Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

I recently lead a Kids Cooking program for 24 Kindergarten-2nd graders. I say 24 kids, but what wound up happening was a lot of the grown-ups stayed too so we had 37 people at my program--which was great...but chaotic! It was a little stressful, but a lot of fun. I had a couple parents tell me they had as much fun as their kids. I got many thank yous at the end, and even one hug. All in all, it was a success. The kids made bugs out of healthy snacks, borrowing and slightly modifying ideas from Disney's Family Fun website . (I put my slightly modified recipes below!) After we were all finished making our bug snacks I read two stories: The Wolf's Chicken Stew , Keiko Kasza and Whopper Cake , Karma Wilson--the kids LOVED the stories (and made me laugh when some of them thought Whopper Cake was about a cake made out of Burger King Whoppers. :) PEANUT BUTTER FLY: Ingredients: Peanut butter Apple Carrot Instructions: Simply make a nut-butter sandwich using apple sl...

It is hard to think of what I want to say after posting nothing of my own substance as of late. With the holidays over and programs at the Library back in full swing, I feel like my week spent out East in Massachusetts--at the Farm I used to work out--was eons ago. Best friend K and I were set to leave for our roadtrip the Sunday after Christmas...which we did. However, we decided to leave at 1:30 a.m. instead of 5am, to be adventurers, in "true roadtrip fashion," and really because we had gone out with our friends that night and neither one of us were the least bit tired...So it began. A journey. A roadtrip. A homecoming (for me). When my Dad died just over a year ago, we spent the next 6 months cleaning out our family home that we had lived in for over 20 years. My Mom moved out. The house was sold. And in all that I really lost a sense of "home," in that Hallmark Card sense of the word; the "home" where family gathers for holidays, dinners, etc....

This exhausting week in LaLa Library Land: Monday my 15-23 months old group was so much fun! (I am going to miss this bunch of parents when their kids move up to the 2 year old group). Our current theme through January is Favorite Children's Authors. I chose to start with Eric Carle, who is my favorite illustrator, and thus introduced the kids to The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear (both favorites of mine). The kids loved the stories and that for Brown Bear, Brown Bear, I actually had enough copies for everyone. We also pulled out our huge parachute for the last 5 minutes of class before toy time and had so much fun. The kids excitement and laughter is so contagious. Had my last Ancient Civilizations group Wednesday, where we learned about Pueblo Indians . After talking about the who, what, where and when's of the Pueblos, each kid began the task of making coiled bowls (w/Crayola air dry clay--WONDERFUL!) Then while we let the bowls dry a little I read some...

So, the chitlins in my Cooking/Folktales class learned a little about Russia this week, and began the steps for Russian apples this week. Talking to the kids about Russia was so interesting, as the former U.S.S.R. fell when I was the same age as some of the kids sitting in front of me. It's interesting what you remember about history--living it as it happens really changes the way you think about a huge world event. I love that each time we have one of these classes I learn so much about the country to be covered, since I do research to see what I can teach the kids. Like, did you know that Russia was taken from the Mongols in the 12th Century and was called "Muscovy?" Interesting, right!?! I also learned this week that I love Russian folktales. If you are interested read, Onions and Garlic, Baba Yaga, or The Fool and the Fish. Anyway, this week it was cool to note that the kids were doing the measurements a lot faster; even the younger kids now seem to be understanding h...

Met for the second time with my little cooking friends last night. We met to learn about Australia and make Australian Anzac (Australian & New Zealand Army Corps) Cookies. Anzac Day in Australia sounds sneakily like Memorial Day in the U.S., anyway, that is neither here nor there. A smaller group last night, maybe due in part to a last minute date change of the event. We had about 9 kids last time and only 4 last night; 2 boys (the Einstein Bros ), 2 girls. As always I began the class by having the kids show me where Australia is on a huge map. Then I asked the kids to throw out anything they knew about Australia, which led us to comments about animals like kangaroos and koalas and a riveting discussion on marsupials. (Luckily I had done some research on these pre-class as I had a sneaky feeling they would come up). I passed around pics of said animals and also of Aboriginals and other things Australian. I also told the kids a little bit about digeridoos while we listened to some ...

Haven't written about life in Library La La Land in a bit. Things have been busy. We began our Fall programs last week and work has been crazy. We are still getting settled into our new office space, unpacking and repositioning things to make it cozy, since our space is a little smaller. My storytimes are going great. I am again doing the baby group (newborns-14mos olds) and again doing the younger toddlers (15mos-23mos). My babies group is ok; the Moms are all a little quiet, but my toddler group is fantastic! I have very participation-based parents/grandparents coming, and the group has been huge for the past 2 weeks. The baby group is working with the themes: colors, shapes and numbers, so I have incorporated a couple of my favorites (some Eric Carle books) : Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Polar bear, polar bear and My very first book of numbers. The toddler group is working with the themes: Fairy tales & Nursery rhymes, so we have been using some classic stories: The Gingerbread M...