The library can be a rewarding experience for both you and your baby. If you missed the earlier article about this topic, just click here: Bringing Baby to the Library.
Now let’s take a look at the children’s room at the library, including what you should look for before making an extended visit.
The children’s room is very important, since you will be spending a lot of time in it. You want to find one that is bright, clean and isolated a bit from the rest of the library so you and your baby will be free to explore without disturbing other library patrons. The worse children’s room I encountered was a small space that was open to the rest of the library. Whenever a baby giggle, sighed or worse, cried, other patrons would give dirty looks. Children fought over the limited supplies of books and toys. That is not the experience that you want for your child.
The best children’s room I’ve encountered was absolutely huge. It had all different levels of seating, from a soft floor to comfortable benches of couches to snuggle up with books and baby. It was away from the main part of the library but close to both the bathrooms, the elevator and the outside door. In addition, the room had glass doors, giving you peace of mind that your child could only wander so far. And of course, the whole area was well appointed.
The best children’s room have soft rugs printed with learning activities to encourage floor play, such as the alphabet, the states or even just blocks of color that you can use to point out colors to your baby.
Good children’s rooms also offer games, puppets and other activities that you can do with your baby to engage her. Some even offer a bank of computers with age-appropriate software to try.
Next up, I’ll talk about good library etiquette for you and your baby and the popular discard cart or bin.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. Starting June 1st, don’t miss her articles in the Baby Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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