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This Week's Local Business Review

 

Allen Library Story Time

Address: 300 N. Allen Drive, Allen, Texas 75013

Phone: 214.509.4900

Talk about a fabulous free activity to do with your kids! The Allen Public Library has story times for kids from birth through 6 years of age, and we were recently wonderfully impressed by our visit to the "Fun Ones" story time.

We always enjoy perusing the children’s section of the library, so we arrived a few minutes early for the Monday morning story time.  We passed the fish tank, saying “good morning” to the fish, and wandered through the aisles of books, scouting out what we’d take home to read that week.

After parking our stroller in the “stroller parking lot,” just outside of the story time room, we wandered into the room and exchanged “hellos” with the other parents and little ones. Everyone was very friendly, and I loved seeing the breadth of development between 12 and 23 months… So much happens in that second year!

Susan, one of the children’s librarians, greeted us all with a very excited, “I’m glad you’re here!” She told us this was her favorite age for story time and thanked us for sharing our children with her. Her sincerity was evident, and her enthusiasm was contagious. She explained to us that her goal for story time was to not only develop in our children a love of reading, but to also promote those essential neurological connections that will help our children to develop into healthy, inquisitive adults.

 I really appreciated that Susan shared with us the importance of rhymes, songs, repeating phrases & stories, and talking to our children. (Some of us already talk to ourselves, and our kiddos benefit from it at this young age!) These are concepts that I learned while an education major in college, but it even helps for adults to have repetition to get them to sink in.

The pace of the story time was perfect for this age and we utilized many facets of learning – sight, sound, and touch. Susan led us in reading oversized books as a group, singing songs that also involved movement (“Twinkle, Twinkle” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”), and doing fingerplays. Each parent/baby pair read a board book on our own, then we got up and got our blood flowing by walking in a circle while doing different kinds of steps – walking on tip toes, walking quickly, walking slowly, hopping, etc.  My little one isn’t yet walking, but it was evident by her giggles that she enjoyed the different kinds of movement from my arms.

The one-year-olds even did a craft! With the help of the parents, the little ones taped a yarn “tail” on a paper pig, and “wrote” the word “PIG” with crayons. (The pig theme tied in to the books we had read that morning.)

We left with handouts related to that morning’s activities, a stack of board books to check out, and a few new friends.  Believe it or not, all of this was accomplished in a mere 20 minutes! 

So, this fall, make it a point to hop on over to the Allen Public Library and check out their story time program – consider it an investment with guaranteed returns!

NOTE: Fall story times are beginning again so great place to take your preschooler!

 

Meg, Allen AroundTownKids Mom on the Go

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