Baby Explorers Wrap-up and Baby Time!

We wrapped up our Baby Explorers series oh, over a year ago? It took me a while to get this last post up. But never fear, we continued monthly Baby Times, which start again in September, so I’ll still have baby stuff to post!

Our third session was music themed, with lots of instruments, buckets, kitchen utensils, and general noisemakers.

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The shakers and bells didn’t make it into the pictures, but you know what shakers and bells look like.

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The last session was a little more storytime-formatted, we started with a book and puppet song (When Cows Wake Up in the Morning) and then I set out animal themed felts and toys to play with.

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After the success of these sessions, I re-imagined our baby storytime program. Now marketed as Baby Time, we meet once a month and start off with a new songs and rhymes, maybe a book, and then have a 15-20 minute playtime followed by bubbles.

I found that emphasizing the rhymes and playtime really encouraged people to bring babies. When it was called a storytime, many people were hesitant to bring babies because they weren’t sure what we would do and thought their babies were too little! Now we’re getting a wide age range, from 3 months through toddlerhood, which presents its own challenges, but is a lot of fun!

Baby Explorers #2: Fine Motor Activities!

I have been sharing the activities that I did as part of my “Baby Explorers” series in March. See the first baby explorers post for more information on these sessions!

I started our second session with our hello song and a read-along board book, and then we spent the rest of the time letting the babies explore the different activities I set out, all designed to help develop fine motor skills. We ended with bubbles from the bubble machine for the last five minutes.

room set up for baby explorers: blocks, basket with pipe cleaners, pompoms in muffin tin with plastic tongs, ribbon tug box, board books, scarves in kleenex box

The room set up: lots of different things to play with! read more »

Baby Explorers #1: Sensory Activities!

In March, I did a month-long series of baby activities on Saturday mornings called “Baby Explorers.” It was a sort of hybrid baby storytime/playtime.

Baby Explorers March 2015

My library has tried several things to get a baby storytime going, but a weekday morning just hasn’t worked, and previous more traditional baby storytimes on Saturdays weren’t well attended either. BUT, with a combo of better publicity and enticing activities, this worked! I think it’s going to become a monthly event in the fall.

I wanted to focus on demonstrating easy to make toys and explain the benefits of simple activities.  I focused on a different broad topic each week, and this post I’ll go over the first one, Sensory Activities. read more »

Baby Explorers!

I’ve tried a couple of baby programs at my library, but nothing has really stuck. The latest is really working, though! Every Saturday in March I’ve had a session with a few songs and a story followed by open play and exploration.

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This was a great chance to talk with families, see what times work for them and what they’re interested in, and show them some fun baby play ideas. I’ve learned a few things:

  • Most parents of babies in my area can’t come to weekday events!
  • Events that aren’t described as “storytime” are more welcoming to people who aren’t sure what storytime for babies looks like.
  • Promotion on the usual sources – library facebook, flyers, newspaper – really isn’t enough for new parents, who might not be in the habit of looking at those things yet. We had the best success with having posts reposted on local Facebook parents’ groups.
  • It doesn’t take a lot to fascinate babies – really exciting experiences can be made with little time and no money.

Look for more posts soon where I’ll talk about each of the four sessions in detail!