Catawba County News

A Storytime for Everyone

Published: February 27, 2020

Early childhood literacy is one of the library’s signature efforts, and we offer a wealth of programs to engage children, teach their parents and caregivers how to connect them with the world, and promote reading and education. Getting children started when they’re young – when synapses are developing and neurons firing – provides a much better chance that youngsters will develop personal curiosity, along with healthy bodies and minds, to last throughout their lives.

At each of the library’s branches, we offer a combination of storytimes and baby bounce sessions. These fun-filled activities ensure that babies and children are stimulated through all of their senses – and that they get a chance to interact as well. In a given class, we encourage everyone, child and parent, to sing songs, play, make crafts, and tell stories, complete with character-appropriate voices and big gestures. Key to it all is the necessity of doing these things together, which allows families to bond, children to feel safe to explore, and socialization to happen.

To expand the reach of our storytime offerings, we’re now excited to be launching a bilingual storytime for preschool children aged 3-5. Taking place Tuesday evenings at 6 pm at the St. Stephens Branch Library, the dedicated sessions will be presented in English as well as Spanish. As with all of our storytimes, children of any age and families of any background are welcome to attend.

Best of all, our storytimes and baby bounce classes take place on a weekly basis throughout the year, and they make for a great routine that kids can look forward to. And since they happen on different days, families can sub in storytime at a different branch if they weren’t able to make the one at their nearest location.

To see when these activity-filled sessions happen at all our branches, check out our monthly newsletters. And to keep the learning and engagement going year-round, parents and grandparents are invited to speak to a library staff member about all of the resources available for kids. Many of them are electronic, like Tumblebooks and ABC Mouse, and can be enjoyed at home, in the car, or anywhere else that some good, educational time is warranted.