My First Story Time Gig

As many of you know I became a volunteer at my church’s Cafe as soon as it opened eight months ago. I help open the place up on Friday mornings from 7:00 to 10:00. My boss is the indomitable Jennifer Glotz who comes equipped with a personality which is the equivalent of three cups of espresso. She is a dynamo of action and ideas and her leadership makes the volunteer experience an awful lot more fun that it probably should be! Recently, she came up with the idea of Friday morning Story Time, whereby we invite stay at home Mom’s or Dad’s along with babysitting grandparents to bring their kids to the Cafe at 10:00 while one of our volunteers reads to them. The idea was that during the bleak mid-winter, here was an opportunity to get out of the house and have some interaction with other humans and maybe a cup of coffee in the bargain. Yesterday was just the second such Story Time, and featured a new, throughly untested and risky reader.

Me.

I had stuck around the previous week to see how the first Story Time was going to go down. Last Friday there were two really young kids along with three older, elementary aged kids.The little ones sat in the reader’s lap while the big kids sat in their own chairs reading their own books trying to look disinterested. They were clearly too cool for this particular scene! I figured that this gig would be a breeze.

But yesterday there was a totally different crowd and vibe. There must have been ten kids in all, along with a wide assortment of parents and grandparents. Most of the kids were toddlers with varying attention spans that ranged from two minutes to two seconds. Some of them sat with their parents and hung on every word that came out of my mouth—which was a bit intimidating. I kept thinking, “No, no kids. I am an unreliable teacher! Don’t trust anything I say to you!!” Others would listen for a minute then wander off, then suddenly reappear out of nowhere at your side just to check in on the story. But talk about some adorable pups, Holy Cow. As I read from Dr. Seuss about the trip to the Pet Store their little eyes were wide with fascination. When I started reading about the Mom with six arms they seemed hesitant, but by the time the Mom had 16 arms they were in on the joke and relieved that the strange and much too loud man wasn’t a lunatic after all.

I think that the kids had a good time. The parents and grandparents seemed to enjoy themselves too.

I…had a blast.