Week 12 Program Review: Children and Teens

[Samantha Maddox]

For this weeks forum entry I wanted to complete a program review in a library and incorporate it into children and teens. One issue, I am with out child. Lucky I have friends that have children and one in particular who is just the right age for Baby Rhyme Time! Miss Olive Pearl who is 20 months old and is pretty curious and interactive with the world. They are located in Redcliffe so I made a date for a Friday morning at 9:30am at the Oxley Avenue Redcliffe library. I was unsure and nervous about going to this program but the morning was not about me it was about Olive and to partake in a program at a library that is fun and interactive for children.

Baby Rhyme Time is popular, there are young children of varying ages between under twelve months of age to two years but the library is really accommodating and if they have siblings that are a bit older they are also encouraged to participate, everyone is made to feel like they are included.

According to Penny Peck, librarians have been doing entertainment type programs since the 1970’s to encourage the use of librarians and to promote reading.

So what would Rhyme Time include? On my drive over I made a mental ‘hit list’ of all the songs I could remember from when I was little and thought that was some thirty plus years ago, so they would no longer be relevant.

What I was so impressed with was how not only interactive it was for the children but how it personalised each child in the room. There are welcoming songs and active songs to get everyone moving and running around and then it starts to slow down. There is a real ebb and flow to the process and it is very considerate, as no parent wants to take home a child that has been revved up. They wind down with not so active, gentler songs but I did like that they incorporated if you’re happy and you know it at the start of the session and also at the end. So if there had been (there was) any upsets during the group it seems that this song helped a couple of little’s get out of their funk.

My hit list that I was thinking of on my drive over was still relevant. They still used all the golden oldies that I remembered. Such as heads, shoulders knees and toes and I’m a little teapot. There was also plenty of new songs that I had not heard of such as, ‘this is where the ladies ride’ and ‘boing, boing’.

What I felt after I had experienced this program with Jess and Olive was that like Penny Peck states, they add value to the community, not just for books but are also a centre bringing cultures together. I agree with this whole heartedly but I also believe that they show children and adults but children in particular for this post, that they are individuals and they are capable of so much. And libraries, if utilised to their full potential and capacity can and do this for every age group.

According to Kate Davis, SQL has the best story time and after what I saw and the effects and reactions that it elicited in Olive, we will be making time to experience this.

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