Why my toddler loves the library

Me and Oli have been reading to Leo ever since he was tiny. As soon as he started crawling Leo would push books along the floor to us and squeal until we read them.
I am a massive bookworm so I don’t know who enjoys storytime more, me or Leo!
Leo is more likely to be found sat in a pile of books than playing with his toys, anyone else’s bub like this?


So, what more perfect place is there to take a book loving toddler than the library? Our local library is only a 10 minute walk away so we go and have a browse at the books most weeks.

The library near us is very small but has a section completely dedicated to children’s books and has a small play area. Leo loves pulling out all the books and then bringing over a small selection for me to read, approximately 5 times each! Current favourites are any books featuring  Spot, Peppa Pig or Lulu, thank god he has grown out of the ‘That’s not my (insert animal)’ books..I couldn’t take much more of those!

Once Leo gets bored looking at the books and pestering the people on the computers, there is a little table where he can do some colouring. I must admit he eats the crayons more than he uses them to draw but we’ll get there! There are also giant lego bricks to play with and big, squishy bean bags for when it’s time to sit and look at books again.

Every Wednesday a lovely lady from the local primary school comes and does half an hour of rhyme time. Leo absolutely loves this,  nursery rhymes and books..the boy is in his element. Rhyme time is a great time for Leo to meet other children and for me to chat to mums who live in our area. Me and Leo like to practice all the songs and actions at home and he loves to get stuck right in, boogying away every Wednesday.
Reading to your little one is really important for developing their language, speach and of course reading skills. Libraries have a great variety of free books and you can easily spend an hour there, perfect rainy day activity.

Sometimes the experience can be a bit stressful, especially if Leo is throwing books everywhere and shouting, obviously he can’t read the signs asking for quiet quite yet! But 9 times out of 10, a visit to the library always goes down a treat.

Does your little one enjoy visiting the library? Apart from soft play I would say it’s Leo’s favourite place.
The Twinkle Diaries
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10 Comments

  1. Angela Milnes
    May 19, 2015 / 7:43 am

    My daughter also loves the library, in fact I wrote a post about it a few weeks ago. Reading is such an important part of child development and literacy skill building. I do love the sound of Rhyme time 🙂 Angela x

    ANgela recently posted: Helping children develop writing skills through play http://wp.me/p5XRN6-1pz

  2. May 19, 2015 / 10:06 am

    Rhyme time is amazing..you should see if anywhere near you does it,all the kids seem to love it.ohh I'll pop over and have a read now 🙂 xx

  3. thetwodarlings.com
    May 19, 2015 / 1:20 pm

    We joined our local library a while back and it is just brilliant, both toddler and baby adore it and we can pass ages in there.

  4. May 23, 2015 / 10:25 am

    It's great that both kids enjoy going!seeing toddlers pretend to read is just adorable!xxx

  5. May 24, 2015 / 6:18 pm

    Hi Wendy! Thanks for linking with #TwinklyTuesday. My girls were the same way with books at that age, and have grown into wonderful bookworms. I love how child-friendly libraries are these days. My childhood library had a wonderful children's section, but we expected to be very very quiet. We never made it to storytime, because it was always during the work week and we only get 12 weeks of maternity leave in the US, but my girls loved (still love, at age 9!) the library anyway, They discovered some of their favourite authors there. I'm glad to report that their school library is also wonderful. Since my children are very advanced readers for their age, the librarian regularly requests books for them from the local high school library, for which I am very grateful.

  6. May 25, 2015 / 4:14 pm

    You o my get 12 weeks maternity leave?that sucks!aww your daughters sound amazing, I love reading and love it when kids do too.their librarian sounds really helpful and lovely..I'm picturing someone like the one in Matilda haha xx

  7. May 25, 2015 / 6:47 pm

    Yep. 12 weeks, unpaid. Plus, if both parents work for the same employer, they have to split the 12 weeks between them. The US is far, far behind other industrialized countries in this. I had to return to work when my twins were 11 weeks old, because I'd used up a week over the final two weeks of my pregnancy by going half-time. Thankfully, they're fine and returning to work was relatively easy for me, but for some women, it's definitely a reason to drop out of the workforce.

  8. May 25, 2015 / 6:48 pm

    Oh, and Mrs. S is actually quite a bit like the librarian in Matilda. And the girls' teacher last year was, I'm quite sure, Miss Honey in the flesh. 🙂

  9. May 27, 2015 / 8:03 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

  10. May 27, 2015 / 8:05 am

    Lucky them having such a lovely teacher and librarian. Matilda is my favourite film ever..sad I know!well us in the UK are very lucky we get up to a year maternity leave, 12 weeks seems like nothing at all xx