1. Dobson 1
Betty Dobson
LTA 1312
May 6, 2013
Baby Lapsit Story Time
Library Selection
Eufaula Memorial Library does have a nice meeting room that could be used, but from
past experience at trying to start an evening story time program at my library and having poor
attendance, I am planning on taking my new lapsit program “on the road” to Creek Nation Day
Care Center in Eufaula. As great as it sounds to have an evening program for working parents
with babies, I find they are: tired, overworked, afraid of germs, too busy and just reluctant to
drive to the library in the evening.
Theme, Target Group and Objectives
This will be an ongoing weekly program. The theme of each lapsit will not differ
significantly and will be somewhat repetitious. I have spoken with the administrator at the day
care center and have been granted permission to present this program every Wednesday morning
at 9:30. At this time there are six babies under one year old and four toddlers under eighteen
months old. My objective is to introduce books, music, rhythm and art to our tiniest patrons.

2. Dobson 2
Public RelationsThe Creek Nation Tribe presented the library with a check in the amount of $2,000.00 in
February. This money was given to us as thanks for the programs that our library brings to Creek
Nation Head Start and to the day care center. The attached picture was published in the Eufaula
Indian Journal on February 21, 2013. With the addition of the lapsit program, I now do five
programs a week for approximately 100 children for the Creek Nation alone. Earlier this month
I attended a training program presented by the Oklahoma Library Association called “Bright
Beginnings” and received some in depth guidance on doing story times with babies as well as
scratching the surface of story times with children who fall somewhere under the umbrella of
autism. I also attended a daylong seminar given by Dr. Diamante who has done research into the
neurological approach of story time with young children. There most likely will not be any
public advertising for this program but it is important for the facilities that I am allowed to enter
to know that I have been trained, back-ground checked and that I am on the staff of the library
with many years of experience.
Materials
Books
I-Pod
Speakers
Magnetic Board
Laminated characters relevant to books
22” Life-like baby doll

3. Dobson 3
Bubble blower
Rolling cart for supplies
Kids’ songs purchased from Amazon
Costs
Doll
$40.00
Magnetic Board
18.00
Roll 1” magnet tape
12.00
Bubble blower
18.00
$88.00
The books will be provided by the library system. The audio equipment and rolling cart
are already being used for preschool story time. The library will absorb the cost of color printing
and laminating, I will store these pictures in a notebook photo album which I am presently using
for felt characters. The transition from felt to lamination is based on two things: the time it takes
me to create felt characters and the wear and tear I am seeing on them after just a few years. I
estimate that my time involved in planning and presenting will be 1.5 hours per week which will
be an approximately $780.00 per year cost to the library.
Location and Responsibility
This program will be presented in the infant room of the daycare center. During the 20
minute program I will be allowed to have 3 day care staff in the room. The room has a low semi-

4. Dobson 4
circle table with 6 booster seats attached, that the children will take turns sitting in. The staff
will alternate the babies between sitting on their laps and sitting at the table. The handling of the
children will be the staff’s responsibility. The speaker is small and battery operated, that and the
I-Pod will remain in my lap. The rolling cart will become the stand for the visual board,
laminated characters and books. I will sit in one of the rocking chairs in the room. The day care
staff will be on the floor with the babies.
Emergencies
Since I am not on site at the library I will find out in advance, what Creek Nations day
care center policies are regarding bad weather, fire, accidents and follow their procedures. This
lapsit program will not be administered by anyone else due to “I’m it!” I will be responsible for
notifying the administration at the day care center if I cannot be there because of meetings, short
staffing at the library or illness and will attempt to re-schedule if possible.
Evaluation
Week number one: I arrive at Creek Nation Day Care Center on March 27 right at 9:30
a.m. I set up in the toddler room where only three children are because the babies are all
sleeping! There is no rocking chair and I only have one teacher to help. Ugh. So I do my first
lapsit with two girls that have just learned to walk and an almost 2 year old. They look at me
very suspiciously as I play and sing “If you are happy and you know it, peek-a-boo” and they
toddle away as I read the first book. I plow on and then break out the bubbles. They were so
delighted with that. I was done in about 10 minutes, so I know I went too fast. I paid attention to
the books that seemed to hold their brief attention spans and those that they just ignored. They
seemed to like the books that had almost photographic bright images of babies and animals.

5. Dobson 5
Week number two: Four toddlers are there and the teachers bring three babies in and
place them in bouncy chairs on the floor. There are three teachers in the room with me today. The
toddlers seem to trust me a bit more and they “sort of” sit while we sing, read and do “eensy
weensy spider” and “ride the little cowboy.” I “re-did” the books that held their attention the
week before. The reaction of the babies really surprised me, they were wide eyed and seemed to
be paying attention. I copy catted the teachers as they clapped and said “YEA” after each little
thing we did, the kids loved that. Of course the bubbles were the hit of the day!
Week number three: I walk into the toddler room to squeals of pleasure as the kiddos rush
to take a seat and get ready for story time. There are no more suspicious looks, just smiles. They
participate in the musical part and the finger play and mostly stay seated until we do bubbles!
Final Evaluation: I have requested dozens of books from EODLS to preview for lapsit
and they are harder to find than I anticipated. They need to be somewhat large and yet have
simple bright illustrations and most books in our system for the very young are just small board
books. Also some of the books are in poor condition. The most well received books are “Peek-aMoo” and “Who’s Baby am I” when I get more time I will research Amazon and ask my
manager to purchase a dozen similar books just for lapsit.
Having the battery operated speakers with the ipod, located inside the magnetic easel is
the only way to go with this age group. One time the batteries died and I had to plug the music
controls in some distance away, it was very distracting to the kiddos for me to have to get up and
down.

6. Dobson 6
I don’t need to hold the baby doll on my lap the whole time. I was afraid if I sat her down
it would tempt the children to want to play with her, but they seem to stay engaged in finger play
even if I sit her on the floor beside me.
I was concerned about the bubbles for a couple of different reasons. Number one is the
possibility that a bubble might get in a child’s eyes, number two is the residue they might leave
on the floor. The very expensive “Gymboree” bubbles are simply amazing, they stay afloat and
do not pop easily. They are non- irritating and leave no residue on the floor. The multiple bubble
blower creates hundreds of bubbles above the kids heads and it is really cool looking!
I have been asked to take this program to yet another day care center and I will….after
the Summer Reading Program is over!
Save (and Sharing) the Program
All of the basic supplies for Baby Lapsit will be kept in the labeled rolling cart, in the
work room of the library. This has started another issue though, SPACE! I opened my big mouth
and complained about the work room, so my manager and the director of my library system have
given me the yearly goal of: Redoing the work room. This is a big project with a lot of $$
responsibilities, collaboration and consequence if it is not done to every ones expectations. So
saving the program involves more work than I anticipated. As I continue to implement the
program I will fill out a sheet (attached) listing the books, visuals, finger play and music that I
used in each weeks program. I do not anticipate needing more than ten sheets or programs and I
will probably use the same 3 or 4 programs over and over again because of the repetitious quality
that little ones thrive on. I will briefly evaluate each program on that sheet and note the most
successful ones. All of this will sit on a shelf in a vertical file. After I (hopefully) get good at

7. Dobson 7
this, I will ask my manager to attend a lapsit with me and digitally record the process. This will
go in the computer folder with the weekly programs and will be uploaded to Google Documents
which is “Cloud” storage. I will also inform all of the children librarians within my library
district that this information is theirs to use, why re-invent the wheel?

8. Dobson 8
STORY TIME FOR THE VERY YOUNG
date: 3-27-13
THEME: Babies and baby animals
Opening Song: “If you are happy and you know it, Peek-A-Boo”
Book: “Peek-A-Moo”
Finger Play: Eency Spider
Board: blue horse picture
Book: “The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse”
Bounce: Ride the little pony up to town, ride the little pony don’t fall down.
Board: baby picture
Book: “Ten Little Fingers”
Finger Play: Where is pointer, where is pointer, here I am, here I am. (put hands behind back and
when you sing “here I am” bring them out with you pointing finger making a bow)
Book: “Clap Hands”
Board: baby polar bear picture
Book: “Whose Baby am I”
Mother Goose Rhyme: Rock a bye baby
Quiet Book: “Sleepy Oh So Sleepy”
Closing song and bubbles: “The bye-bye wiggle worm Song”

9. Dobson 9
All of the children in this photograph have a signed imaging agreement on file with Head Start.
My new baby!
Best Bubbles Ever!

10. Dobson 9
All of the children in this photograph have a signed imaging agreement on file with Head Start.
My new baby!
Best Bubbles Ever!