Why I blog storytime plans

There is a reason I blog my plans for preschool storytime.  Actually, there is more than one reason, but recently I was reminded just how helpful it is.

As a supervisor, I feel unapologetic about checking my work email while not a work.  I usually check it before getting ready for the day, mostly to delete junk email, but also so I have an idea of what I am going into that morning. One recent Thursday I was glad I have this habit!

Thursdays are usually my late day, so a bit after 10 a.m. I started getting ready to be at work by 11:30.  It was then that I pulled up my work email on my iPhone and saw that one of my staff reported off sick that morning.  It just happens that her location had preschool storytime scheduled for 11:30, which meant someone needed to cover the program.  Knowing that another employee had toddler programs and wasn’t available, and that there was limited staff at our Main library due to vacations, I knew that left two people who could cover: me and L.  L, however, was at a branch twice the distance as me.  I had a couple of errands I planned to run before work, but those took a backseat. 

 

I hurriedly got ready for the day, all the while considering what I could do for storytime.  I had one planned for the next day, but all the supplies were at my office – nearly 30 minutes from home.  Instead I decided to do a general “Storyteller’s Choice” and skip a craft this week.

 As I drove to work I called the branch and asked a circulation staff member to pull two books I was certain sat on their shelves.  By the time I arrived – around 11:10 – I had pulled up a blog post for a recent storytime and saved the image of the handout to my iPhone.  I then airdropped it to my iPad so I had easy access to the songs and fingerplays.  This saved me a lot of time, as I didn’t need to turn on a computer, log in, go to the shared drive, and then print out the handout.   Instead I was able to set up the storytime area and pull a third title to read.

We sang.  We danced.  We shared stories.  The dozen or so children who attended enjoyed a full thirty minute program, and were more than happy to play afterwards in lieu of a doing a craft.  And I’ve never been so grateful that I have this blog.