The children’s hour

When I was young, my mom would always take me to the children's hour at our neighborhood library. The children's hour always had fun activities for us. They always started with a story of some sort. We would gather on the floor and listen intently while the librarian would read to us.

The librarian was always very animated as she read and we loved to hear the story. Then we would do some sort of activity, things like ring around the rosy and duck duck goose. It was always something to keep our hands and feet busy. Then would come activities. We would finger paint or draw or color. In January we would cut out snowflakes and hang them from all the library windows.

February we would cut red and pink hearts and glue them together. March were green shamrocks and leprechauns. April we would color eggs and cut and paste on them. May we would make some kind of summer flowers. We made giant daisies one year. June would begin the summer reading program. We would read at the library and check out books and read at home.

If we read enough over the summer, which we always did, we got tickets to our local amusement park, to the professional baseball team games and free books. July we cut out stars and flags. August was always something summery. Maybe rainbows. September was a back to school activity. I remember making book covers for our school books. October was the witches and pumpkins and even pumpkin carving. November was pilgrims and Native American Indians. And December was all about Christmas.

My mom said she loved the children's hour because the mess stayed at the library. I loved it because it was fun. I hope someday to be able to take my children to the children's hour at our local library. I hope they still have it.