Last year, the Infant Storytimes were full to bursting, with up to 40 adults and kids attending each of three separate storytimes each week.  In a very small town, mind you.  The Storytime for 2’s & 3’s, on the other hand, was small to miniscule, with sometimes frustratingly low enrollment. 

This year, the Infant Storytime has calmed down significantly, but the Storytime for 2’s & 3’s keeps growing…and growing…and growing.  In a great example of how libraries must always be fluid and flexible with their programming, I’ve decided to eliminate the Wednesday morning Infant Storytime and replace it with at least one (perhaps two, we’ll see) Storytime for 2’s & 3’s, which will be in addition to the 2 sessions of 2 & 3 year old storytime that is already taking place on Monday mornings.

One challenge in dealing with this mini baby boom of mostly two year olds is that the format of the Infant Storytime is significantly different from the format of the 2 & 3 year old storytime.  The younger storytime is a drop-in format, and quite active and loose in terms of behavior expectations.  No child under the age of two can be expected to sit completely still for a whole forty five minutes, and thus the only behavior rule in that storytime is that children cannot cross the once invisible, now visible (long story) line that runs across in front of me and my storytime supplies.  Gradually, as they get older, the kids in this youngest storytime learn how to be in a group, and by the time they reach the age of two they’re ready for a new challenge.

Which is why the struture of the Storytime for 2’s & 3’s is very different.  It is theme-based, and much more instructional and storyteller-focused.  The kids are expected to stay in the laps of their caregivers, and to be attentive to the stories and fingerplays.  There are still many interactive segments, and the kids do get to have some activity mid-way through the storytime, but in general this storytime feels much more like a class, and, indeed, I’m trying to accomplish more direct teaching of concepts in this storytime.  Obviously, this storytime is much shorter than the infant storytime, since the demands are higher on the children, and this storytime is only twenty to twenty-five minutes.

In order for the Storytime for 2’s & 3’s to succeed, though, I do require pre-registration, and I do limit the number of pre-registrants to twelve children per session.  Ideally, the number would be only ten, but it’s unrealistic to expect perfect attendance from all families each week, so I bumped the number up to twelve.  Only one problem this fall:  we ended up with sixteen children in the first session and fourteen in the second.  Yikes.  It’s incredible the difference that those extra bodies have made in the room.  With more bodies crammed (yes, indeed, crammed) into the story room, the children are much more distracted and much less at ease than they tend to be in a smaller group.  I haven’t been able to do many of the coolest parts of my lesson plans, because there are simply too many children and the cumulative attention level is far lower than I would like.

So, the solution is:  add one more, or perhaps two more sessions of this storytime (I know there are a lot more children who are on the cusp of turning two and will be eligible for this storytime come January).  I’ll ask for volunteers to switch to the new time(s), and if that doesn’t work, I’ll hold a totally democratic lottery.  I think that once the group size has been diminished, the parents attending will be truly astonished at the difference in their children’s attention span and at how much their children are able to take away from each storytime.  And, of course, I’ll have much more fun presenting the storytime, too.  My boss has asked if it’s too much on my plate to be doing this, and I keep reassuring her that it’s not – that I’ll enjoy the process infinitely more if the groups are smaller.  And there’s also a lot to be said for me repeating the presentation of a storytime, since practice does make perfect, and no practice is better than the practice in front of an actual group.  (Which is a good reason to switch to the Wednesday group!)

The official time slot request papers will be available starting on the morning of December 13 at that day’s Storytime for 2’s & 3’s.  Once all papers have been submitted, I’ll review them and see how the groups work out, and whether we will need to resort to a lottery.  I have a feeling that it will all be ok, though, and that the groups will form naturally and happily via the time slot request sheets…