Share & Play Babies (9/18/19 - 10/9/19)

It's been a loooong time since I wrote about Share & Play Babies but, to me, it's one of the most important programs that I do. For most of the babies and probably about half of the adults, it's their first library program! Ever! So I always want to make sure it's fun, relaxed, and a welcoming environment. To me, this is more important than the actual content of the program. Of course this isn't to say I don't agonize over the weekly content, but more to say that, above all else, I just want Share & Play Babies to feel like a warm, inviting, nonjudgmental mom group, where the moms are free chat if they want to, but aren't required to make small talk for toooooo long.

Anyway, this past session was for four weeks and, rather than write about just 1 week in detail, I'm going to share lists of all of the different things that I did over the course of the whole program.

The basic general format of this program has changed a bit since I first started doing it back in 2017, and it varies a little week-to-week depending on the group, but this is my general outline for each 30-minute session:

1. Open play (with music) + (sometimes) introductions (5-10 minutes)
2. One big book read by me (2-3 minutes)

3. A few familiar lap bounces or finger play type songs (2-3 minutes)
4. One board book, passed out as a class set, read individually between parents and babies (2-3 minutes)
5. Baby soccer (with music) + clean up toys (3-5 minutes)
6. Instrument/play thing time-- shakers, rainbow wrist ribbons, scarves, etc. (5 minutes)
7. Parachute time (5-10 minutes)
8. Goodbye song + bubbles (2-3 minutes)

In short, and if you do the math up above you'll see, this is a LOT to cram into a 30-minute program. So we're very busy in there...all while trying to all be relaxed!

1. Open play: I have done programs involving open play for years, but it typically felt awkward and forced for me. Before I had my own kids, open play included a lot of me feeling sort of useless, smiling, and only saying things like "Awww, so cute." But now that I am a mom too, open play/chat time/introductions are totally different! First, I've 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, chit-chatting with moms during open play is sooooo much easier when you have your own kids.

2. One big book read by me: After open play, the first "structured" thing I did was read the class a big book. I purposely only did big books because my bottom age limit was so young and I wasn't sure how well some of the smaller babies could see yet. I don't remember the specific month-by-month developments, but I do know that it isn't until 12-months-old that babies see the same way we see, as adults, so I erred on the side of seeing less, and did only big books. 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? Like I said, we're all there to relax and have fun!

These are the four big books I read throughout the class:

Freight Train by Donald Crews

Where's Spot? by Eric Hill

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.

Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker

Note: I was limited in my selection based on what big books we own. These four books were definitely good, but if I were choosing from literally all books ever, instead of just the big ones we have, I probably would have only done Freight Train from the books listed above. And possibly Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I definitely would have also done Baby Parade by Rebecca O'Connell. FYI, that is a really great book for a class of babies!

3. Familiar lap bounces/finger play type songs:  These songs are a mix of familiar songs we mostly know, new songs I wanted to teach the group, and old songs spiced up a bit! I did 1-3 of these each week, depending on how long they were. Here are the songs we wound up covering over the four weeks:

The Moon Is Round *

Eyes, Nose, Cheeky, Cheeky, Chin *

Itsy Bitsy Spider

London Bridge

A Smooth Road *

You Roll It *

She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain *

Five Little Monkeys

* These are all from Jbrary! Here are the videos!

4. One book, passed out as a class set, read individually between parents and babies: I like incorporating some one-on-one reading time for the babies and caregivers, again, because the babies can see the books up close, even if their distance vision hasn't fully developed yet. There are also a lot more wonderful baby books out there in board book format than there are in big book format. Plus, this is a great way to introduce some of my favorite books for this age bracket to parents who may be looking for recommendations! Throughout the four weeks of this class, these are the books that I had the parents share with their babies:

Sneak-a-Peek Colors by Roger Priddy
Baby Food by Margaret Miller

Hello, Bugs! by Smriti Prasadam-Halls

Are You My Mommy? by Mary Murphy

5. Baby soccer: This is a super fun game that I stole from the wonderful Ms. Kathy who does this in her baby programs at my local library. For this, I brought out a decent-sized ball, had the parents/caregivers lift their babies by grabbing them under their arms, and then making the kids "kick" the ball around the circle to each other. It could maybe more accurately be described as Baby foosball.  This winds up being a really awesome team building activity-- all the grown ups working together, making sure all the babies have a chance to play. There was one week where I got to play with of the twins in the group and, sure enough, it was really a lot of fun!

6. Instrument/play thing time-- shakers, rainbow wrist ribbons, scarves, etc.: I did a different thing at this point in the program each week. One week I did shakers, one week I did BABY AEROBICS*, one week I did scarves and also a circle dance, and one week I did wrist ribbons.

What's baby aerobics? Glad you asked. This is something I've tried a few times but have had trouble with when my age group is too varied. But with this class, oh it worked... and it worked really, really well. It's to the tune of Lynn Kleiner's Exercise to the Beat-Twinkle Theme. Here's how it goes:

I have this video starting at 5:55 because that's when they do this song. When you have a group entirely of kids the right age for it, this is SO cute. But the odds of having a group all the correct age, when the age range is only a couple of months wide (maybe 4-9 months?) is kind of a long shot. I got really lucky the week I did this! It was a great experience!

7. Parachute time: I am a huge fan of parachute time with babies. There is so much you can do and even the simplest songs are exciting and stimulating for them because the parachute itself is stimulating. Some weeks I used my normal 12" parachute but some weeks I used a cute lil' 6" one.

Here are all the parachute songs I wound up using throughout the four-week-class:

The Colors Over You *
Wheels on the Bus (with baby leg motions)

Let’s Go Riding in an Elevator *
Peek A Boo 

ABC’s
If You’re Happy and You Know It Lift it High / Shake it Fast

Twinkle, Twinkle
Old McDonald (with puppets)

* These two are also from Jbrary! Here are the videos!

8. Goodbye song: My classic program goodbye song for over 10-years-- Laurie Berkner's Blow a Kiss. Always a favorite for me!

Ladies and gentleman, I am quitting "What worked least" and "What worked best." It's my blog and I just straight up don't wanna do 'em anymore! Overall, this was a great program and it makes me so happy to be able to reach our youngest, newest library patrons and to provide them with a happy, comfortable, welcoming place to make and form happy library memories! Yay babies!

Sadie's Top 5, Ages 9-12 months

As Sadie gets more and more mobile, she is, unfortunately, getting less and less interested in sitting still for a book. While that's a bit of a bummer, who can really blame her? There is so much to explore in the world! And I love that she's so interested.

Her 9-12 month book selections are the books that either grab her attention when it seems like no other books will do so, or the books that she makes it all the way through without crying or crawling away. They're the books that she gravitates toward--instead of away from--when she's crawling and fidgeting all over the floor.

I should note that many of her actual current favorite books are ones that have appeared on this list before. In fact her top three are probably A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy (from her 6-9 month book list), Sneak-Peek-Colors by Roger Priddy (from her 0-3 month book list), and Baby Cakes by Karma Wilson (from her 6-9 month book list). But in the interest of not just listing the same books over and over, I'm not going to count them. So here is a totally new list.

The big running pattern for the 9-12 month book selection is SHORT BOOKS. Unless she's sick, Sadie absolutely will not sit still for a book that takes more than about 60-seconds to read or has more than 1-4 words per page. Even the Spot books are too long for her!

So, for this month, here is a list of really, really short books that (somewhat) hold Sadie's attention:

1. Are You My Mommy? by Mary Murphy is the only book that I have seen Sadie actively choose to sit still for over and over. I can even read to her five or six times in a row and she keeps enjoying it! She engages with the book by turning the flaps and and really looking at the animals underneath them. In fact, it was her love of this book that made me think that all lift-the-flap books would be a hit, but not so, unfortunately (Again, the Spot books totally didn't work). On each spread of Are You My Mommy?, a little puppy approaches a different farm animal, looking for its mom. First it finds a sheep and asks, "Are you my mommy?" The sheep replies, "No, I'm a sheep and..." and then, under the flap, it says, "here's my lamb." The puppy goes all around the farm looking for mom, being told no, until finally, on the last page, it asks a bigger dog, "Are you my mommy?" to which she replies, "Yes, I am! And you're my lovely puppy!" It's SO SWEET and teaches kids both adult and baby animal names. Jackpot!

2. All of the books in the "Look Baby" series by Margaret Miller top the list this month. Sadie will sit through most of them once or twice (which, like I said, is basically about all we can hope for at this age), but her favorites seem to be Baby Talk, Baby Pets, and Baby Food. She'll pick them up from her library book pile and hand them to me and, while she doesn't always actually want me to read them to her, that's more than I can say for a lot of other books. In all of the "Look Baby" books, each spread has one word (or short phrase) opposite one big picture of a baby. Like "Hi" with a picture of a smiling, waving baby. Or "Big dog" with a picture of a baby and a big dog (appropriately). Or "Spoon" with a picture of a baby sucking on a spoon. Easy, short, sweet, and lots of looking at other kids. That's a recipe for a Sadie-approved book.

3. Peek-A Who by Nina Laden is the book Sadie always goes to when I'm trying to get her to read other books.  Each left-side page of the book says "Peek-a..." and then, when you flip open the cut-out (on the right), says something like "Zoo!" (with an appropriate zoo picture). Also in the book: Peek-a Moo (with a cow), Peek-a Boo (with a ghost), and Peek-a You (with a fun mirror!). It's bright, colorful, full of cut-outs (Sadie loves to stick her fingers through cut-outs in books), and has that all-elusive mirror on the last page! That's three points for Peek-A-Who. One funny thing to note though: I have tried Nina Laden's follow up book, Peek-A Choo-Choo (which also has colorful pictures, cut-outs, and mirror...and is basically the same exact book), many times with Sadie and was met with basically no reaction at all. So go figure!

4. Never Touch a Monster by Rosie Greening is our "Target book," meaning the book that Sadie plays with (and I read to her) during our trips to Target but then we don't buy. It's cute and rhyming and bright and colorful, but the main draw of this book is the AWESOME, rubbery, textured monsters on every page! While, yes, Sadie is trapped in the shopping cart while I read this to her, I can tell that she's genuinely interested in looking at and touching the monsters on every page. The textures are thick, elaborate, and just FUN. It's like it's half-book, half-toy. The pictures really grab and hold her attention while I read the cute, rhyming text along. A text example: "You must never touch a monster who is hungry for its lunch. It might just see you coming and decide to take a munch!" This book, I really believe, would be a hit with lots of kids, of lots of ages.

5. Baby Animals Take A Bath by Marsha Diane Arnold, honestly, doesn't seem to have anything that makes it stand out from other, similar books, yet for some reason, it easily makes this list! Each page shows an animal taking a different type of bath: Sun bath (a sea lion), puddle bath (a bird), mud bath (a hippo), tongue bath (a tiger), etc. I really don't know what it is, but this is one of the few books that Sadie seems to be able to sit all the way through. She even points at the pictures. The hippo taking a mud bath alongside the zebra taking a dust bath seems to be her favorite spread. And I'm willing to bet that once Sadie is a little older, with a firmer grip on language, this book will be an even bigger hit in our house!

Sadie's Top 5, Ages 6-9 months

The big theme of Sadie's 6-9 month book selection is GIGGLES. All the books on this list are books that lend themselves to using funny voices, elaborate kisses, lap bounces, and tickles! My Sadie loves to giggle! As usual, I couldn't totally decide this month and wound up changing her picks up until my self-imposed deadline (today!) but here we go...

1. Hello Bugs! by Smriti Prasada is full of fun sounds and tickles. Each high-contrast page presents a shiny bug and simple text--"Hello, Bee! (buzz, buzz)," "Hello, Snail! (slide, glide)" or "Hello, Beelte (scuttle, scuttle)"--until the last page, which says, "Bye bye, Butterfly! (flutter, flutter)" This book has it ALL. Not only does it mean mom makes silly bug noises (Sadie's favorite is "zuzz zuzz" for "Hello, Dragonfly!" which comes with a lot of bonus belly tickles), but the bugs are SHINY. And the pages are otherwise black-and-white. Doesn't get better than that! Ace in the hole, my friends, ace in the hole! (Sidenote: There is another very similar book called Hello Animals! by Smriti Prasada and Sadie likes that one a lot too!)

2. Tap Tap Bang Bang by Emma Garcia is, like Hello Bugs!, full of fun sounds and tickles. Plus, in Tap Tap Bang Bang, we get to slap the pages of the book a bunch of times too. Each page features a different tool and what the tool "says." For example: "We can cree craw, cree craw, cut with the saw and chippety chip with the chisel," "We can zzz zzz make a hole with the drill and twizzle and twist with the screwdriver." Then at the end, we find out that, all this time, we've been making a go-cart! I don't know if it's the tools themselves Sadie likes or if it's just the silly noises and things I do with her while we read that make her giggle (although it's probably the latter). Her favorites are "zzz zzz" with the drill (which amounts to me tickling her belly and saying "zzzzz"), "grabbety grab" with the pliers (which means that I grab her) and "lift lift" with the jack (which means that I lift her up as high as I can). She also seems to enjoy when we "slap and slosh" with the paint brush (which means that we slap the page of the book). Emma Garcia's books really appeal to Sadie, as this is the second one that's appeared on one of her lists!

3. Baby Cakes by Karma Wilson resonates with Sadie because, like most of the other books in this post, it involves singing, bouncing, kisses and tickles. But it's not only that, she's drawn to these pictures too! This whole book is basically chant that, to me, seems to pretty clearly to follow the beat of Pat-a-Cake. It starts with, "Baby cakes, baby cakes, I love you. Baby cake, baby cakes, yes I do!" Along the way we get to "Kiss my little Baby Cakes on the nose/Smooch my little Baby Cakes on the toes," "Nibble little Baby Bakes on the feet/Oh my little Baby Cakes taste so sweet," and "Laugh with little Baby Cakes, Ha, Ha, Ha/Sing to little Baby Cakes, La La La." Of course, like most books for kids this age, it ends with Baby Cakes going night night. This book always draws Sadie in, while a lot of other books I try to read her, really don't. Even when she's super tired and cranky, this book can pull her in for one last hurrah before bed. I also have a feeling that, as Sadie gets older, she's going to continue to like this book and the chanting and tickles that come with it.

4. Baby Parade by Rebecca O'Connell is a book that I've used in baby storytimes many times. It works great for groups, but it also, apparently, works well well one-on-one! The majority of the book's pages say things like, "Wave to the baby in the big, red wagon!" and "Wave to the baby in the bright orange backpack," which is great because Sadie likes my extremely cheery "hello voice" as well as watching my hand while I wave (though she is still a novice waver herself). Of course, we wave and say hi to all the babies as they go by in the parade, which is fun and keeps Sadie's attention completely. But the very best part of this book is the first page! It says, "Here come the babies! It's a baby parade!" and I read it to Sadie in my very silliest announcer voice. She loves it! Sometimes even when we're not reading the book and I'm just trying to make her giggle, I'll say, "It's a baby parade!" and it does the trick!

5. A Kiss Like This by Mary Murphy is full of kisses! But not just regular kisses, silly kisses! One of Sadie's most favorite things is when I sort of "come at her" from a few inches away while making a funny noise and then kiss or tickle her. This book is ALL about that. Each page has a different type of animal kiss: "A giraffe kiss is gentle and tall. Like this! *kiss*," "A mouse kiss is quick and small. Like this! *kiss*," or "A bee kiss is fuzzy and buzzy. Like this! *kiss*" So many different silly ways for me to kiss Sadie! PLUS the last page has a big super-shiny heart that is basically a baby magnet. This book is awesome!

My next installment of Sadie's Top 5 will come when she is ONE YEAR OLD. That is wild. I can't even believe it.