By Cristina M.
Several years ago, I was asked to babysit my friend’s 2-year-old for a few days. My friend told me a good place to “distract him” might be the library, so I decided to take a chance and catch the bus downtown. It had been years since I had stepped foot there – and I had definitely never gone into the children’s section before. When we arrived I was amazed at how awesome the children’s side was: It was chock full of books, puzzles, games, computer learning stations, and it even had a padded play area with toys. I let him loose, and basically followed him around for an entire day. The library provided a rich, multi-layered experience for him, which I could tell he was enjoying every second of. And he wasn’t playing the whole time, either. He was switching between reading, solving puzzles with other kids, and napping in the play area. I checked out several books he seemed to like, and brought them back to his house. After that day we went back several times a week, always doing new activities. It was always a joy to see his face light up when I said “it’s time to go to the library!”.NEW BALANCE