|
 Smiles glow on eager faces as about half a dozen youngsters gather in the children’s corner at Spring City Free Public Library. Soon, librarian Anita Regester comes over, armed with her furry rabbit puppet, Baxter, to welcome the children to another storytime.
The children quickly get to their feet as Regester guides them in a wiggly exercise to get the little ones ready to sit quietly. They resume their seats, and as she opens the first book and begins to read, not another sound is heard.
Regester, who is entering her seventh summer as librarian at the Broad Street facility, leads storytime sessions in the fall, winter and spring, as well as offering four storytimes with the summer reading program. Two groups are offered, for children ages 2 and 3, and for 4- to 6-year-olds. In addition, the Chester County Library provides the Raise a Reader program at the Spring City Library for children from birth to age 2. About eight children sign up for each of the sessions, Regester said.
A former preschool teacher, Regester develops her own reading lists. She chooses a theme, then finds three or four books to match the theme. She also develops a craft to complement the theme. “That mostly comes out of my preschool teaching experience,” she said.
With a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from West Chester University, Regester draws on that background to create the crafts. “A lot of them I just make up myself,” she admitted. She added that, with a low budget, the crafts have to be inexpensive and easy.
Recently, for example, the children made bookmarks to give their mothers for Mother’s Day. Another time they made Mother Goose figures out of paper plates or glued construction paper pieces together to make penguins.
The purpose of the storytimes, Regester said, is to promote a love of reading and early literacy in children. The librarian hopes children will think of reading as a fun and enjoyable activity. Too often, she said, children enter school thinking reading is a chore to be endured.
“If we can get them to think of it as fun before that happens, maybe they will hang on to it,” she said.
The current storytimes continue until May 22 on Mondays at 11 a.m. for children ages 2 and 3, and until May 24 on Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m. for ages 4 to 6.
|