Come to Baby Lapsit & Storytime!

Are you looking for a way to build your baby's early literacy skills or simply an opportunity to get out of the house? If so, try our Baby Lapsit & Storytime every Tuesday from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm!

We welcome children of all ability levels from infancy to approximately 18 months. Additionally, we are a judgment-free zone and celebrate the differences that make each baby unique. It is both developmentally appropriate and healthy for babies to explore their environments by roaming, so we do not expect each baby to be stationary during the lapsit portion of the program.

This program has two main components: lapsit (songs and storytime) and playtime.

Lapsit (Songs and Storytime)

Due to the relatively short attention spans of babies, we tend to restrict the lapsit portion of this program to approximately 20 minutes. During the lapsit portion, we sing several songs with one another, incorporating lap bouncing and sensory elements (such as sound, touch, etc.) into the songs. Singing helps to slow our speech patterns down to help the babies learn language.

We like to sit in a circle during Baby Lapsit & Storytime so that every baby and caregiver feels included and can effectively see the demonstration of each song. Board books are also provided in the center of the circle for each baby to touch and interact with. Early literacy begins with learning how pages turn in a book, so practicing the fine motor skills of turning pages is crucial.

During the songs, we incorporate lap bouncing to help the babies feel a steady beat and sense of rhythm. Eye-tracking, which encourages babies to follow a moving target with their eyes, is also a vital component we like to employ to encourage the development of the babies' eyesight. During infancy, babies' eyesight is not very developed, as they can only see a short range.

Although this program is intended to foster a fun environment where we sing upbeat songs, the selection of songs and stories is intentional for aiding each child's development. We encourage gently rocking or swaying babies to develop core muscle groups during specific songs. Movement during songs also helps to develop babies' sense of proprioception, or the sense of movement of one's body in reference to another location. In other words, they sense their change of location in reference to their caregiver(s). In other songs, we might discuss opposites (i.e., low and high, fast and slow, etc.) or prepositions (i.e., in and out, up and down, etc.) to introduce such vocabulary to the babies.

Lastly, we read one or two board book stories during each session. While the theme may vary (counting, prepositions, animal sounds, etc.), we select books with high-contrast, vibrant images to enhance the babies' ability to see the pictures. Story-reading practices that aid babies' comprehension, such as varying pitch and intonation (rise and fall of one's voice) and asking questions, are modeled during this time.

Play Time

For the remaining 40 minutes, toys are made available for the babies and their caregivers to play. One of the most important ways babies learn is through play, so we enable play by providing rattles, musical instruments, building blocks, and stacking toys. These toys aid shape recognition, spatial reasoning (understanding how three-dimensional objects fit in a space), sensory processing (touch, smell, sight, sound, etc.), and fine motor skills (small movements of the hands and fingers). We also provide toys encouraging climbing and balance, such as balance beams, ramps, and stepping stools. We acknowledge that children's abilities from infancy ranging to 18 months vary widely, so we aim to provide tools suited to children of all ability levels.

Playtime is a great opportunity for babies to interact with other babies and for caregivers to talk and network with one another. One of the most important benefits of Baby Lapsit and Storytime is the establishment of peer connections!

Mirrors and sensory floor mats for tummy time are also provided during playtime. This encourages babies to use tummy time to develop their neck and upper body muscles!

Importance of Repetition

Song sheets will be provided during each Baby Lapsit & Storytime session. The reason is two-fold: caregivers are encouraged to participate by singing the songs with the lyrics provided, and we also actively encourage families to take the song sheets home to make the songs their own (modifying the lyrics or melodies as necessary).

Although we may introduce new concepts here and there, we tend to revisit recent concepts and keep a core set of songs in rotation to practice repetition. Children benefit greatly from repetition when learning new concepts during infancy to approximately 18 months of age.

We encourage you to try out Baby Lapsit & Storytime! Even if you do not live in the Leon Valley area and/or do not have a library card with us, you are invited to attend!