Training
Caregivers
"In California, roughly 80% of young children under two and 40% of children under five are cared for by informal child care providers" (California State Library, 2020). The Grass Valley Library location of Nevada County Community Library was one of the pilot libraries that offered the Stay & Play program for nontraditional caregivers. Grass Valley continues to offer Stay & Play, recognizing the training opportunities for caregivers. The program focuses on teaching caregivers how to model the early literacy practices of talk, sing, read, write, and play to their children. Library staff sit on the floor with kids and demonstrate ways to introduce early literacy into the caregivers and their children's daily lives with toys, activities that involve fine and gross motor skills, books, and storytimes. Presentations and meet-and-greets from representatives from Public Health, WIC, Child Advocates of California—including their Child Safety Puppeteers, and more visit monthly in order to offer more tools to nontraditional caregivers. As the California State Library (2020) states, "Libraries are uniquely positioned to responsively support this important population of informal child care providers with information, resources, and community connections."
Stay & Play at the Grass Valley Library is offered every Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. A storytime roughly halfway through each program that focuses on early literacy is also offered each week. Snacks are provided for the entirety of the program so that children and adults can focus on what they are learning.
Stay & Play at the Grass Valley Library is offered every Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. A storytime roughly halfway through each program that focuses on early literacy is also offered each week. Snacks are provided for the entirety of the program so that children and adults can focus on what they are learning.
Stay and Play: A New Way to Engage Family, Friends, and Neighbors Who Care for Young Children
Staff
In June 2021, Youth Services staff attended a workshop through Library Juice Academy, "Foundations of Early Literacy" taught by Saroj Ghoting. Their training was paid for through Califa Group as part of the ongoing training required for Stay & Play. In 2022, Youth Services staff will create a curriculum based on what they have learned from workshops as well as what they have learned by running the Stay & Play program for multiple years. The first day of training will be viewing the webinar, Stay and Play: A New Way to Engage Family, Friends, and Neighbors Who Care for Young Children. Not only will this week-long training for the rest of Grass Valley Library's staff be helpful in understanding early literacy, it will also aid in reinforcing the knowledge and depth of understanding for the Youth Services Team as they teach others and present what they have learned. This training will commence the third week of August 2022 and will occur from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. each morning before the library opens to the public at 10:00 a.m.
References
California State Library. (2020). Stay & play toolkit - california state library. https://www.library.ca.gov/services/to-libraries/elf/stayandplay/
Infopeople. (2020, August 12). Stay and play: A new way to engage family, friends, and neighbors who care for young children. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/447292235
Infopeople. (2020, August 12). Stay and play: A new way to engage family, friends, and neighbors who care for young children. Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/447292235