Waiting before the event...
I could not get a library card because I didn't have proof that I lived at my current address. No matter, I will come better prepared next time.
I walked in early at the same time as another parent, and we waited outside the Story Room where there were extremely simplistic puzzles for small children. She said that we should stand up and wait in line about 5 minutes before the story-reading event began, because there's usually a fight to sit in the front, and the average is about 35 people in the room (they count at the end of every day).
The lady warned me that some of the other parents can get pretty aggressive... my "don't worry, I have a brown belt in jujitsu" joke didn't get more than a sideways partial smile out of her, and she clarified that other parents tend to ask a lot of probing questions. It made me wonder what questions she didn't want me to ask her, and we watched each other out of the corners of our eyes.
Sweet! Bring it! Probe away!
Sadly, there were only 5 other kids, and no talkative parents. Everyone seemed really confused at the smallness of the group, but I'll blame the beautiful day luring the parents away. All things considered, it was a nice welcoming atmosphere (lots of smiles for the baby!), I was told that it was never too young to start and that it was wonderful I was getting him into reading young. The 15 minutes was just about Torin's limit with sitting still.
I found myself trying to figure out the other caregivers. There was a much older mom, a fitness-guru mom (complete with water bottle... it was so cute!), a mom with a distracted look, grandparents, a dad (the friendliest-looking one, who sat next to me). Don't worry about the labeling of stereotypes... I presume that I appeared to be the clueless new mom. With 17 parent/kid pairs that normally attend, there's sure to be someone Torin and I will click with.
The structure of the story time was pretty solid... very simple songs with hand/body motions interspersed with 3 books. The books are left behind so that the kids can check them out from the library, and at the end a blanket is taken off of a table full of plastic stacking toys and the kids go to town. The toys looked very clean and I hear they are wiped with disinfectant each week.
Will we go back?
Yes. The kids were all much older that Torin (the upper limit is 3 years old), already walking/running and saying words, all kind of the same age. They all probably carry multiple transmissible diseases. But Torin was in awe of the lady singing the songs, and I could see his brain working really hard to figure out all the new information, so I think it'll be good for him. There's a break in the meetings until next month, but we'll be sure to go back.
But I will not sing in public. You can't make me. NEVER!!!
I could not get a library card because I didn't have proof that I lived at my current address. No matter, I will come better prepared next time.
I walked in early at the same time as another parent, and we waited outside the Story Room where there were extremely simplistic puzzles for small children. She said that we should stand up and wait in line about 5 minutes before the story-reading event began, because there's usually a fight to sit in the front, and the average is about 35 people in the room (they count at the end of every day).
The lady warned me that some of the other parents can get pretty aggressive... my "don't worry, I have a brown belt in jujitsu" joke didn't get more than a sideways partial smile out of her, and she clarified that other parents tend to ask a lot of probing questions. It made me wonder what questions she didn't want me to ask her, and we watched each other out of the corners of our eyes.
Sweet! Bring it! Probe away!
Sadly, there were only 5 other kids, and no talkative parents. Everyone seemed really confused at the smallness of the group, but I'll blame the beautiful day luring the parents away. All things considered, it was a nice welcoming atmosphere (lots of smiles for the baby!), I was told that it was never too young to start and that it was wonderful I was getting him into reading young. The 15 minutes was just about Torin's limit with sitting still.
I found myself trying to figure out the other caregivers. There was a much older mom, a fitness-guru mom (complete with water bottle... it was so cute!), a mom with a distracted look, grandparents, a dad (the friendliest-looking one, who sat next to me). Don't worry about the labeling of stereotypes... I presume that I appeared to be the clueless new mom. With 17 parent/kid pairs that normally attend, there's sure to be someone Torin and I will click with.
The structure of the story time was pretty solid... very simple songs with hand/body motions interspersed with 3 books. The books are left behind so that the kids can check them out from the library, and at the end a blanket is taken off of a table full of plastic stacking toys and the kids go to town. The toys looked very clean and I hear they are wiped with disinfectant each week.
Will we go back?
Yes. The kids were all much older that Torin (the upper limit is 3 years old), already walking/running and saying words, all kind of the same age. They all probably carry multiple transmissible diseases. But Torin was in awe of the lady singing the songs, and I could see his brain working really hard to figure out all the new information, so I think it'll be good for him. There's a break in the meetings until next month, but we'll be sure to go back.
But I will not sing in public. You can't make me. NEVER!!!
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