Aaron goes to school....sort of.

I have been wanting to go to the open storytime at Arlington Heights Library for a long time now. Just never have gotten around to it. After going to the Indy meet I was told that I need to watch some chick flicks to get my girl card back, so Aaron and I went to the library and I rented Steel Magnolias and I started getting books for Aaron off of the summer reading list for Pre-K.

One day when we were at the library, a teacher for the storytime class asked me if we would like to go to storytime? I felt bad because there were only two other kids in the class, plus I had been wanting to know what it would be like. We went in and I was blown away! They did a song...shake shake shake the crazies out! Then read two stories...a Rocketship one and Goodnight Moon. Sang another song this time we broke out the instruments. At the end of the song when the teacher had to collect the instruments Aaron started to cry. Did a fingerplay about a rocketship. Did a felt story with Goodnight Moon. That was really neat! And at the end all the children got to color a star and put a magnet on the back to take home and put on the fridge. When we were done coloring Aaron also cried then we sang a goodnight song.

I was so pleased with our visit to storytime I was really looking forward to the next Tuesday when we could go again. I looked at the website to check when the next one would be...and much to my dismay they only go every other week, so I started looking into surrounding libraries. Well, I only really looked at one. The Mt. Prospect library! I know I live really close to it so I bet they would let me sign up!

Well I went and sure enough there were spots open for Story Tots on Wednesday nights. A class for 2-3 year olds! It is an hour long and parents come to this class. There is also an open storytime on Tuesday nights. So Aaron and I attended the open storytime...they sang Hello Everybody How do you do how do you do today! Then the teacher read 3 books in all...they did a felt story The Fat Cat. They had books lining up on the cabinet with the theme of the day that the child could check out and read at home. We also watched a movie, Aaron turned to me and said Dark. During the last book one of the children had to use the restroom and their parent wasn't in storytime with them so the teacher had to stop reading the book and help the child find his parents for a second, and Aaron started shouting Come Back, Come Back! It was too cute! At the end of class the teacher handed out a take home printout about the Fat Cat!

We went to Story Tots tonight. I had to rush home and feed Aaron! We had to leave the house at 5:45 to get there on time! When we arrived we had to find Aaron's nametag and put a sticker on it. Then we sat sort of in a circle. They sang the Hello Everybody song. Then the teacher read 2 books. One being one of the books that was read last night. She also repeated the felt story about the fat cat from last night and the handout was also the same. They did a different activity about pretending to be a cat and the teacher was crawling around the room. Aaron flirted with a little girl in his class. I told him to say Hi and she said Hi back and he got all bashful! The teacher had a bunch of books in a bag and had the kids take them out of the bag and pick a book to have open storytime with the parents. Aaron and I opted for a book about a Choo Choo train. I think the teacher then broke out two chests of toys! Aaron was in heaven. Aaron stacked up all the legos on the lego train piece. Then he was looking through all the food items and saying what all of them were. The teacher took notice and started playing with him a bit. When it was time to put the toys away and play time was over. Aaron started to cry, but the teacher consoled him and asked him if he could find the lid and help her put the lid on the toys. She also told him to wave goodbye to the toys and that he would see them next week. Then it was time to take off the name tag. I really thought Aaron would not let the teacher have the name tag back, but he saw all the other kids taking their name tags off and putting them in the basket that he tried to take his off. He needed help though...so he came running over to me and I took it off for him and he was happy to put it in the basket. I think we sang a goodbye song? And then we got the handout sheet.

I think on Tuesdays Aaron and I will alternate with the Arlington Heights Library. I really like the Arlington Heights libraries theme more...and not sooo many books for young kids to sit through. And we won't repeat alot of the same stuff back to back. It was a lot of fun though.

I am soo glad that all of this is free. It is a lot like school, but just not learning about shapes and colors and numbers and letters. I think Aaron is learning more important things at storytime. Like listening skills and social skills.

Aaron has had a problem lately about pushing his boundaries, he keeps asking to see what he can get away with. He really is fine...until he doesn't get what he wants....then all hell breaks loose. I can't wait until we can get this under control!

His Halloween costume came today! Yay! And it fits him as long as he doesn't grow anymore!