A Little Introduction....

I am a youth librarian and have done story time for many...many years. My plan is to put up here many of the story times that I personally have done over the years with the craft ideas so that I may share them with a larger community of librarians. I remember starting out as a librarian, not knowing a while lot about what story time was, or how it was conducted. I was told “just read about Every Child Ready to Read”, got to the “Mother Goose on the Loose workshop” and it will all make sense. I stumbled and fumbled for my first year trying to make sense of all of it. Reading and reading trying to offer my kids and parents the best that I could.

The truth I had NO IDEA what I was doing, and you know what.....that was ok. I didn’t have my library degree. And actually getting my MLIS wasn’t even on my radar yet. All I knew was that I had my teaching degree and in 2008 still no one was hiring teachers and I had been trying for three years. I knew I wanted to work with children and I saw this as my “in” to work with children, even if they were younger than what I had originally planned to work with. You know what? I fell in love with story time, and library programming. All the kids that came to see me week after week.  They had no clue I was clueless. The kids had a blast while I worked so hard to figure it out. I read every book on early childhood literacy I could find, and I still do. I look for every article, I look for every little thing, every new craft or project or concept that I can try with my story time kids that might somehow give them a love for reading before they even step foot in a school setting, because I personally have seen what it looks like when they don’t love reading. I know how hard that is for someone.

I personally struggled with and seriously disliked reading anything until I got into college. Many of my teacher to this day are still surprised when I tell them that I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and Special Education and a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science. I get told “Well I never would have guessed that one.” Very few of my family members are big readers. Yes they read but maybe a couple of books in a year not a lot. So, me ending up in a position where I am encouraging children to develop a love for reading was not anything I grew up wanting to do as a little girl, but now that I am doing it, I cannot imagine myself doing anything else.

In this blog you will find programming ideas for many age groups from baby story time to teens, and I may even include some of the ideas for young adult (early 20’s) programming that I have but have never actually done. I wanted this to be a record of everything I have done in my career and will do, so anyone can use it as a resource to get started or just to find something new to do. Many of these things you may already be doing and that’s great, maybe a couple you aren’t any that’s ok too. Maybe some you like, and maybe some you don’t and that’s ok also. If you have any ideas of your own that you would like shared please feel free to email me. I will be glad to share them. 

I will be adding by Pinterest board link and goodreads links to this page as well. I am very active on these sites and love to share information about books and project ideas that I love and I never stop finding them on these sites in particular. Please feel free to share any feedback you have, but also please in the most positive way possible. We are all trying to learn and grow in our careers.