Children, parents enjoy farm-themed storytime at South Mountain Creamery
Jul. 29—Quinn Lott, with a pink bow in her hair, bounced up and down on her mother's knee. The 2 1/2-year-old clutched a blue egg shaker in her hand as "I Know a Chicken" played in the South Mountain Creamery pavilion.
Standing across from Quinn and her mother, Stephanie Lott, Tara Carlisle smiled encouragingly with her own egg in hand.
Carlisle, who works at Middletown's library, led a storytime event focused on farm animals at the creamery. She held a virtual story time in spring, when she read to calves and showed viewers around the farm.
"I had fun doing the virtual story time, so I was ready to come back and do an in-person storytime," she said.
Carlisle worked with Lauren Harshman, the marketing/destination manager at the creamery, to make the event happen. Harshman hoped the event would bring more families to the farm, she said.
Around 10 children of all ages attended the event with their parents. They listened to two books being read, danced along with a few songs, and blew bubbles during the half-hourlong event.
Lott and Quinn usually go to Walkersville's library for Wednesday evening storytime. The family goes to the farm about every other week.
Lott follows the creamery on Facebook, where she found out about the event, she said.
She saw it as a good opportunity to get Quinn outside the home and around other kids, and get her active, Lott said.
Other moms had a similar idea. Rachael Kobe brought her daughters Abigail, 1, and Lydia, 2 1/2.
Kobe grew up in the country but lives in the suburbs. The storytime was a good way to give her daughters a "farm life taste," she said.
Abigail and Lydia enjoy going to storytime events. Storytime at the creamery had the added incentive of ice cream, Kobe said.
"It's a great resource to have some sort of formalized activity that the kids can participate in before they go to school," she said.
Liz Drake, mother to 8-year-old Silas and 5-year-olds Rowan and Sawyer, said the events are a great development opportunity. Children can interact with others their age and practice their literacy, Drake said.
She has taken the children to storytime since they were born. Now that they're in school, the family comes to summer storytime events, she said.
Silas said he enjoyed learning a little American Sign Language during the event. Harshman and Carlisle showed attendees signs for "cookie" and "cow" when reading "The Cow Loves Cookies" by Karma Wilson.
His favorite book was the first one Carlisle read, Margaret Wise Brown's "Big Red Barn."
"I basically go to school in a barn," Silas said.
Nancy Benson attended with her 7-month-old son Jax. They went to Middletown's library to get Jax's first library card and saw the event on a calendar at the library, Benson said.
Jax is an only child, and the storytime events allow him to be exposed to other children. Benson said she also meets other families and can build meaningful friendships from the events, including Brittney Smith, who attended with her 1-year-old, Lois.
Lott said she found a play date buddy through these events.
Carlisle and Harshman hope to hold more events together in the coming months. They are already thinking about other themes for books to cover, including corn and sunflowers during the fall months.
"The sky's the limit. We can come up with a ton of different fun storytimes," Harshman said.
