There are two rules for Baby and Toddler Story Time, and three for Preschool.
- Rule 1: No grownups on cell phones. This means, during story time, no texting, talking, or taking pictures and videos. We know that your child is adorable and it’s exciting to watch them learn new things, but you cannot meaningfully interact with your child at story time if there is a cell phone in your hand. We also ask that the privacy of other families in attendance be respected. Feel free to take pictures and videos after story time, but in between our Hello and Goodbye songs, all phones need to remain put away.
- Rule 2: No grownups talking to each other! We love that story time is a time for caretakers to bond and create community, but we ask that you keep all conversations that aren’t related to our activities or emergency bathroom trips to a minimum.
- Rule 3, for Preschoolers: We always stay on our story time carpet until the very end of story time, until we sing our Goodbye song. And then, once we’ve said goodbye, everyone is free to head over to the craft tables for our project.
Other than that, we understand that every child is in a different place in their pre-literacy and pre-kindergarten journey. Shouting out, not “paying attention,” or getting silly is all perfectly okay and expected, though we may ask your child to sit on their bottom so everyone can see, or ask them to save a question or comment for the end of story time. The only time we ask that adults intervene in a child’s behavior is if that behavior becomes disruptive to a point where we can’t continue with story time, or the bodily autonomy of another person is in question (ie, no hitting, kicking, hair pulling, etc). If it turns out that your child is having a rough day, or just a rough moment, feel free to pop out into the hallway for a couple of moments, get a drink of water, and then come in and try again.