A Woodside Walk- Projects for Neighborhoods

It's been a very very hot weekend, and we ended it by going to have our ice cream dessert this evening from the Laundromat vending machine.  While we were there, I was straightening the books on the cart, and noticed there were some books I did not bring over.  I counted 30 books have been added to my stack.  Apparently I now have a co-librarian at the Laundromat.

Last Wednesday, I had high hopes. Lots of kids would show up for the reading.  After all, I did put up fliers announcing a FREE reading, and PRIZES.... but alas, there was only one child at the Laundromat when we arrived at 6pm.  They were getting their clothes out of the drier, and had already called a car service to pick them up, so I was dissapointed.  I decided to give the mother one of the book bags containing a new book, crayons, and the Woodside Walk coloring book anyway, in the hopes that she would tell her friends about the project.  Unfortunately she did not speak any English, and since I cannot speak any Spanish, I could not communicate enough to her about the project to make any future impact. She was very happy to get the goody bag and some new books for her child though.

So this evening, after dinner, we ventured over to the Laundromat to do an impromptu reading.  Last Sunday there seemed to be several children there, so I thought, why not try for our first Storytime tonight.  Well, what I realized is that people are not creatures of habit, especially during the summer. So I will put up posters advertising a reading for next week sometime.  I will shoot for Wednesday afternoon/early evening...Stay tuned. We wait around by reading some books, hoping some children will show up to do laundry with their parents. We choose a dessert from the vending machine. Then Harley reads the ingredients for the creamsicle to Hiro. Thus, concludes our first reading..... On this 90 degree evening, we could have done worse, than to sit in an air conditioned laundromat and had ice cream!

Getting ready for storytime, here's an example of the bookbags that will be giveaways! Each child will get one of these filled with a brand new book, crayons, and the Woodside Walk coloring book!

About a year ago, when our son was 1-1/2 years old, you could read the same book over and over and over again to him, with no complaint.  He even had In The Night Kitchen , memorized since we read it a lot.  We had Sandra Boynton 's Going to Bed Book memorized to the point that whenever he heard the words, "The sun has set, not long ago..." he would begin crying since it signaled bed time. Skip to today, our son would rather "read" the new books.  Same with videos and food too.  Anything new, he will devour, and anything old, he will pass over. So if you need a new book to read to your child, and the library is closed, walk your laundry, or yourselves over to our corner laundromat for a story!   Hiro tries to push the cart by himself. Crossing the street. Organizing the books. Sort of organized....notice my all time favorite book at top: From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. My First reader!  A boy who was there, circled the scene