Southwest Regional Library offers weekly story time for children.
Robin Marshall, one of the librarians at Southwest Regional Library, said it is important for parents to bring their children to story time because it is a way to model to parents on what they can be doing at home with their children such as reading books out loud in a creative way.
“It’s super important that they get that and see that [they] can do different voices or can read this book a different way than from when [they] read it before,” Marshall said.
Marshall said she chooses books that have a good rhythm, sound good to read out loud or have a good message.
Staff from the Little Gym came to the library on Oct. 26, to do a music and movement program for the children. The program was free and the kids got to play with instruments, sing and rhyme.
Kristen Stewart, a Kindermusik educator at the Little Gym, said programs like the music and movement program are important in the development of children.
“There is a lot of research that shows that kids who are a part of early music education programs have more school success, have better self-control [and] their language development is expanded,” Stewart said. “I’m a huge advocate for it because it really boosts all areas of development.”
Marshall said attendance for story time varies.
“Our largest attendance is the music and movement one,” she said. “In the summertime, we would have up to 100 people all in here doing story time. Then of course in the fall, our attendance kind of tapers off once school is back in session.”
Marshall said story time is offered four times a week.
There is a bilingual story time at 4 p.m. on Mondays, music and movement program at 11 a.m. on Tuesdays, regular pre-K story time at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesdays, and family story time at 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays.
“This Saturday, we are going to be doing some spooky stories ahead of Halloween,” Marshall said.
The story time schedule can be found on the Southwest Regional Library online calendar.