library visit

There was a daycare visiting the library today on a field trip. All the kids had matching tee-shirts with the school logo and contact info. They marched through the library in a line with precision that our homeschool group could not duplicate. I felt horribly sorry for them.

Apparently the library was such an exotic place for them that it warranted a field trip. One of their teachers told them how they could borrow books from the library, but only if their parents took them. They sat in the children's area, and a teacher started to read a picture book to them, but had to stop in the middle because it was time to move on. To add insult to injury, the kids weren't even allowed to pick up and handle any books on their own.

Meanwhile, Glitter and Sparkle happily gathered books on their own. Glitter's meager limit of two board books seemed like a treasure trove in comparison to what the daycare kids got. While the teacher fed the daycare kids misinformation about the check-out process (the check-out machine doesn't take pictures of the books) and borrowing procedures (you don't have to be able to write your name to get a library card), Glitter got to actually scan her own books and hear the thump that indicated it was checked-out. She got to tear off the paper receipt listing all the books we were taking home. Sparkle got to use her very own library card, acquired long before she could read or write.

My girls don't have to half-heartedly listen to someone talk about borrowing books that they're not allowed to touch from a place that they may never visit again. My girls get to experience using the library first hand and in such depth that it is part of the fabric of their lives.