Blog Entries

This is the big question that I know many of you have 3 times a year when suddenly, you’ve arrived for Storytime at the Handley Branch and you find that there is a playtime instead! Many of you may already know the answer, but we wanted to tell you a little bit more about our Storytime breaks, and how we will be aligning them to the Family Place Library accreditation we earned this year! 

     There are two big reasons that we go on a Storytime break:

A few times a year the children’s department goes on a storytime break. But what does that mean for you? It means every April, August, and December we pause our daily storytimes to prepare for the upcoming season. Fear not, there are still plenty of things to do at the library during a storytime break! 

Each week, we will have a different themed playtime experience set up for you and your littles to explore during the usual storytime timeframe! Everything from gross motor play to music and art exploration. See the list of themes by week below:

STEAM: What Does it Mean?

You’ve heard of STEM, but what is STEAM? It encompasses the same core tenets of science, technology, engineering, and math that STEM does, with the addition of an A for arts! In 2006, researcher Georgette Yakman found that the creativity and design focused thinking of the arts help contextualize STEM programs. Think of the liberal arts addition as the “who and why,” to the “what and how” of STEM.

During my time as a parent patron of storytime programs, I’ll admit; if I walked in to the children’s room, and it was playtime instead of storytime, I was disappointed. Who wouldn’t be? Likely it took a lot of effort to get yourself and your children out the door- maybe there were tantrums, blowouts, and last minute outfit changes. You ran a marathon this morning, and you want one of the rockstars who works in the Youth Services department to entertain you and your kids for 30 minutes!