We have a new children's librarian so I'm not longer doing storytime every week (hooray!) but I'm still her backup so I've been acting as her assistant the last few weeks so I can learn the routine if I need to fill in. Her storytimes are super-fun and I think she's doing a great job, but here are some of the concerns she brings to me:
"I introduced a frog puppet this week and I thought the kids weren't really into him, but when I put him away, a little girl started bawling and going 'but I wanted to touch him!!!' What should I have done?!"
"We were doing 'Herman the Worm.' In the original song he eats fruits but I thought the toddlers wouldn't know what lots of the fruits were so I did animals instead, and I guess I didn't think it through because I did a dog and a cat and a parent got mad at me for singing about pets being eaten."
"We were doing a song with animals and colors and we got to blue and I couldn't think of any blue animals, so I said 'blue cow' and then this week I asked the kids what color a cow is and one of them shouted 'blue!' I think I am a bad influence."
coming next week, the kid who is terrified of any puppets
ReplyDeleteHa! So true! (We had a discussion this week if we should book a clown as one of our summer reading performers, or if that would lead too many kinds to associate the library with terror.)
DeleteNo clowns, please!
DeleteSomedays I think storytime would be fine if the kids were completely silent and sometimes I think it would be fine if the parents were completely silent, they criticize the books and sometimes tell me to read books that they liked when they were kids, books that no kid would sit still for in storytime
ReplyDeleteAargh!
DeleteGreat link!
ReplyDeleteRegarding the frog puppet, I've noticed that my nephew is often very quiet and observant in new situations. He will later verbally express his enthusiastic reaction to what was going on but in the moment he doesn't do or say much and honestly I think it just takes them time to process something they haven't seen before.
ReplyDeleteBut also, if you set yourself the goal of never making the kids cry you will *always* fail. Kids cry sometimes and it can be unpredictable, unavoidable, and even necessary.
As for the other stuff...the kids are alright! They will be FINE. Long before she sang a song about eating pets, people were singing about an old lady who swallowed a fly and, oh yeah, pets! We have a grand tradition of grim children's songs.