National Family Week

I was at the library all day today for National Family Week. In the morning I shared my power point presentation with some children in the Memorial Library. Then they looked around the Memorial Library at the displays and some memorabilia that the staff had put out. After that they went into the children's area to make paper airplanes and color assembly ships.

I had lunch at a restaurant by myself, which I don't usually do since there is a coffee shop in the Forum, but I could smell the pizza upstairs and it was too tempting. I got some good reading in.

In the afternoon I helped out with a special story time session. Another guest was there with Charlie the Crocodile talking about keeping your teeth clean. So we heard from Charlie and then we took turns reading books about teeth. Afterwords the children had some coloring and activity sheets to work on.

Everyone seemed aware that they probably wouldn't see me again and they were very appreciative of my volunteer work. All I can say is they helped me stay sane by giving me something to do! Not only that, but I do feel that some of the work I have done has helped me grow as a librarian and as a person. I was a very timid traveler, but no more after all my train and bus trips to various parts of Norfolk. And I've really enjoyed working more with school children, even if the boys are a little breast-obsessed. Finally, lets not forget that these experiences have given me lots of stories to tell!

Happy April Fools Day

I was sort of trying to pull a hoax claiming that I had tea with the Queen, but I just saw that the Prez is meeting with her and no one would believe I had tea with them both.

I went to the library today to meet with one of the children's librarians about an upcoming event. We used the office in the Memorial Library to talk, and both the ladies working in there today told us that a mom came in to say that her daughter was in one of the classes that came on the library tour a few weeks ago and it was the first time she had come home from school talking about what she did that day. Clearly the paper airplanes made an impression.

John and I went to watch some of his students in a moot court trial this afternoon. Moot court is not as much fun to watch as mock trial. I really wanted to bust into the Law and Order opening music followed by an enthusiastic "chum chum!" to liven things up. All the students did a great job arguing their case even though they didn't entertain me.

So You Want to be President

For some reason even when I rotate a scanned image so that it is facing the correct direction and save it that way, it doesn't want to upload that way. You'll have to turn your head to read the flier.

I presented a program at the children's library this morning. It was in honor of the upcoming inauguration, so the idea was that I would read books and sing songs related to being President and America in general. The books I chose were So You Want to be President? by Judith St. George, The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller, and Duck for President by Doreen Cronin. I also planned to sing "Yankee Doodle" and "Be Kind to Your Web Footed Friends" (to the tune of the "Star Spangled Banner.") And I planned to open with "My Aunt Came Back," which I had heard Jackie sing a few times and thought would be a good ice breaker.

As you may or may not be able to read on the flier the program was marketed for 8 and under. It was my dearest hope that school age children would come. It rained here for the first time in a week or two. School age children did not come. A few small children came. So here is what actually happened.

I started with my old storytime start-up song, "Sing, Sing, Sing With Me" (to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat.") Then, once they were with me we tried "My Aunt Came Back" (it worked okay because the parents were very participatory). I jumped strait to Duck for President since it was the shortest book, sung "Yankee Doodle" while marching, talked about some of the things in So You Want to be President? while showing pictures but did not read it, sang "Be Kind to Your Web Footed Friends," and then went into the craft.

The craft was making an American flag out of pre-cut pieces of construction paper. They had to draw on the stars, though, since cutting out lots of little stars would have been pretty difficult. There was also a Geroge W. coloring sheet. The White House website doesn't have a coloring sheet of Obama yet.

Overall, I think I managed a pretty good save. The program was meant for children older than the ones I got, but those kids were interested and I did what I could for them.

What are people in Norwich saying about America's outgoing president?

Before I started reading Duck for President I asked the kids, "Do you think a duck could be president?"
A dad who was just arriving said, "One is."
Not sure if that was a lame duck reference or something else.

I explained that we had George W. Bush coloring sheets because he is still the current president. In answer to groans, the children's librarian invited the patrons to deface the pictures as they wished. This is really funny because as a child I acquired a laminated picture of George H. W. Bush so that I could deface it, then wipe it off and do it again! (I blamed him for the endangerment of the spotted owls.) No one actually defaced any pictures of any of the Bushes today. They were much more interested in the flag craft, even though it was more complicated.

Parting comments:
The children's librarian really liked the song "My Aunt Came Back" and intends to use it herself in the future!

Upcoming Performances

Friday December 5th: Christmas Under Fire!
Ancient House is celebrating Christmas 1940s style. I will be bringing my guitar to Thetford where I will try to get visitors to the museum to sing Christmas carols with me.

Friday January 2nd: Toys and Tales!
This is another Ancient House event. There will be stories and toys from the past. I'll be doing some Roman storytelling.

Saturday January 17th: So You Want to be President
I am doing an American themed story time for the children's library to celebrate the inauguration of our new president.

Dust Bunny

Today I cleaned my office. It was accumulating clutter and dust. I took some pictures but I can't upload them right now. I'm going to blame it on the fact that John is using the Internet to watch the UGA game.

All the books are now on the book shelves and more than half of them come from the library. The Millennium Library only allows patrons to check out 15 books at one time and I am very near my limit between WWII books, guitar books, and the YA novel I'm reading. The one I'm going to have to buy my own copy of: Where Have All the Flowers Gone, a Singer's Stories, Songs, Seeds, Robberies by Pete Seeger.

I also vacuumed. At first I wasn't convinced it had made much of a difference. But when I emptied the tray a dust bunny the size of an actual bunny jumped out.

John did some cleaning today too, in the kitchen. But mostly he was saving the World....of Warcraft.

Rhyme Time

In the wee hours of the morning I awoke to yelling and banging. My first thought was "Someone in a neighboring flat has fallen down the stairs." As I rolled over in bed I realized John wasn't there. So my next thought was "John has fallen down the stairs." I lay there waking up and trying to decide what to do because if John wasn't seriously hurt he would probably rather I ignore his fall. Then I remembered why John wasn't in bed. He was staying up to watch the presidential debate. 9pm Eastern standard time. 2am our time. I asked myself for a moment if anything else could cause yelling and banging. Myself answered yes. I decided, while lying in the dark of the bedroom upstairs, that John was trying to keep himself occupied until the debate started by playing Mario Kart. And he was losing. I opened the bedroom door and came down the stairs where I did not find John in a pitiful pile of arms and legs. I opened the door to the living room to find John playing Mario Kart with the television volume down very low. I told him I had come to turn the radiators down. Oh and also, his Mario Kart exclamations had made me think he had fallen down the stairs. I didn't hear him again.

This afternoon I went to a Tiny Tots Rhyme Time in the children's area of the Millennium Library. I just observed today but I will be helping out with some Rhyme Times in the future. The children in attendance were infants and toddlers. So, some of them said the rhymes and did the actions along with the librarians, and some bounced on mum's knee while she helped them out. The program was all rhymes with one board book of the Incey Wincey Spider. The librarians handed out some rattles and other noise making devices at the beginning and also handed puppets and stuffed animals to the children after they were done using them during the program. When it was over they collected everything. Rhyme Time started with quieter finger play rhymes and progressed to marching and wiggly jiggly rhymes. I recognized about half of them, but even of the ones I knew there were usually some differences.

I like horsey rhymes, so I'll transcribe for you the one we did today (new to me):

Horsey Horsey, don't you stop
Just let your feet go clipperty clop
Your tail goes swish
And the wheels go round
Giddy up, we're homeward bound

Horsey Horsey, on your way
You've made the journey many a day
Your tail goes swish
And the wheels go round
Giddy up, we're homeward bound

On Friday I am going to pirate party to celebrate National Bookstart Day. The National Bookstart program provides free books to children, and they have just added a new package for preschool age children that looks like a treasure chest.

While I was at the library I was also able to check out my first books (since my library card finally arrived in the mail this week). I got Just Henry by Michelle Magorian. (Expect a review of this book in my other blog.) Just Henry is on a reading list for a young adult reading group I will be attending in November. I discovered that the Millennium Library has a huge music collection so I also checked out a guitar book, just to mix things up with my regular practice.