Yup, it was a train wreck.  After taxing my poor aging brain to learn all the rhymes and songs (I even had to use my hands as a cheat sheet – there are still oodles of inky words all over my palms), and after purchasing all the required props, and after Jim crawled around in our attic to find my pig stuffed animal; after all that, my first Mother Goose on the Loose program was a total train wreck.

It’s not that I did such a bad job, really, it’s more that my infant storytime is a victim of the success of my Toddler Storytime.  45 moms and kids are signed up for the Toddler Storytime, which doesn’t leave too many people to attend the Mother Goose on the Loose storytime.  So there were only 4 adults and 5 kids in the room at the start of the storytime, and the number quickly dropped as one child decided to leave the room (mom had to follow), then another child fell on the floor and cut his lip open (grandma and big sister had to leave the room with him, mopping up the blood as they went), leaving just 2 adults and 2 kids and me.  And one of those kids, a sweet little girl, REALLY wanted to leave, since her best friend was the little boy who left the room at the start.  Which would have left only 1 adult and 1 child in the room - thank goodness the little girl’s mom was able to stick out the whole storytime. 

When you have that small a group, it’s substantially harder to have much fun.  The adults get very self-conscious about their singing voices, leaving me alone to carry the tunes (never an ideal situation), and if the kids are at all reluctant to do something like beat their names on the drum, the reluctant kids don’t get to see eager kids model the behavior first so that they can follow suit. 

But I will say that Mother Goose on the Loose is fun.  With a bigger crowd, it would have been a blast.  So I’ve got two big challenges now:  get more people to attend, and figure out how to keep the program to 30 minutes (I ran overtime, and didn’t even finish the program…obviously need to work on my timing a bit…).  Aside from that, I’m enjoying beating my drum and jingling the bells and waving the scarves.  I’d just like a few more people to join in with me!