Catch the Possibilities: babies

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For the last year and a half I've been visiting a group of 6-12 month old babies at one of the preschool centers in my community. I also visit the next two older groups of kids on the same day. For simplicity's sake, I've been reusing the plans for my 0-36 month in-house storytime. If you're a regular reader of Mel's Desk, you'd be familiar with most of the storytimes I present. I plan to have 20 minutes of "group" time and like to keep the book count down to 2 or 3.

Things are going well with the upper two age brackets, but I wonder if I'm providing the most that I can for the youngest group. Since I can guarantee a 2:1, 1:1, or 1:2 adult:child ratio with the current crop of in-house attendees I have, I know that bounces, tickling rhymes, fingerplays, etc. can all be done easily (as long as the child is in the mood). At the center there are, at the most, 6 kids in the class and 2 adults. So I find that all those rhymes, bounces, fingerplays, etc. don't work-- or work but not as well as I think they could.

At a previous library, the department also did regular outreach to this age group, but it was to a preschool on a college campus, so in addition to the teachers, extra students were always present, and we had a volunteer who would come, so that there was a 1:1 or 1:2 adult:child ratio and a lapsit-style storytime was possible.

I've tried experimenting with some props or exploratory play segments. For instance, today I brought a large plastic bear (from this set) and set it on the floor at the beginning of our time. I left it there and after a bit, some of the babies starting being more curious about the bear than me being there. They all had a little time holding or examining the bear before I left. I've also done a counting rhyme (10 Little Books to the tune of Michael Finnegan) with actual board books. As soon as the books were stacked up in a pile, the babies needed to be touching and opening them, so we took some time for to play with the books. But those have been kind of last minute, fly by the seat of your pants sort of decisions. On the whole, I like to be more thoughtful than not when it comes to assembling a quality storytime. :)

Since I only visit the kids once a month, the babies aren't comfortable enough with me to want to sit in my lap for a bounce. How do you all manage storytimes for such young ones in situations where a 1:1 or 1:2 adult:child ratio isn't possible? What strategies or activities could I try to add value to the books and songs I'm already using?

Image from Open Clip Art Library

I'm lucky to have worked with someone who really loved presenting baby storytimes. I was very hesitant about presenting this type of program at the start of my career, since I didn't have a lot of experience with babies. I was able to watch her do her thing and learned so much from her. One of the things she introduced me to was beach balls as a storytime prop.

The activity I first experienced comes from the CD Baby Games, by Priscilla Hegner. She has a song with instructions for placing a baby on their stomach on a beach ball, and then rolling them gently forward and back, from side-to-side, and in slow circles while singing Baa Baa Black Sheep. Some of my babies are too big to lay on the size of beach balls I have (their arms and legs touch the ground), so we also do it just sitting the baby on the ball and assisting them to stay upright. Never too early to start on core work right?

But this technique doesn't need to be limited to a set tune designed for this use. What about pretending the babies are surfing waves on the sea? You could gently mist the air with water to add the sensation of water, and include sound effects of waves or seagulls or listen to a Beach Boys song.

You could set the babies on the balls and pretend to drive cars forward and back, and round and round. The Learning Groove has a fun song set to the Blue Danube Waltz where you beep a car horn over and over. With the child on the ball, you could beep their tummy or their noses, or other body parts in addition to showing them how to beep.

Note: when blowing up the balls, It works best to leave them just a little shy of full plumpness. Ideally you want them full enough that they will still rock and roll with little effort, but soft enough that a baby won't slide right off. Test it out with a doll, puppet, or stuffed animal to see what I mean.

This type of activity works for me because I almost always have less than 10 babies at my storytimes. I blow the balls up ahead of time and then deflate them after we are through. The balls themselves are pretty affordable through sites like Oriental Trading Company, and if you have a hand pump (I've used the one from my exercise ball before) not too taxing on your lungs!

How are you using beach balls in your programming?

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