By RayJaun Stelly, The Seattle Medium
The Douglass-Truth Library is set to resume their weekly Children’s Story Times, where families can bring their preschoolers and toddlers to enjoy stories, dancing, singing, and parachute play for free. The program is held on Tuesdays from now until August 1, from 10:30 am to 11 am at the library located at 2300 E Yesler Way in Seattle.
“Story Time is fun, and it is also a place where kids get to practice the five early literacy activities that will help them grow into strong readers,” said Lynn Lorenz, Children’s Librarian at the Douglass-Truth Branch. “When children hear the smaller sounds or beats in words when we sing a song or start to recognize letters and understand that the words they see in books represent different objects, actions, and ideas, it opens up a whole new world and sets them on a solid foundation for learning about anything.”
Although the Story Time program is back in person, the library still manages to help children and families virtually as well, and they offer programming in many different languages like Mandarin and Spanish.
In partnership with the Denise Louie Education Center, the Douglass-Truth Library promotes school and life readiness by providing multicultural early learning services to children and families. Their early learning videos help explore ways to play, read, sing, talk, and write with your children. Each video has a different activity that will help build the child’s pre-literacy skills.
According to the Child Mind Institute, reading to young children is critical to helping them build language skills and exposes them to not only new words but also ways of using language to their benefit. Plus, it helps them learn general information about the world itself, and as time evolves, it will make it easier for them to learn new subjects once they get to school, which ultimately goes hand in hand with the Children’s Story Times program.
“Research shows that children’s brains grow and develop the most during their first few years of life, and story times can be a powerful way to introduce young children to more and longer words. A larger vocabulary leads children to become better readers and do better in school,” says Lorenz.
“Stories, whether read from a book or shared in an oral tradition, introduce children to problem-solving and critical thinking,” she continued. “One example is folk tales with clever characters like the Anansi stories from the Ashanti people in Ghana, West Africa. It’s a beautiful thing when stories transport us to a place we’ve never been or help us understand and empathize with other people who have different life experiences than our own.”
The Douglass-Truth Library, along with many other Seattle Public Libraries, has taken the necessary steps to bring back the Story Time program, as they hope to bring families and communities together through fun, exciting, and culturally relevant activities at the library.
“It’s also important for children to see themselves reflected and their voices amplified in books, so we make sure to read stories by and about people from all backgrounds and identities, especially Black, Indigenous, and other people of color,” said Lorenz. “Story Times are a great way for preschool children to become comfortable being a part of a group, working together, and meeting new friends. It’s also a great place for parents and caregivers to connect with each other and build community. We hope many of your readers will join us.”
