-Cuddly Animals by Xavier Deneux is a close second for Sadie's favorite book. It's got both bold, black and white images and touch-and-feel pages, making it a really great pick, sensory-wise. Sadie is able to find the animal shapes and reach out and touch them on the pages (with some help from mom). I do have one little bone to pick with this book, which I feel the need to mention: The rabbit has white fur on a white page and I'm not sure her eyes can see the outline of the shape yet. But bone aside, this book is awesome and Sadie loves it! She even tries to help me turn the pages sometimes. Each page has just 1 or 2 words ("A cat," "An owl," "Bears") and the outline of that animal in black or white. I like that every animal (except the butterflies) is soft or hairy. We recently read another touch-and-feel animal book and half of the animals had no texture! Or they had a texture so subtle, even I could barely feel it. My Soft-and-Cuddly Animals is consistent and super simple. It even has a few "lesser seen" creatures like a bat, mole, and wolf. A fantastic choice, according to Sadie.

3. See The Year by Joan Walsh Anglund, published in 1984, was one of my favorites as a kid. In fact, what I've been reading to Sadie is actually my childhood copy. When I found the book at my parents' house, I decided to save it for my own children and now, here I am, sharing it with Sadie and she absolutely loves it! I think a large part of her affinity comes from the book's size. It's teeny and "baby sized," definitely the smallest book we own but it's certainly got lots of other redeeming factors too: bright (yet somehow also soft) colors, super chunky "grabbable" pages, and a sweet and concise message. On each page, there is a month and something that represents it. Examples: "January, See the snowman," "May, See the flowers," and "November, See the turkey." Super cute little book! And it's kind of a collectible!

4. Pete the Cat: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by James Dean includes all five verses of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which I'll admit, I didn't know existed before opening this book. But maybe Sadie will grow up knowing them all equally! Anyway, the book recites the (beautiful) text of the Twinkle Twinkle poem and pairs it with typical, fun Pete the Cat illustrations. It's become our nightly ritual to read this book as I put Sadie down in her Rock n Play and hope she falls asleep within a reasonable time frame. Actually, I thought she wouldn't appreciate it until she was old enough to understand Pete the Cat's appeal, but that's not the case! She really does love it! I imagine that she must just be drawn to the really vivid illustrations, or it's possible that she just loves my singing voice. Probably the latter.

5. Five Little Elves by Dan Yaccarino has the best, bright, vibrant colors. Sadie loves staring at the bright green elves and dark blue sky on each page. Even after Christmas, I had to keep this book in our rotation. Sadie's orders! The text of it is a version of Five Little Elves that I wasn't familiar with but it lends itself to using funny voices, which I think Sadie will appreciate when she gets a tiny bit older. Maybe it'll even appear in her top 5 again one day!

So, that's it! More from Sadie at her 6-month mark!

Munchkins With Mommy & Donuts With Daddy

Nestled comfortably between Mother's Day and Father's Day, last Wednesday, May 25th, I hosted a program called Munchkins With Mommy & Donuts With Daddy to celebrate parents in general.

In the past I have discussed how there are some programs I'm super excited about and then there are other that seem fun when I first plan them, but then kind of mediocre when the time really comes to do them. But this was one of the former! This program included 4 different crafts, 2 books, and best of all, Dunkin Donuts! What was not to be excited about?!

I had 15 kids + 15 parents signed up for the program and I enthusiastically set the room up hours in advance. But, sadly, I had a very disappointing turn out. It was THE most beautiful day--sunny, hot, and the first of its kind since last summer. And in a town with a playground, pond, candy store, and multiple ice cream shops, I found that the lil' ol' library just couldn't compete on the first summery day of the year. I wound up with 4 kids and 3 adults. A major let down.

Those numbers considered, you might say that I over-prepared crafts and I overbought donuts and munchkins (luckily there was a teen program later that night that my coworker could use the leftovers for). Anyway, here was my very ambitious donut/munchkin display:

When the kids came in, I served them a snack first. I made sure to not let anyone touch the donuts, only me and only with gloves. Once they were set with their goodies, I sat them down for books. First, I read Meet the Parents by Peter Bently, followed by Pete the Cat: Rock on, Mom and Dad! by James Dean. The kids enjoyed them both and I think the parents did also.

Then it was time to move onto the crafts. Like I said, I had 4 crafts. I set them up like stations for the kids and parents to move around between freely. Here's what we had:

"I Wished For You" Finger Paint Craft

This was a quickie, made with younger siblings in mind. I found a picture of a dandelion stem online, altered it a tiny bit, added some text, printed it on card stock and let the kids finger paint on colorful seeds. It was inspired by this gem on Pinterest. Here, in fact, is a younger sibling enjoying himself:

Tissue Paper and Traced Hand Bouquet

I found this craft somewhere on the Internet (probably Pinterest) and thought it was perfect for this program. I had paper for hand-tracing, pre-cut green stemps, pre-cut tissue paper squares, white paper, pre-cut/pre-measured blue paper for matting, and glue sticks. With the parents' help, almost every craft (not that there were than many) came out really similar to my sample seen above! (See the top photo for proof!)

I Love You To the Moon And Back Collage

I think this one, of all of the crafts, had the most steps. First, the kids had to color a piece of construction paper like the night sky. I put out a sky colors-- black, blue, and purple. Then, they had to glue popsicle sticks on like a ladder. Next, there were pre-cut circle moons and pre-cut "I love you to the moon and back" sayings to glue on. Then, last, they added star stickers. I got a mixed bag of products, but I think they had fun making these.

Popsicle Stick Frame Magnets

The last, and probably simplest of the crafts were the popsicle stick frame magnets. I had popsicle sticks, markers, glue, magnet tape, and pre-cut square inserts to make gluing easier. This was pretty self-explanatory but allowed a lot of creative freedom and was totally liked by everyone!

What worked least: Nothing worked least per say, it just all worked eh. Sometimes it's so hard to have a super lively program with such a small turn out. Seven people total, as lovely as they were, just didn't make the program as exciting as I'd hoped.

What worked best: Pete the Cat. Typical Pete!