- The road to Reading Readiness starts at birth. A baby’s brain is just waiting for stimulation. Talk and sing with your baby. Play music. Recite nursery rhymes. Conversations are the start.
- Getting ready to read involves all the senses. Touching, smelling, tasting, seeing, and hearing paired together in a multiplicity of ways is important.
- As your children grow, cross-lateral activities (like Pat-A-Cake) accompanied by words and music are a powerful way to enhance the brain connections a child needs to learn language and to read.
- Young children need to experience books as toys: they need to touch them, smell them, see if they roll or bounce, and even taste them
- As your baby grows, let him/her see you reading and enjoying books.
- Keep paper, crayons, pencils, magazines and books available to your child.
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We offer weekly storytimes for children from birth through school age.
- We have a Winter Reading Program in February for children from birth through first grade.
- All children from birth through high school are welcome in our Summer Reading Program
- We have a special Parents Corner which includes materials to help with many of the questions parents have.
- Our collections include age appropriate books to help with many of events families face as their children grow including loss, toilet training, going to preschool, and the arrival of a new baby to name a few.
- We offer Paws to Read each month, where preschool children can cuddle with a dog while a parent reads to them, and older children can read to their favorite dog.
- We offer puppet shows, musical programs, and other educational entertainment.
- We provide monthly storytimes at most of our public and private preschools along with classroom collections, and Mobile Library Services book delivery.
- On August 20 we will host a Meet and Greet with your favorite characters from Busch Gardens at Williamsburg Library at11:00 and at the James City County Library at 1:30 pm. Those children who attend and are entering Kindergarten in September can join us after the Meet and Greet and receive our Kindergarten Connection packet.
- Our friendly, knowledgeable staff is always available to help you select the best materials to meet your needs.
- Check out our new website, www.wrl.org/books-and-reading and find a picture book blog, Pied Piper’s Pics which introduces you to favorite titles selected by the staff. We also offer Tumblebooks, a data base where children can read and listen to books on-line. www.wrl.org/books-and-reading/youth/tumblebooklibrary