If you’ve been back to the Children’s Area of the Buda Public Library lately, you’ve seen a big change! We’ve created a play area for our younger patrons, which is aimed at children from infants to about 5 years old. There are blocks, a play kitchen, dolls, play cars, infant toys, and more back there now.
One reaction people might have is “What? Why are there toys in the libraries?” And that’s a good question! The Buda Public Library is working to earn the Family Place Library™ certification. This certification shows that we’ve expanded our children’s services and parenting resources. Children in that younger age group are developing their brains and building social and mental skills by playing with these toys and tools. Playing allows young children to try out new vocabulary and practice new situations in a safe environment. It also can help them figure out how the world works. For example, a young child can use the blocks to build a tower. She figures out that if she doesn’t build a stable base, the tower falls over, but if she does build a good base, she can make the tower quite tall. That’s real-world physics at work. She then learns that if she doesn’t let her big brother build too, he’ll knock down her tower. There are the real-world social skills coming into play.
In addition to the play area, we’ve also added to our collection of board books and created a Parenting Collection, which contains books, audios, and DVDs for parents to get more information about different aspects of parenting. We plan on continuing to add to this collection, along with other parenting resources.
Connect with early childhood learning at the Buda Public Library!