one of the mother (YY) here suggested i bring cc to the library for book reading time. this is a good suggestion. we tried this months ago but the schedule clashed with cc's nap time. we had to stop it since i think nap is more important to a young baby.

 

now, cc is a toddler, she could sleep less, and more importantly, she needs friends (so do i).

 

i got the time wrong and we were 10m late. we quickly sat down on the carpet, right in front of the story teller. she is a young, beautiful and friendly lady. it was Halloween, she dressed up like a fortune teller, wearing lots of long gold necklaces (cc constantly tried moving closer to her, to grab those necklace)

 

cc was fascinated by her tone and body language. she is no doubt a great story teller, there were more than 30 people (kids and parents) but all had their eyes fixed on her. i noticed she stopped sometimes and asked kids to do simple gesture or action according to the story. kids were laughing and shouting to co-operate. with each ending of the story or song, all kids clap their hands and cheered happily. cc kept on turning her head from the librarian to other kids and observed them while i busy moving cc's hands and legs to follow the instructions.

 

the story telling time lasted for half an hour, with books reading, songs singing and some dancing. she even had a board by her side, which allowed her to stick some pumpkins and frog drawing to help counting. cc was so happy to see something familiar (she just learned about pumpkins and frogs). cc pointed her index finger to them and kept on shouting loud. 

 

there was drawing time after book reading. library kindly provided the drawing sheets and crayons. cc showed great interests to the books on the shelves. i let her select which book to borrow and ended up with lots of books on the floor. with my help, she put them back.

 

i hesitated for drawing because i fear cc would just bite the crayon. but, since we were there, i thought we should give it a try. we sat down next to a mother with a cute boy. i brought out the crayon from the box, cc quickly grabed it over and sent it to her mouth. we had a little fight over the crayon while i tried to catch some chat with the mother. when i noticed the crayon had a small corner bitten off by cc, i knew we were done with drawing.

 

after half an hour of drawing time, there was another story telling session with the same stories and activities. we joined it as well but cc was tired and hungry, i tried very hard to stop her from disturbing other kids.

 

what we learned :

 

-- cc claps and cheers when she is happy now. b4 this, she only clap upon my request. now she could relate clapping with happy things.

 

-- i add lots of facial expression, gestures and body language during book reading time. that immediately attracts her attention and she picks up the story faster.

 

it seems joining the book reading time at the library really beneficial to both of us, we will be joining again.