Hellobee Boards

We have an NYPL on the same block as us so when he got to about 18 months I tried to take him to the 18 to 24 months story time.
We only went one time because they were completely unreasonable. The woman who ran the storytime was a young 20 something and she would get really irritated when the kids would run around or be loud during the story. Which was all the time. Because they were 18 to 24 month old toddlers! I know that at that age Attention span is extremely short. His preschool teachers have told us that it was something like five minutes and I think by the end of the twos program school year they wanted to get it up to about 15. I might be a little bit off on that but it something pretty short like that. His actual preschool teachers were appalled when I told them about the story time leaders expectations and reactions. Anyway I get that you want to teach them to listen and pay attention and obey. I AM A MAJOR RULE FOLLOWER and I'm pretty strict with my son on listening and respect. But it's not something that you can force from day one of turning 18 months. She wanted them all to do it for the entire 40 minutes from the beginning. It was inappropriate for the age ands when you have twenty 18-24mo kids they feed off of each other. One kid getting up and they all follow suit.
It was super stressful to see her scolding my child like he did something wrong (it was typical toddler behavior. Jumping up and down during the story for example) or looking at me if he got up and Walked around the room. He was 18 months! And it was an 18 month old story time. So it's not like I took and inappropriately aged child to a story time. Her expectations were inappropriate.
Sorry rambling and don't have time to go back and edit.

I don't go, but our nanny takes my son every week.

Things she likes:
1. You have to register to go - you can't just show-up, so it's not a free-for-all. They have name tags for the kids.
2. As it relates to the registering, they have snacks provided, crafts, and goodie bags for when you leave. It's really, really well executed.
3. It's age divided so he goes at a certain time every week for his age range. (narrow age ranges as well, like 24 months to 36 months old story time)
4. The crafts are really thought out - like on Dr. Seuss' birthday they did all these crafts related to him. It's the equivalent of the crafts we get from his Mother's Day Out.
5. They have a consistent teacher who does it every week and who has taken a lot of ownership of the program. You can tell she feels passionate about it.

The only real "con" is that while the sign-up is convenient for her, it is super annoying for me. I now have an alarm set to remind me because of the time that I forgot, she went, and they were turned away (no room).

ETA: I just remembered that we do go to a story time at the same library a lot of Saturdays. It is not age divided (but is really just story / music time). It is also much less structured, but the guy that has been doing it for 25+ years there and is really amazing. I will say the content of the storytime (and equally the provider) can cover a whole host of other problems and keep me coming back. The only complaint I have about Saturdays is that a lot of us moms are pregnant / lazy and sitting on the floor sucks - I wish they would at least have a chair option for parents.

It needs to be organized by age groups ... I also appreciated the leaders who broke up the stories with songs and some play times (with shaky eggs and silk scarves).

Our classes are drop-in for library members.

My son used to really get into the story time that the director of a private playgroup used to put on. It had several phases.

First, it was the story, which she typically used props and puppets for. She would recite the story from memory and depending on the mix of ages (it was a group for certain language speakers), she would hand the props out to the kids. When she was ready for them, they were invited (with their parents if needed) to come up to her chair to act out the part. My son was really into The Hungry Caterpillar at the time, so for an example one that stands out in my mind, she had wooden fruits with the holes in them and a caterpillar.

Then there was a song and physical activity. This was huge because the kids didn't have to sit any more, they were up and moving.

Lastly, she blew a bunch of bubbles into the air, and then there was a snack served at the tables.

I hate detailed activities/crafts. Coloring is fine. We've done activities where you have to match numbers or letters on round stickers to the numbers or letter on the page. Anything more involved than that is too much. My kids are 3 and 2, they're climbing on me, they both want to sit in my lap, it's crowded, the craft always happens on the floor, I like when it's kept simple.

I like when we get to play with the parachute. And I generally like our story time. They only read one book sandwiched between very fun songs that all the kids seem to love.

Children's librarian turned SAHM here, so I could write a novel but some initial thoughts about having a successful storytime.
1. Book choice: Some librarians pick books because they just loooove them but they just don't work for the age group.
2. Repetition! The same hello song, the same goodbye song. A former colleague would do the same rhymes and finger plays for a month with her baby storytime and it works amazingly well.
3. The balance between control and chaos. Difficult to do but important with a group of toddlers. Success depends a lot on the personality of the librarian.

@sojellybean: yes to your #3. There def needs to be control (who would want to sit in a room of toddler chaos!) but some chaos is inevitable with younger toddlers. The one we went to wanted all control no chaos and that actually made it more stressful and less enjoyable.

The thing I love most is a baby safe area without a lot of distractions so it's ok for the little ones to wander a little. I try to keep them contained but when there are tons of excitement things they can see but aren't supposed to touch, it's more trouble than it's worth!

Otherwise it's mostly just an engaging librarian who seems to enjoy it. And sing nice songs.