Video story times offer home-based fun to crafty kids
Published on June 15, 2021
Even a global pandemic can’t stop the unicorns.
Videos that have celebrated the mythical one-horned creatures, dragons, weather and Mother’s Day are among recent fan favorites in the Fort Worth Public Library’s “Let’s Create! Pre-K Story Time” series. Find all the story times here.
Each episode features Library staff reading stories and guiding children on how to make their own crafts at home. Parents are invited to any branch to pick up free “craft sacks” that contain all the materials needed to make a month’s worth of projects, which are designed around common household items. New episodes are available at 10:30 a.m. Mondays on the Library’s Facebook page.
Jeanette Suarez Salazar said her daughter (pictured at right) has probably made 10 to 15 of the crafts, which Salazar takes photos of and shares on the Facebook posts. She said she really appreciates the craft sacks.
“She enjoys both. In-person is great, but she loves the virtual,” Salazar said. “She goes to the virtual ones on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. She really loves doing the activities each week.”
Stephanie Huff said her children, a 10-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl, also enjoy the videos.
“We love arts and crafts. We do arts and crafts every day,” Stephanie Huff said of her children, a 10-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl. “We do still watch story time and do the crafts.”
Huff said she likes the convenience of watching the program from home, but that means her daughter misses out on socializing with friends at the library and also participating in the physical activity (such as singing and dancing) that is part of the in-person events. Programs at Fort Worth libraries were temporarily suspended to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Senior Librarian Angela Barratt also misses those in-person interactions. However, the videos provide staff members the chance to watch each other’s story times, which was not usually possible.
“It has given us the great opportunity to reflect on our work and learn from it,” Barratt said. “We have celebrated our successes and acknowledged areas for improvement. I would say that all of us who have been a part of Let’s Create are better story-timers than we were before.”
One of Barratt’s favorite crafts were collages made by children that featured what makes them special. That was an early project from the first month of the video story times.
“I love the craft portion of Let’s Create because it has allowed us to have a very tangible connection between us in the videos and families at home,” she said. “But the most challenging part of the whole process for me has been making sure 500 craft sacks get assembled every month! “
Past craft sacks that were not used will soon be available to reserve through the Library’s online catalog. Each sack will include a link to the related story time videos. As of mid-June, there are 50 Let’s Create! Story Time videos to watch.
In-person programs are scheduled to resume this fall. In the meantime, Library staff will continue to create creative and innovative programming virtually for children, teens and adults.
“I’m so glad that we were able to pivot to online story times when in-person ones were not feasible,” Barratt said. “It was a great way to connect with people while we couldn’t have programs, and it was a fun challenge for us to learn how to do them well. But I am very excited about returning to in-person story times.”