Saturday, June 19, 2010

Firefighter Story time at Bookman's

I am a HUGE supporter of story times for small children.  I believe that kids need multiple opportunities a day to experience books and story time is a great way to bring books alive.  We read probably around an hour a day with Hayden and I know that's why he is already reading so many letters and able to spell some words and write his name.  I love going to the Bookman's story time because their employees are so friendly with the children and really enjoy their jobs.  The women at the libraries are okay, but some of them let it show that they don't want to be there at all.  At Bookman's, they give the kids a snack, let them run around, make noise, cheer, etc.  They don't care about the mess or the chaos at all which fits perfectly for me, the Preschool-minded person that loves messes.  Most of the employees are big hairy men with lots of tattoos and piercings and they are the sweetest people you could ever meet.

This week, the Tucson Fire Department ran story time and Hayden and his friends Zach and Madison just loved it.  The Firefighters were very friendly and read 8 books to the kids, then gave out coloring pages.  I enjoyed watching Hayden answer all of the questions about calling 911, Stop Drop & Roll, and Stay Low and Go.  We learned those things at school in February and he still remembers everything he learned.  He even knows where we keep the house phone and what to push on the phone to call 911.  I tested him yesterday to see if he still knew, and he did!

Here's some photos of story time.  Sorry there's not really any of Hayden's face or even his whole body, I was sitting behind him and had no room to move since it was really packed in there.  The first picture is of the bird he colored at storytime with my pen since we couldn't get to the crayons.  Look how well he wrote his name with a pen! He's only ever used the thick pencils or crayons...I was impressed!  We have our 2nd T-Ball game today, so I will post some pictures later of that and swimming this afternoon!