Forever Young

My Wonderful Ones went well today (and, wow, there were a lot of them), but it would have even better if I'd better remembered the difference between a 13-month-old and a 23-month-old. I had a lot of older Ones today, and I'm not sure I challenged or engaged them as much as I could have. My brain is still calibrated toward babies and their caregivers.

For example, I realized that I was asking parents to grab their little ones' feet when I read Charlie Chick (which I need to retire, I think--I've read it in/at least 15 storytimes)...and that's more of something you do with babies. I could have asked the bigger Ones to point to their own feet/beak/belly. I also forgot that felt boards were a magnet for roaming Ones and had to practically swat a few off when I did "Old McDonald" on the board. Doing Moo Bah Lalala as a read-along was a hit, though, as was handing out the puppets (I'm so glad we've got those!) and doing "Head, Shoulders" and "Humpty Dumpty" and "Rockabye Baby" with them.

Of course, when it was time for Busy Babies, I welcomed them as my default . I did almost the same storytime, but provided more talking points ("remember that varying your voice a lot when you read even the simplest thing helps your baby to learn letter sounds!"). We skipped the feltboard and I tried the Color Farm board book, which might have been a little too small for a storytime.

Today doubled my resolve to try a lot of new things with my little guys this term (do we call it a term?) and to be careful with my distinctions between Babies and Ones.