First Saturday Back...

As thankful as I am for the children to be back in school, it means that I am back here on the weekends. For about 11 weeks I get to find out what it's like to have weekends off (well, kind of, I have another job at a movie theater, I have to schedule time off from there to get any real days off.) All of this is to say, that today is my first Saturday back and I have to admit, it was kind of hard to come in. The first one back is always the hardest.

It's not that I don't have plenty to do. I am still catching up from being closed this past Monday. I came in on Tuesday and cleaned up half the toy room. It took over 4 hours and only half of it was perfectly cleaned. I am still tempted to take pictures. Piles of boxes, bags neatly aligned in bins on the shelves, the happiness comes from  a place of OCD organizational bliss. I reorganized a little bit. Since we have so many kinds of blocks and building sets I rearranged how those were shelved this past week... It's my own personal tricky form of marketing for under-circulated items. Today I intend on rearranging a few of the larger items. It's a seasonal thing for me... I think the change of season should bring a change in look the library. So I am going to move the play house closer to the kitchen items... bring in a new (to me) fixture for the games. I have been getting so many game donations, I have no room left on the shelves.

I intended on doing a whole lot today. Instead I find myself talking with the parents and other grown-ups coming in and finally catching up on the blogging.

I can almost think about the quietness

8 boys are playing basketball.

7 girls are playing house.

There are random hoots and hollering of playing. I'm sure in a week, when it is quiet in here, I will hate it. I love the good noises of this place. I don't have to look up when I just hear basketball growls and girl's jibber jabber. Unless there are higher pitch screams or crashing, I can sit here in my own little world and attempt to get work done.

I have to begin thinking about the clean up of this room. I have set aside the day after labor day to do it. Kids will be in school, I won't be open to the public. I am going to get hopped up on Red Bull and see how much I can get accomplished.

I also have to think about some sort of "door/wall decoration". Over a year ago, our teen center was renovated. In that renovation my door was moved from the corner to the almost middle of the back wall of the library. Now, I have this wall space to work with, to kinda say: "hey! look! it's a toy library!" And then no one can ever walk into this building again without knowing it's here. This was presented to me last week. I was told as long as it could be done cheaply, we could do some painting of some sort. Something like this would be my dream.

Maybe a little more toys involved. I like the city idea.

 I will work with what I have. This is what My current brochure and sign look like:

I love it, the person who designed it has retired :-(. I am thinking something along these lines. Maybe a little less generic clip art. I am officially on the hunt for cool toy pictures and a way to semi-permanently hang them on the wall. And then maybe bright paint + block letters spelling out Toy Resource Center?

I'm sure there are more things on my agenda that I am supposed to think about as school goes into session. Like the quietness....

Violence AND/ IN Play

I found the first article below during the daily blog reading and as per usual it got me thinking. So then I did a little research and found the other two.

Should We Let Our Kids Play With Toy Guns?

I don't allow them to see TV or video games that represent any violence at all, let alone gun play. Still, I can't give my older child a banana for his snack without him pretending it's a gun. Is it a boy thing? It seems to be in his DNA.

In conversation's I've had this has happened often. Many mom's are screwed if they do, screwed if they don't. If their child doesn't own a gun toy, it wants one and may not be happy until it has one. And then they go and make their own guns (hence the banana). I do believe it is a boy thing. I also believe that "gun play" is a stage. I have no problem with toy guns as long as they are not pointed directly at people. I recently bought my godson a Nerf gun. It surprised me how much I didn't have a problem with it, it shoots out green balls, not bullets. The most important part to me: it doesn't look like a real gun.


War Play, Gun Play, Superhero and Violent Play...Why Won't It Go Away?
"Why do preschoolers play this way sometimes? Three-, 4- and 5-year-olds typically are not in control of their own lives. Adults make most of the decisions, and older siblings and playmates make up most of the rules. Teachers and child-care providers work with larger groups of children and must have some control over planned activities and schedules. Preschoolers may feel a bit lost in this world of older decision makers."


Last week I was listening to kids talk as they played. One girl was telling the other girl what to do in their play. It got me thinking, how many rules are there in the kids games? Does everyone know the rules? And why is there always that one bossy person in a "game"? I sometimes like to settle down the bossy person if they are going to the extreme. Like when they tell someone else "you have to play it this way" I can't disrupt the nature of the alpha-dog process and I know it.


The Truth Behind Violent Play
"Children who excluded a child tended to call him or her a name (girl or baby or tattletale) and then they seemed to feel justified in being physically or verbally hurtful to that child. On the other hand, a child who is frequently ostracized can justify violence as a means of retaliation."


I see this kind of "violence" more often than not. The key word in the article above is "justified" My least favorite story to tell happened a couple weeks ago. A little girl was accidentally pushed by another boy. Instead of the little boy just saying sorry and the situation being over... the boy's older brother + friend took him out of the room and began hitting him for "hurting" a girl. The older boys believed they were justified in their punishment. 


It is hard to tell stories about this room without mentioning a violent act once in a while (weird huh?). Sometimes it's a older sister dragging her younger sister out of here by the arm. Sometimes it's 2 boys fighting and/or play fighting. Sometimes it's verbal: name calling, degrading, general yelling. The occasions of pretend gun play are rarer. There might be a game of cops and robbers once in a while, but since it typically includes play fighting and yelling it's squashed within moments. 


This is my question. What if violent play has nothing to do with guns, soldiers and war? What if the play and games just turns violent?

I found my patience while playing with Marble Runs

July is over, meaning we're officially half through the busyness of summer.

July = 619 children, 195 came in without adults. Some days there were 20 kids in here at once. Other days it was more like 10, but they all seemed relatively the same amount of work and stress.

I had a conversation today. It was the endless conversation that we have daily, weekly, monthly. We may have new insights once in a while, but there are never solutions. What do we do with children who misbehave. This is the conversation: "If we kick them out forever, then we lose them forever... They are too young for us to lose them... We have to be their parents in here..." It is something that I have battled with for a long time while working here. Is that fair to us? No. But are we working for the greater good of children, literacy  and the surrounding community? I believe the answer is yes and that is why I have worked here for over four years, went to school to become a librarian and will love to continue working in this field.

The conversation happened after my break, and right afterwards the children came back in after their snack. We all had a break from one another. But they came in annoyed with each other, Robert was doing this, or Jeremiah was doing that and Heaven just wasn't helping matters.... So Jeremiah came up to my desk as I was counting the pieces to a bingo game (with the cage that spins and holds the number balls) He was spinning it around and telling me how it worked. I figured if he was interested in that, maybe he would like the marble runs, he would like to see how it worked. So I sat him down and we played with it, and then the other kids surrounded us and they all wanted to play with it. But Jeremiah needed some time alone so we shooed them away. And for about 10 minutes we had this perfect toy time. And I realized how simple it is to find the patience to handle this job... Sometimes I get so busy doing my job (counting returns, cleaning up, paperwork, putting toys sets back together) that I forget to take the time to do my job.

Words From My Days...

My days have become a cloud of all these statements. I go home exhausted. There are more children, more to do and less people to do it. More mess. More Noise. Brain hurts.

Don't climb on the horse!
Don’t throw the baby dolls!
Share the ball.

Can we play the game where you listen to me?
Go tell/ask/find your sister/brother/ parent.
Please stop talking back .
Don’t throw the ball at her .
Can’t come in yet kids, there is a group in here .
Want to play Connect Four/ Mr. Mouth/ Mancala with me?
Please don't come behind my desk there are way more fun things to play with out there.
Baby cakes, sugar, darling, dude, dear...
Everyone cleans up until the room is clean.

No food allowed in the library .
Come back in here when you have a better attitude, please .
Stop climbing on the horse!

You’re inside not outside!
Simmer down por favor!
Where is your grown-up?
Be good, Meghan has already had a busy day
Stop running.

Stop chasing him/her.

Don't you think you're too big for that?

This is a kids room, please act like it.

Clean up your mess.

Please stop yelling.

Just pretend this is a normal library.
Please don't crash into my desk.

Please?!?!?

And for your viewing pleasure... miscellaneous links:
Taking the Toys Away
An Old Book. Thought maybe I would post it as a sign...
The Toys R Us

In some towns, libraries serve as a haven for kids, day care for parents - chicagotribune.com

"Librarians … they are the hidden stars of our communities," Neuman said. "Librarians act as substitute mother teachers. They have taken it upon themselves to fill this role. They are doing it and doing it well, even if it is not something they wanted to do."

Read the rest of the article here...Kids find summertime haven in libraries, parents find day care

Another Movie About Toys...

And of course, it will be in 3-D.

Lego: The Movie finds its directors

Link Day!

Miscellaneous Link Sharing... AKA.... Catching Up on My Blog Reading


Summer Play:
Create a Sensory Backyard
Worst Toys Of Summer
Best Outdoor Toys



This article makes me want to be a toy designer: The Emotional Connection of Design and Toys


From A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette: Polite librarians know that their officemates hate their choice of low-playing music in the library workplace. If you insist on playing music in your office space, choose something that you both hate so that you can ridicule it together.


Personally, I like to listen to Adult Alternative on Yahoo Radio... the kids don't seem to mind :-)


And finally, another use for Silly Bandz: Worship Saved by Silly Bandz (Should I admit now that I had no idea what these were until this past weekend?)

First Day Back / Last Day of School

So I was on vacation for the last week... I was in peaceful California for my best friend Brian's wedding. Even better, I was in the wedding. We did something a little different. Instead of standing up with the bride like a girl usually would... I stood up with the groom. I had a different color dress on than the bridesmaids, it was so much fun!

So I am back at work just in time for the kiddies to be out of school... I thought tomorrow was the last, but it sure doesn't feel like it. It's been crazy since 1 PM. Fourteen kids were playing kickball in here for a while. Surprisingly that was a more relaxed part of the afternoon. I sent 3 kids out of here within an hour. I decided to be low tolerance for bad behavior right away. Maybe within a couple weeks all the wrinkles will be straightened out... and I will have a happy no yelling summer.

I am wishing....  :-)

Things that Kids Say, An on going post.

These things have been said to me (or in the room) in the last month-ish:


Me: "Isaiah, don't throw the babies!"


One kid to another: "Eat goldfish nuts"


Two boys were asking me random questions. If I knew anyone from Turkey (because of the Turkish Festival). If I had kids, or a boyfriend and then to top it off: "Meghan, do you have a dildo?" 


And from the same kid last month: "Meghan, is it true... that... you give as much as head as shampoo?" He was messing up the line as he was saying it. I replied with go away. 


Aren't they cute?!?!