New downtown Vancouver library offers resources, fun
The whole third floor of Vancouver’s new main library is for kids of all ages, beginning with small bright-colored lights in the floor that young children like to follow.
If you disembark from the elevator to the left, and turn left again, you’ll soon come to the Early Learning Center, specially designed and equipped for children 5 and younger, and their parents or other caregivers.
You’ll find a wealth of play structures where young children can turn things, reach for things, peer through windows and generally play around.
“It looks like a bright, beautiful playground, which is exactly the point,” says a library publication.
“PLAY is the work of early childhood. The imagination-fueling play the ELC encourages gets children questioning and learning about the world around them, and finding inspiration for their innate curiosity and imagination. While they’re having fun engaging and exploring, they’re also developing pre-literacy skills critical for school readiness.”
Even babies are given special images to focus on, and there are nooks for “crawlers” to explore and pull on, the publication says.
The center also uses three-dimensional letters and numbers that these very young children learn to recognize — skills that will help prepare them for school and reading.
Children whose parents don’t speak English will benefit equally from these early activities, which are free, said Karin Ford, the building manager.
Parents can visit the ELC with their young children anytime, with no set schedules or need to ask librarians how to use the play structures.
“We do expect parents to be there with their children,” said Sue Vanlaanen, communications director. “It is set up to be a child and parent or caregiver learning experience together.”
The library district has worked for years to help very young children learn — sparked by “research that documented the tremendous brain growth that occurs in the first three years of life,” another publication says.
It adds: “Fifty-four percent of children arrive in kindergarten without the language skills and socio-emotional preparedness needed to start them on a path to success. Children who don’t develop critical basic skills and socialization in the first few years of life may struggle the rest of their lives.”
Made possible in part by a $5 million anonymous private donation, the ELC is the largest of its kind based in a library in the United States, officials say in the publication.
Other areas of the third floor offer learning delights for children older than 5 — and what parent doesn’t like to flip through the latest books for young’uns and recall the days when their own kids were young?
There’s “Armadillo Rodeo,” by Jan Brett, which begins:
“‘Armadillos, one, two, three — Bo! Let’s go,’ Ma Armadillo called to her boys as they headed out to dig, deep in the heart of Texas hill country.”
Can you dig it? And there’s “I Miss you Mouse,” “Soccer Hour,” “What Puppies do Best” and “Captain Pajamas,” just right for helping children love to read.
For tweens, the floor has tables to do homework and comfortable seats for reading and socializing.
Books these kids might like to read are shelved close by.
