Baby Lapsit 10-3-17

Today, after saying hello to everyone, I read Love You More Than Anything by Anna Harber Freeman. I love this book because it's sweet, it rhymes, and it's a great one to read one on one with your baby.

Our lap bounce portion began, as always, with "Bumpy Road." Grownups are instructed to seat their baby facing forward on their laps and bounce along with me as I demonstrate with a roughly baby-sized teddy bear. Here is the chant:

Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Smooth road, smooth road. (Move baby smoothly back and forth)
Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Smooth road, smooth road. (Move baby smoothly back and forth)
Rough road, rough road! (Bounce baby higher than before)
Bumpy road, bumpy road. (Bounce baby on lap)
Rough road, rough road! (Bounce baby higher than before)
Hole! (Hold baby under armpits and let them fall between your legs)

Lap bounce songs were "Walkin' Ol' Joe," "Milkshake," and "Popcorn." 

I have to talk about "Milkshake" for a minute, because it's a fantastic song for all ages of kids. For babies, it's a lap sit. For toddlers and preschoolers, it's a great movement/get the wiggles out song. There really is no wrong time to sing the milkshake song. Here is her version, and also the wonderful Jbrary's a capella version. 

Finally, we pretended to be popcorn with Raffi, twice through because this song is very short. 

Because the public library is all about inclusion, I like to emphasize diversity in storytime as much as possible. Our second board book today was The Family Book by Todd Parr. 

I talk up Todd Parr whenever I read one of his books to a group. The art in his books are simple and brightly colored, which hold young children's attention. More importantly, the message in every single book is one of diversity and acceptance. In The Family Book, there is a different type of family on each page. It normalizes adoption and mixed race families ("some families are the same color, some families are different colors"), working families, single parent families, same-sex parents, families where the grandparents are the primary caregivers, and a bunch of other nontraditional family units in a way even the youngest kiddos can understand. We have a diverse group in Baby Lapsit, most notably several grandmothers who bring their grandbabies, and I wanted to highlight different types of families with them today to remind all our storytimers that the public library is a place for everyone. 

Our last movement song before saying goodbye was "One, Two Hands" by Laurie Berkner. I love this song because it teaches body parts and helps kids practice counting to 10. I like to tell the parents that my goal is this catchy tune getting stuck in their head, so they go home and keep practicing these skills with their babies.

Until next time!