With the COVID-19 pandemic making it unsafe for the Perham Area Public Library to hold in-person programming and the weather grows colder, making storybook walks in Arvig Park and the story time window are no longer practical, the library has come up with creative ways to hold children's story time.
”We were trying to come up with things that families could do outside of the library but would be the same kind of process that we would go through with for preschoolers and toddlers,” Perham librarian Susan Heusser-Ladwig said,
The solutions that the library has come up with for story time over the course of the next five to six months of winter are story time kits called Storytime Suitcases. Heusser-Ladwig said each suitcase will be themed and will contain a couple of books, a craft with supplies, coloring pages, activity pages, a resource sheet, and a story time passport.
Each month will have four themed Storytime Suitcases, months that have five weeks will still only have four kits per month, Heusser-Ladwig said.
The resource sheet will contain a list of other books that would go with that week’s theme and links to songs that would go with the kit, Heusser-Ladwig said.
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“It has everything you need to do a story time at home with your child,” Heusser-Ladwig said.
Families can sign up to participate in the Storytime Suitcase program by calling the library to register, Heusser-Ladwig said. Families only need to register the first time and then the library will assume they will be participating every week. The library does ask that families let them know if they will be missing a week so that a kit will not be prepared for them.
Storytime Suitcases will be prepared for each family participating in the program and will include storytime supplies for each child in the family, Heusser-Ladwig said.
Pick up of kits will be on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, when families are returning their kit from the week before, Heusser-Ladwig said. Each week, when families pick up their kit, each child will receive a sticker or a stamp for their passport; giving the children something to look forward to each week.
The program started the week of Nov. 16 with five families participating. “We’ll see how many people sign up for it and how it all goes,” Heusser-Ladwig said.
For more information about library programming:
Call the Perham Area Public Library at 218-346-4892 or visit viking.lib.mn.us/perham-area-public-library
