Sarah Shelander
Editor

Youth of Watonwan County learning and growing as readers is the goal of the St. James and other Watonwan County libraries. St. James is expanding what it offers to help kids as young as a few months old and up to school-age grow and learn.

New to the library are Early Learning Bags. With funding from the St. James Friends of the Library, there are seventeen bags available, each bag has a different topic, such as numbers, letters, language learning, spelling, farms, dinosaurs, and sensory. Each bag has an age range from 0-5 years old. However, since all children develop and learn at their own pace it is just a guideline.

“I wanted to have an easy and free option for all families to access these important learning tools.,” said Assistant Director Melissa Haseman. “Inside each bag is a sheet that explains how each item in the bag is helpful in areas of letter and number recognition, fine motor skills, and even language development. The sheet also gives parents and caregivers some fun ways to use the contents to encourage certain skills.”

St. James has added new Wonderbooks to its collection with the help of the Watonwan County Library Endowment Fund. Wonderbooks are print books with built-in audiobooks that are designed to help improve children’s reading skills.

“We are starting with a small collection of picture books in both English and Spanish as well as some chapter books for those kids who are a little older and might need the extra help and confidence with reading,” said Haseman. “As a librarian, I want all kids to have access to any tools that not only encourage learning but make it fun too! Both the Early Learning Bags and the Wonderbooks accomplish this, and I am very excited about it. “

Wonderbooks will be out on the St. James Library shelves in the near future, when they are on the shelves anyone with a library card can check them out. If they are popular and more books are added to the collection Haseman said they will eventually be on the shelves of all Watonwan County Libraries.

The Early Learning Bags were put out in the children’s area last week at the St. James Library with the first one being checked out Wednesday last week. Haseman said the mom who checked one out was really excited about the early learning bag.