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Brown Public Library gives children storytelling experience

By Kara Swarbrick
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

"In the United States today it is estimated that up to 10 percent of children have learning disabilities," says an extension of the Ohio State University website (ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5287.html).

The sad aspect of this is that the remedy for this particular problem is so simple that many people overlook it. Reading to a child at a young age helps them during their future school years.

The Brown Public Library in Northfield, Vt., is helping to prevent this problem by having regularly scheduled story hours where the children are welcome to participate in games, activities and crafts, as well as the stories.

"We have toddler story hour designed for children under three on Monday mornings at 10 o'clock," said Sharon Bartram, Brown Library director. "It's specifically designed for toddlers: quick little things, because we don't expect them to sit for long periods of time."

Wednesday and Thursday mornings at 10 a.m. are the story hours for children between ages three and five years.

All story hours contain songs, finger plays, flannel boards, crafts, and stories which are all age appropriate.

"We also take our story hour to the Northfield daycare [on Water Street] every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m.," said Bartram. "We invite other daycares that are small enough to bring children to attend story hours during the week, and we will go to other daycares as time permits."

Monday nights at 6:30 p.m. the library hosts a "Bedtime Story Hour" where children are encouraged to come in their pajamas, and the stories are centered on bedtime themes. This story hour is beneficial to working parents who may be unavailable for the daytime hours.

"The Bedtime Story Hours are wonderful," Bartram said. "It's an opportunity for working families, if both parents work, for them to bring their children to story hour at night, because they can't come during the day."

According to the Ohio State website, parents who don't read can still encourage reading to children by making up stories to go with picture books with no words or attending a regular storytelling time with their children.

Brown Public Library has a youth librarian, Jean Jolley, who is in charge of the story hours.

"For the past two years we've had a grant from the Freeman Foundation, and that has enabled us to hire a youth services librarian, and this is why we're able to do a little more than we used to do," Bartram said. "She works 20 hours a week, and she does the five different story hours and also assists young people in the library when they're looking for information, when she's here."

The task of putting on the story hours may seem overwhelming, with so many small children to supervise, but Jolley, for the most part, handles the varying number of kids on her own.

"I enjoy being with children and teaching children," said Jolley, who was the assistant librarian before taking over the role of youth librarian two months ago. But this is not her first time leading groups of children.

In the past, she has been a Brownie Scout leader and Girl Scout leader, and now that her children are grown she enjoys participating in the education of other children.
The group size that Jolley has on any given day varies.

"Depending on how cold it is, determines how many children come," Bartram said. "We go from one or two to 30. Saint Mary's preschool comes every third week, and when they come we always have a crowd."

Many of the story hours have various themes. One can be based on a particular author and the next on a holiday.

According to Jolley, the themes give the story hour direction. All the hour's activities and books and crafts are based around that central theme, whether it is heart-shaped cookies for Valentine's Day or paper snowflakes for the winter's storms.

The story hours have activities along with the stories that encourage the kids to engage in the conversation and actively take part in the hour, so that "even the shy ones get a chance to go up in front of the group and participate and not feel uncomfortable about it," Jolley said.

"By teaching children to love and respect books, we give our children a head start to succeeding in life," said the website. "Reading to young children encourages and fosters creative thinking skills, promotes reading as an enjoyable activity, provides an educational opportunity for children to grow and develop mentally, gives children an appreciation and respect for books, enhances language and vocabulary development, and allows for quality family time, among other things."

The scientific research done on the effects of reading to children while they are young indicates that it is effective in increasing the appreciation children will have for reading as they grow into adults.

"[Story hour] is like their door to learning," Bartram said. "It's been proved over and over again that children who are read to at a young age are better students. They learn things a lot easier."

The timing of exposure is also a critical element in their development.

"If you're not exposed to something early, you may not get a real appreciation for it," Jolley said. "The brain expands so much from the time you're born, it just makes sense to put children in a situation where they're learning but also having fun, and I think story hour is important because it gets them away from the computers or the things that are not interactive."

Besides a greater appreciation for reading, children also receive guidance in developing their personalities, Jolley said.

"I think [story hour] helps to give the children more confidence," Jolley said. "They're small enough that if you call on the different children, even the shy ones do participate."

Story hour is also a time for the kids to relate to one another in a social scene.

"Introducing them to books in a group, I think, helps them to enjoy it more and feel comfortable in the library and also socialize with the other children, especially if they don't go to daycare at all," Jolley said.

Part of the complete story hour treatment is being able to pick out books at the end and check them out. According to Bartram, checking out their own book is a "big deal" to the children.

Ultimately, despite the themes and activities, the story hours are centered around the children.

"I think it's important to give children a positive outlook on life early on and to reinforce the good that's in them and the good that's given to them," Jolley said.