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November 22, 2012

One of several Charity League volunteer placements is working with Success by Six. The members serving in this placement volunteer on Saturday mornings in the fall and spring to help with the “Building Blocks” program. This program is led by Janet Boucher at the Martinsville Branch of the Blue Ridge Regional Library.
“Building Blocks” is a series of five workshops designed to allow parents and children, ages 1-3, time to interact with each other while meeting other parents and community resource professionals. Each workshop highlights one resource professional in the areas of literacy, speech and language, child development and play, nutrition, and music. While the parents play and interact with their child, the resource professional sits down with them and answers questions, provides information about age-appropriate practices and community resources and perhaps makes observations about the child’s development. If any potential problems are identified, the resource professional can then direct the parents to the appropriate agency for help.
“Building Blocks” is held in the library meeting room, which is transformed into an early learning center for the program by organizing it into three different activity areas. The Resource Material Area contains library materials and free handouts. The library materials are chosen to support the topic of the week. Also included in this area are board books, pictures books and audio-visual materials that can be borrowed. The Art Activity Area provides materials for a simple art experience, from Ziploc bag finger-painting to rice play, for parents and children to do together. The Toy and Game Area contains infant and preschool toys, books, puzzles, blocks, riding toys, dolls, and other imaginative toys. Parents and children are encouraged to spend time in each area each week. 


Librarian Janet Boucher is engaging young children to participate in story time. Charity League is involved with Blue Ridge Regional Library helping with the ‘Building Blocks’ program.