Wild About Learning: Tehama County Library’s Project Story Hour Boxes

My brother introduced me to a new word this week as we were discussing our childhood memories over the phone. He told me, “I am so thankful our parents read to us and raised us to be autodidacts.” He somehow sensed my confusion and added, “You know, self-taught.”

It was great to learn a new word, and I couldn’t agree more. Parents can set in motion autodidacticism, or self-directed learning, while their children are very young by regularly reading to them. Who doesn’t love a good story? Children usually do! But not all have developed the discipline of sitting and listening to one. Parents and educators can help their children develop these skills by creating an engaging learning environment.

The Tehama County Library has the tools to help you at home or in the classroom—Project Story Hour Boxes. These boxes contain visual and tactile components that tie in thematically with books and lesson plans. Each box contains books, games, crafts and other interactive elements.

A few years ago, as my children eagerly gathered books at the Red Bluff Library, I recall seeing Kelly Estrada come through the door with Project Story Hour Boxes piled high. Small children were trailing behind her. Kelly, now a transitional kindergarten teacher at North Cottonwood Elementary, ran a daycare where Project Story Hour Boxes were just one of the ways she instilled the love of learning in the children under her care. “I used them often,” Kelly says, “so much that when I did my lesson plan layout for the year, I used the boxes as a guide.”

We can thank the Tehama County Library’s retired librarian, Sally Ainsworth, for the creation and implementation of these educational tools. She acquired the funding for the project via a grant from the California State Library called “Pitch In.” The library currently has 43 boxes available for loan. Some example themes are music, pirates, the ocean, bugs, the zoo, space, gardens, dinosaurs and ballerinas.

The library is thrilled to offer this resource as a means for parents and educators to help create an atmosphere conducive for language development and gaining early literacy skills. Todd Deck, the current Tehama County librarian, says, “Ultimately these boxes are about making reading come to life and they have been wildly popular with parents.”

Why not check out a Project Story Hour Box and help your child become wild about learning?