Director's Thoughts #14 – It's Been Awhile: Storytime

This week I covered a co-worker’s storytime while she was away and after a year of being away from it; it was strange coming back. I did storytime for eight years as a children’s librarian and I think that I made a smart decision to move into another role when I did.

I left the children’s library world, loving it and missing it in those first hectic months as a director. But, I think that if I’m being honest with myself, I was close to achieving that not-so-awesome feeling of burnout that is very real and can be really awful to deal with – especially in a job where programming never really stops. I loved what I did for eight years and wouldn’t have wanted to do anything differently and I miss “my kids” every day, but I’m also so excited to be in a position where I can jump in and help with programming when I have a little time and get to do so many things in so many different departments. I also have an office which is pretty awesome – I don’t escape to it often, but I love having the option of shutting the door and having peace and quiet to focus on a big project.
So for storytime, I followed a predetermined lesson plan left to me by my co-worker – we read about dinosaurs, sang dinosaur songs and ROARRRRREEEEDDDD a lot (my voice is still a little scratchy). Afterward, I felt as though it was a little clunky, not awful, but not the best I’ve ever done. And part of that comes with filling in for someone else, you don’t want to rock the boat too much (and throw in a bunch of stuff the toddlers haven’t seen before) and part of it comes from being out of practice. Before I switched jobs, I could have done storytime in my sleep! I had done so many for so many different kids and in a pinch knew what books kids would gravitate to and the music they loved. But, like I said, it’s been about a year and I’m a little rusty.
But, what I’m super excited about – is that I’ll be offering a few one-time early literacy programs early next year! I’ll have a yoga class and a parachute storytime which makes me so happy! I get to choose a class that’s all my own and choose the books and music I want, plus because it’s a stand alone program – I have a lot more freedom to create something that is uniquely me and create the type of goals I want the program to accomplish. So that’s pretty awesome!