new weird normal

It's taken several days, but our family has settled into our new, temporary routine.  

I've been working at home since last week, Robert has been a lot busier helping businesses work from home, and Rachel started her online classes this week. We still don't know if Izzy will be continuing her semester classes online or finishing the semester with her 3rd quarter grades. Last semester she started over with math, which is what I had to do when I started college. It's crazy but true. I started with first grade math and worked my way up to Algebra, which is as far as I needed to make it in order to graduate. I had huge holes in my education, and Izzy's the same way. She is almost finished with second grade math (in addition to wading through high school geometry). A couple weeks ago we were given permission and access to have her start over with English as well as math. She does a few lessons each day and Robert and I help her with the tricky stuff. Other than that, she's largely without things to do. She struggles to entertain herself and is quite social. It's been really tough for her so we're hopeful we can get some online learning of some kind or another set up for her. 

Even though I'm working from home, I've been waking up at my normal time, some time between 5 and 6, and have continued my morning yoga and quick jog with one of the puppies. Before breakfast, Izzy and I usually read a bit of the last book that was assigned to her for her English class, which is Malala. Izzy, Robert, and I have breakfast together and develop a daily plan for Izzy before Robert and I "go to work." One of us wakes Rachel up at 8. She has classes all day two days of the week and then it's very random. She will lay in her bed all day if we don't hassle her. This happened during winter break as well. She's been doing much better this time around, getting up when we ask her to, and participating in family activities. We usually all have lunch together unless one of us needs to keep working. Then we work for a few more hours before I round up whoever is free for an afternoon walk.  One of us makes dinner or heats up leftovers and I usually squeeze in another hour or two of work that's not library work. We have dinner and afterwards Izzy and I usually read a bit more Malala. 

I'm hoping we find out about Izzy's classes here in the next few days. We've also got to make another trip to the grocery store here soon, which I'm dreading, but it's a two-person job and we're out of quite a few things at this point.

What's everyone else doing during this bizarro time? I hope everyone has settled into a new, temporary routine and enjoying the unexpected extra family/pet time.

Here are a few pictures of our new normal:

When we go for walks we try to look for the unusual. My friend, Ann, who's a poet calls these moments her 'haiku moments,' so that's how I now think of them too.

Ella has definitely been enjoying the extra company. She's a big fan of Rachel.

If Rachel's not sleeping whenever I duck my head into her room, there's usually something unexpected going on in there. 

crinkly-nosed pig

I had two totally different crowds for each of my storytimes this week. The first group of kids were all pretty antsy and distracted and the second group of kids were super engaged. Both groups were on the small side.

My theme this week was all about mud, which was perfect because it rained all day the day before storytime.

Books we read:

One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root and Jane Chapman

This is a tough book to read. No matter how many times I practiced, the rhymes didn't flow well and the unique words didn't work quite right. I'm not sure if the kids picked up on my discomfort with the rhymes, but this wasn't as big a hit as I had hoped. Yes, there's counting, and yes, I was able to secure a humongous version of this book that was larger than two toddlers put together, but it was a bit of a flop. I asked the kids to help me with one of the repeated phrases in One Duck Stuck. When the duck, who remains stuck for pretty much the whole book, gets help from each group of animals he cries for help and whatever group of animals are currently trying to help him say, "we can, we can!" My first storytime didn't care for the repeated phrase, but my second storytime was all about it. I'm on the fence about whether I'll use this book again.

Underground by Denise Fleming 

This was a huge hit! There are lots of things to find under ground in this simple, fun read. As soon as I asked each storytime group where something was, all the kids rushed to the front to help. Thankfully, both groups were small so this worked out marvelously. After this storytime, I will definitely mark this as a great book for small groups, but maybe not the best book for large groups.

Yoga pose of the week: Frog

Putting our arms over our heads for the frog pose was a little too weird and hard for pretty much all of us, so next time we do the frog yoga pose we're going to go back to frog yoga 101. The frog pose is really such a fun pose though. We squatted, took a deep breath in, and jumped with a loud ribbit.

Activities:

Beanbags: This week was the last week we played with beanbags and a lot of the kids knew the beanbag routine, which was adorable to see. 

Flannel board activity: I did this super duper cute (and kinda magical) felt board activity during the second storytime, and it was such a big hit. Everyone gasped when the pigs came out out the bathtub clean, and one boy figured out the secret and was absolutely delighted to tell everyone about it (the pigs are reversible - one side is dirty and the other is clean). 

Here is the script, which I mostly followed:

I have five dirty piggies who need a bath.

One dirty piggy climbs in the bath.

The water splashes 

and the bubbles go pop pop pop.

Another piggy decides to join the fun!

Two little piggies taking a bath…

The bathtub is full. Are the piggies clean?

One clean piggy climbs out of the bathtub…

After reading One Duck Stuck, which was propped up on the magnetic side of our magnetic/felt board cart, I flipped the cart around and jumped into the five dirty piggies activity. Without a doubt this was my smoothest transition so far in my entire storytime history. Transitions are so stinkin' hard. It was also organic and flowed smoothly. I realized that, while I put up my script on the slideshow for my magnetic board/felt activities, there's really no need to show that slide. It's really just for me to practice until I have it memorized. The part where everyone participates is easy enough to just tell them about it. On that note, everyone enjoyed clapping each time we got to the 'pop, pop, pop' part, which was a last minute add-in and totally necessary and awesome.

I can just rave and rave about this little piggy activity for days. I'm over the moon about it.

Songs we sang:

We sang Our Feet/Hands/Elbows/Chins are stuck in mud to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell and it was a spectacular flop. Due to some pretty big teenager drama (a five-hour meltdown) the night before my storytime I got less than four hours of sleep. I'm sure this is why I fell over twice because my balance is normally pretty darn incredible (I know I'm bragging but I can hold the eagle pose the length of a 3-4 min song easy as pie). While doing the frog pose I toppled forward and totally face-planted in the second storytime. This brought on squeals of laughter from pretty much everyone, kids and grown-ups (I think they thought I did it on purpose to be funny). And then I totally fell over during the mud song too. All of the kids looked confused the entire way through the song. When I fell over their expressions didn't change one bit. It was so funny I almost burst out laughing but thankfully, held it together. It's interesting how some songs/activities/rhymes/books completely flummox them. It's as if they're thinking, why would you ever think I would like this?!? 

We also sang the hand-washing song during the first storytime, which the parents got a huge kick out of. While planning my storytimes in December I never thought just how perfectly appropriate the hand-washing song was going to be.

We also sang Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes during the first storytime and as usual. there was lots of laughter.

Cute Moments:

* For each storytime I place a long row of favorite picture books along the shelf and let everyone know they're available for checkout. I usually put up about 10-20 books total for both storytimes. A couple weeks ago at the end of storytime a patron said she was "just going to take all the rest of the books because librarians have the best taste." This week I was nearly cleaned out after each storytime by different patrons who pretty much did the same thing. I had to go grab more books between storytimes! MY HEART!

* A patron asked to take a picture of one of my slides (the second quieting down rhyme) because she wanted to keep doing it at home with her toddler.

* I checked out another puppet from the puppet catalog, and this puppet was instantly adored. It was a loved and dingy-looking pig with the most perfect crinkly snout and adorable curly tail. I couldn't figure out why his snout was particularly dingy until the puppet did its puppet duty and began greeting all the kids with lively oinking. Though my kids know to high five the puppet and almost every kid high fives now, even the shy kids (!), they did something rather unexpected and remarkable today. After their high fives, almost every kid couldn't resist that perfectly crinkly nose and had to touch it, most doing so almost reverently and with the utmost respect. So there was the crazy high five and then directly afterwards, this sweet little pat on the nose. There's a book or movie here somewhere about this perfectly crinkly nose. Who wants to write it?

This is a picture of the pig, who also has a warm smile too. Look at that nose!

On a sad note, our library programs have been puase until the end of March due to COVID-19. This means I will not have storytime updates for a few weeks.

owls and elephants

This week's storytime was all about owls (and elephants too). I've been wanting to do an owl storytime for awhile, and so I was particularly excited about this one.

My first storytime was a little more than full and a teensy bit bananas. My second storytime was reserved, younger, and had kind of an antsy but quiet energy.

Before we get started, I have to mention a possible solution to my hello song where all the puppets go back to sleep (they get stuffed back into the bag around my neck). Because this was an owl storytime I invited other bird puppets to help sing the hello song and gave them perches (various bottles I found). They were also kind of hidden behind a row of books on the counter so it was still a surprise each time a new puppet was introduced. I'm going to use this same method next week and see how it works.

I also borrowed my first puppet from my library system's storytime collection. We can now check out storytime things like puppets and big books, which I'll be using next week, and whatever storytime thing I need arrives with our courier. If someone had told me I'd be getting puppets in the mail when I was an adult I would have wanted to stop being a kid at that very moment.

So the puppet I borrowed is the snowy owl puppet, and its head actually turns, which was exciting for most kids, and a little scary for some.



I also want to apologize for not sharing any early literacy skills. Yikes! I've been taking a much more organic approach to early literacy skills this season and have been making a great effort to show rather than tell if that makes any sense at all. The skills that I'm demonstrating are still a part of my slide show though. We have the lovely 6 by 6 program here at my library for those of you who are new to blog. We focus on 6 early literacy skills, and they're each represented by an animal. I typically demonstrate one to three skills during each storytime.

Toucan: Talk, Talk, Talk
Goat: Take Time to Rhyme
Monkey: Have Fun with Books
Turtle: Tell Stories About Everything
Peacock: Look for Letters Everywhere
Kangaroo: Notice Print All Around You

Books we read:

A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na



This book has one of my favorite covers ever. Anytime I look at it I have a little giggle. The book is quite excellent too. The text is simple and the illustrations are packed will all kinds of great things to talk with kids about. We talked about the patterns on each animal, numbers of some of the animals, how many of us could close just one eye or make a fish face etc. I like how this book is so versatile. My second group was younger and quieter so the grown-ups and I counted more than anything else. In the first storytime, we talked about pretty much everything and even counted the one-eyed birds. I believe there are twenty-three of them, and three kids were still counting with me by the end of counting all of them. 

Night Owl by Toni Yuly

We read this book in just the second storytime, and it was the winner of the day. The kids absolutely loved it and were memorized by it. I was able to incorporate our ASL sign of the day, which was "want," when I talked about how the night owl wanted his mommy. The kids crawled out of their shells just long enough to help me make all the lovely sounds AND they seemed fascinated by how the endpapers begin with an orangey-yellow color (daylight) and end in purpley-blue (nighttime). This book skyrocketed to the top of my list after this week's storytime.

Look Whooo's Counting by Suse MacDonald

Sadly, this book wasn't a winner. The animals are tough to guess and I read it at the end of storytime when all attentions spans were completely exhausted. I'll definitely try it again though in the future.

Magnetic Board Activities:

Last week a kid asked where the elephants were, so I brought out my five silly elephants for a successful and fun rhyme for the first storytime (and the kid was delighted). Everyone even helped me shout whoopee each time a new elephant hung on a string.

Five Hoot Owls Sitting in a Tree:

Five Hoot Owls


Five hoot owls sitting a tree
One flew away, how many do you see?

Four, three, two, one. 

I believe I got this from Sunflower Storytime. This was a lot of fun, but I'm going to make new owls next time I do this. Because each owl was multiple colors I couldn't really ask what color they were. And because I didn't use my scrap collage paper with patterns on it, we couldn't talk about shapes. Two missed opportunities.



Beanbag Activities:

We did the same beanbag activities as last week. Time-intensive but lots of fun. I even got to hear a kid say, "yellow," so I'm thrilled.

Cute Moment of the Day:

The shyest girl in the second storytime, who was horrified by all the puppets, and only quietly took everything in with no participation, toddled right up to me and held out her hand for a stamp. I nearly fell over with shock. I went from 'scary puppet lady' to 'possibly an ok person because, well, stamps.'

Favorite February Reads

There weren't any snow days in February, but I still found lots of time to read. Here are my favorite February reads!

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (Juvenile Fiction)

As a child I found Anne's character to be incredibly obnoxious and long-winded. I didn't have the patience to comb through her ramblings for the rare but glorious jewels of wisdom and beauty. There are a handful of books I adored as a child (Chronicles of Narnia comes to mind) but when my adult self read them they had lost their magic. I'm not sure I've come across a book that I abhorred as a child but now immensely love as an adult. Montgomery's ability to bring characters to life and create a place that's just as real as the world I'm living in is eerily magical. Anne of Green Gables has jumped right into that ever-so-small list of books that have truly transported me into another life just as real as my own. There are so many favorite moments for me I can't possibly share them all. But here are a few: 

"Do you think amethysts can be the souls of good violets?" 

Also about violets: "Anne walked through [Violet Vale] on her way to school with reverent steps and worshipping eyes, as if she trod on holy ground." My first childhood home had a carpet of bird-foot violets that I, too, worshiped. I've tried to write many things about that special carpet of bird-foot violets, but Montgomery says it perfectly. It was holy ground. 

And lastly, I've always heard that quote, "'Marilla, isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?'" and thought it was a good thing to keep in mind. I nearly fell over laughing when I read it in context with the story." Throughout the book Marilla tries her best to keep Anne grounded, but there is no finer example of this than during the moment when Anne is prattling on about mistakes. Marilla's almost mean about it by today's parenting standards, but Anne just waltzes through the harsh words on her way to another fancy. It's hilarious. While I still find Anne a teensy bit annoying, it's such a small thing when I think of everything I love about this book and all the beauty and words of wisdom it gave me when I was finally ready to give it my full attention.

* Side note: I've started watching Anne with an E on Netflix, and it's quite good. Marilla, Rachel, and Matthew are almost impossibly close to how I imagined their characters to be. Matthew, especially, has won my heart on this show. As the show progresses, it's less and less like the series, but still delightful.

Dictionary for a Better World by Irene Latham, Charles Waters, and Mehrdokht Amini (Juvenile Nonfiction)

This book is so many things - excellent quotes ready to lead me on a wild goose chase (always fun), prompts for writing and art, thought-provoking poems AND the type of forms they're written in, and lots of vibrant art. After reading this I have new collage/art techniques to try, prompts to share with writers and artists, quotes to find in their original sources (more books to read!), and lots of positivity to share with others and mull over.

Kid Gloves by Lucy Knisley (Adult Graphic Memoir)

Kid Gloves was equal parts sweet, terrifying, and informational. Here are a few moments that really stood out to me: 

1. Discovering ancient Greeks thought "a woman's uterus would just...FLOAT around the body, untethered to anything," and Knisley's snarky drawing of a uterus running away was quite possibly my favorite part of the book (Except for the obvious baby part at the end. Whoops spoiler alert. There's a baby at the end.). 

2. I was wowed by Knisley's brutal honesty about her miscarriages. I can imagine that, just like any traumatic life happening, knowing you're not alone when you go through it eases some of the pain so bravo to Knisley for opening up. Knisley talks about her infatuation with 80's & 90's pregnancy/baby movies, and as I read through her list, I was surprised by how many there were (and how many I've seen). When Knisley discovers that a miscarriage happens in one out of every four pregnancies she questions why one out of every four 80's & 90's pregnancy/baby movies doesn't involve miscarriage, which I found to be a quietly profound and powerful question. 

3. Initially I laughed at her analogy of her doctor being Fonzie and her pregnant body the busted Jukebox, but when I discovered her doctor was truly grossly incompetent, I only felt angry and horrified. 

4. I also thought her breastfeeding teacher was hilarious, but thankfully I had no whiplash of emotions with her. She was just a kooky lady who brought a squeaky hamburger toy to her breastfeeding class. 

The Truth About Grandparents by Elina Ellis (Picture Book)

A celebration of grandparents with illustrations that are sooo adorable and funny. The kissing page makes me incredibly giddy. PDA at its very best. Though this is one of those picture books that the adults will enjoy more, I am more than ok with that because it's such a beautiful and zany representation of grandparents. Also, grandma is definitely not skinny, but she roller skates and does yoga and there's no mention of her being large (not even in a 'hey I'm proud to be big' kind of way either, which is fine but not always necessary). I can't remember the last time I saw a book that gives such a discreet and lovely nod toward body positivity.