Richmond Surprise: Day 4

Day 4 arrived and we did our morning commute to art camp yet again. After the drop off, my son took a snooze in the car while I tried to find something for us to do.

I learned from my past hanging out sessions in Richmond that the Richmond public library often holds many interesting and free events for children. I checked their website from my phone and found out that two different branches were having a preschool story time that morning. I wasn’t sure how long the story time would last so I went for the one that started soonest.

We drove for about 20 minutes until we reached the first library branch. We arrived just about a minute before the story time started at 11:00. I walked into the library and asked where the story time was. The librarian pointed the way and as I reached the door, I was greeted with a pre-printed sign that said that I was not to enter, that story time had already started and that the maximum number of guests were already in the room! The sign continued that if I wanted I could request a ticket at the front desk, wait half an hour and. . . if there was enough interest, they would hold another session! This was a bit more bureaucracy than I was expecting and I wouldn’t be able to wait for the next story time as it would make me late for pickup.

So, we got back in the car and rushed to the second branch of the library with story time at 11:15 a.m. We arrived there also a minute before story time began.

This time, the librarian at the desk showed me to the room and found the children’s librarian who, with a cheery smile, greeted my son and then rounded up all the children in the library for stories and games.

This was my son’s first story time. While he listens very well to stories at home, in a public setting he was a little distracted.

The librarian had wonderful inflection as she read the story. At the end, she asked the children some reading comprehension promoting questions, which I thought was impressive.

The librarian then asked each child to request a song to sing. While some stuck with old favorites like the ABCs and Wheels on the Bus, one child requested to sing “Let it Go” from the movie Frozen. We are probably the only family in America who has not seen this movie. The children who requested the song began to sing the somewhat complex lyrics. When it came time for the chorus, everyone was singing out enthusiastically, “Let it go! Let it go!” All I could do was sit there and smile. The children sang the entire song which seemed to be about 4 minutes long! We clapped for them when it was done.

We finished off with the librarian blowing bubbles for the children to pop. My son thought this was great, until he realized he had to compete with the other children for the bubbles and that being the youngest and smallest he was at a disadvantage.

Overall, it was quite a successful first story hour.

We rushed back to camp for pick up.

For our afternoon adventure, we were blessed with a “polar vortex” which brought cooler weather. Mind you, it was still plenty warm, just not as sweltering as it had been.

One of the things I have never successfully done in Richmond is visit Brown’s Island. I know roughly where it is and as far as I know it is not that hard to get to. However, every time I attempt to get there something happens to disrupt our trip.

We parked near the Tradegar Iron Works, grabbing the last available public parking spot. We began walking toward Brown’s Island when the children spotted a sort of beach and decided that would be the best spot to eat our picnic lunch.

At this point, the children said they were tired and ready to go home. I am not entirely sure if we ever made it to Brown’s Island! We were certainly in close proximity. Ah well, we’ll have to try yet again.

It is always amazing how children find the energy to run when they have the right motivation! We walked back to the car and drove home. We had just one day left to spend in Richmond but we were appreciating all that we were able to experience.