Baby Time at Agincourt Library

My 5 month old son loves this Baby Time class.  He always has a goofy grin on his face when we do bouncing rhymes and watches intently during story time as the lady turns the book to face him.  He’s such a lady’s man already..

Area: Scarborough, Ontario
Age Range: Birth to 18 months
Click here to jump to the address, hours of operation, cost, etc.

Most of the Toronto Public Library Baby Time! sessions are held in the mornings so I had a hard time finding one in the afternoon that wasn’t too far away/ easily accessible from the highway (my little one currently sleeps most of the morning).  The session is run by library staff- not the Ontario Early Years Centres.  They have to run for at least 6 weeks but Agincourt strives to do 8 weeks (thank you!).  Here’s what I thought about the program:

Overall Rating:		Very impressed!
Activities:		Story time, bouncing/ tickle rhymes.
Amenities:		Lots of parking, washroom with standard baby change station on the wall (no drinks except a water fountain and no food).
Value:		Worth it? Definitely if you live close by (it’s only a ½ hour session).  You can check the Public Library website to find a location near you.

*Rating Guidelines

There’s a theme to each session- for e.g. sleeping, Easter- and the books are picked according to that theme.  The lady who runs the session tries to make it interesting by incorporating puppets, small noise-makers or using figures and a Velcro board to go along with a story. There are handouts every session giving you some tips on how to read with baby, listing the books that were read that day, and one of the songs/ rhymes. (All of the songs/ rhymes are going to be packaged and given to the participants on the last class.  I’ll post it when I get it: Agincourt Baby Rhymes.) There’s always a different display of books at every session.  You can stay after the class and read to your baby or borrow the books (it is a library after all!)

The session is only a half hour.  Even 45 minutes would be much better.  I always end up breastfeeding my baby in the class which takes up to 10 mins (quick snacker) and that’s 1/3 of the class time!

I like coming early to these sessions and staying after so I can socialize with the other moms and give my baby a chance to gurgle at the other babies.  It makes up for the session being so short.  One of the other moms mentioned that this class is very organized compared to the one she attended at Fairview (I haven’t been to that one yet).

Here’s one of my favourite rhymes I learned from the session:

“Way up high in the apple tree (hold your baby up so he’s looking down at you),

I saw a little apple smiling down at me,

I shook the tree as hard as I could (move baby from side to side gently),

And down came the apple (make a slow sweeping motion with your baby),

MMMM it was good! (give baby lots of kisses)”

And here’s some more information about Baby Time:

Did you go to this session or a similar one at another library? I’d love to hear what you thought about it and if you’d recommend it!

Here are the handouts that I collected from the sessions (I only made it to 3 so far because I signed up late and then skipped a couple because of baby nap timing!).  Click on them for a more readable view: