Here’s what’s happening at the library!
The holidays bring families closer together literally and figuratively. Many Christmas programs that have aired recently have shown an older member of the family reading any number of classic Christmas stories to attentive children.
Thirty-one such children came to the library in November for Kansas Reads to Preschoolers month. There they sat listening to a story called “The Napping House” by Audrey Wood. They listened as a snoring granny, dreaming child, dozing dog, snoozing cat, and slumbering mouse napped in a bed. A tiny uninvited pesky visitor wakes them all up and no one in the house is napping any more. Simple story? Yes, but it honed into their “prior knowledge”.
My Grandma Nanny read to me the Little Golden Books and Mother Goose rhymes. Was it the story or having Nanny close that sparks the memory? I can’t remember all of the stories, but I know how it felt sitting beside her.
Young mothers bring their children to story time, and that is wonderful, but having mom, grandmom, babysitter hold them and read, brings an important element to the story.
Advertisers can say all they want about their computer programs improving reading skills, but after teaching struggling readers for years, nothing compares to a warm sincere teacher sitting beside a child with non-threatening corrections and a pat on the back for doing well.
Back to the topic of family. Church groups, clubs, teams, small towns, or even repeat patrons to the library get to feeling like members of your extended family. You get to know their likes, dislikes, opinions, and tastes in books and movies.
They say that families that read together, stay together. Try it this holiday season.
“The Gingerbread Man Loose at the Zoo” will be the next preschool read. I’ll try my hand at making gingerbread samples for them to taste as they listen, which reminds me of part of the Jim Carrey movie “Bruce Almighty” in which Carrey’s TV reporter character says: “Does this cookie represent the pride of (Waterville)? Its dedicated and hard-working citizens the key ingredient…..with a few nuts thrown in. And finally, the love of our families, which provides the rich chewy center making our (Waterville) the sweetest place to live. And that’s how the cookie crumbles.”
Happy Reading!