Taking On Storytime
November 8, 2019
Over eight years, ago Dana Horrocks was considering being a teacher and realized what she REALLY wanted to do was read books and sing songs! She decided to pursue her MLIS and headed to UBC where she met her soon to be blog partner Lindsey Krabbenhoft in school. Shortly after, they were assigned a project for a Social media class and since they both LOVED storytime, they decided to design a Website/blog centred on fun songs and rhymes for children. Apparently, they hit a nerve because Jbrary really took off. Dana says at the time there was a definite need for content that supported early literacy providers and the simple, clean and repetitive delivery style made it easy for people to follow along and learn.
So who should follow Jbrary? Dana says their followers range from young parents who want to support their little ones at home to professionals like speech-language pathologists who can use the videos as tools and of course librarians and early childhood educators. She added that Lindsey does the majority of the blog posts now and they have made the decision to keep the site completely Ad-free and accessible to anyone who can use the support. In their very librarian-like style, everything is beautifully catalogued and easy to find via theme and age group searches. Dana said there are too many wonderful books to choose a favourite but she just shared Nothing Rhymes with Orange by Adam Rex and that it is a lot of fun.
She says that her “favourite part of doing storytime is connecting with each participant – whether it be encouraging a child to predict what will come next in the story, adding an extra verse to a song or chatting with a parent afterwards.”
Be sure to check out the blog and YouTube channel for fun inspiration to share with the little ones in your life!
