Welcome to March, everybody! The big news around here is about our children's department--which is finally,
marvelously, open! If you've visited the library in the last few months, you know that we've had our books and play space in the auditorium, which wasn't ideal but we managed to make it work. But on Tuesday, February 20th, our new space opened to the public for the first time!
We are so excited about this new space and we're so excited for you and your children to come and explore it! We've done our best to create some really fun and enriching spaces that will be exciting for a variety of ages and interests. And we do really enjoy watching kids explore and discover the new spaces!
The most obvious new addition to our space is the village play house built into the wall in the back! Currently, this space, perfect for role play, is a Garden Shop. Complete with a cash register, pots, flowers, fruits and veggies, and a wheel barrow, we've seen little ones stretching their creativity in this house a ton already! The village play house will rotate quarterly as to what type of pretend play we are fostering, and we have big plans for it! In addition, we have two new tinker tables with bins built into the
tables. Currently, these tables house Duplo blocks and magnetic tiles. We've seen a lot of fun creations at these tables, too!
One of my favorite spaces in the new Children's Department is the baby crawling space. This is perfect for babies who are not yet walking and need a safe and Enriching environment to explore 
and play, but who are really safest in a more contained space. There are mirrors installed on the walls in here, and bins of baby-safe toys for our littlest friends to discover.
One of the most beautiful parts of our new space is the amazing fairy house which was built by some of the brilliant folks at Outdoor
Discovery Center. The fairy house is built into a real tree trunk, is made largely with found materials, and is full of cool tidbits to discover!
Finally, for the older kiddos who love to visit the library, we have a brand new creative art table and a brain-puzzling STEM table. Each
includes a monthly project or challenge, and we're excited to see all the exciting things that are made and discovered there!
This is not, of course, a comprehensive list of all the fun things you'll find in our new children's department. We have bins of toys, a train table, puzzles and coloring sheets situated on our beloved carousel, and--of course--books! Lots and lots of books! We're so excited to see you at the library soon to discover our amazing new space! When you do come by, make sure to stop at our youth services reference desk and let us know what you think!
And if you're looking for a book recommendation while you're here, we'd be happy to find some of our favorites. Check out list list of picture books about play--it's important work for little minds! And we're honored that so many of our small friends are choosing our new space to do it in.
"Play is the work of childhood," said the famous psychologist Jean Piaget. Celebrate some of that hard work by checking out these fun picture books! HerrickDL KidPicks
