A dance party for toddlers. We had plastic pools filled with scarves, maracas and similar musical instruments, bubble machines, glow sticks, decorations, and dance music. We also provided baby-friendly snacks.
Advanced Planning
Our goal was to have a baby-focused program, where our youngest patrons and their caretakers could play and dance. The intention was a fun program that would bring people into the library. We limited this program to 15 babies (plus their caretakers) per session, and offered two sessions (10 am and 11 am).
Marketing
We promoted this program internally, during storytimes and in the lobby of both branches. It was very successful. This was a registration-based program, and both sessions that we offered were full.
Budgeting
This was a very low cost program for us. We already had most of the materials available from other youth programs. The majority of our budget was spent on the foam glow sticks and snacks, both of which could easily have been skipped to save money. If we were to run this program again, we would splurge on baby-sized sunglasses as well.
Day-of-event Activity
Most of the setup was decorating and prepping the snacks. We offered "baby-led-weaning" style snacks (fresh cucumbers, fresh strawberries, and packaged baby snacks). We had colorful streamers placed around the room. Two baby pools were filled with scarves for children to play in. We had two bubble machines running the entire time. We had a YouTube playlist of "children's rave" music playing on a TV.
Program Execution
It was excellent! Most of the people who registered attended, and we were able to pull a couple of families from the library into the program as well. All of the families seemed to have a great time, and several patrons asked if we would please repeat the program in the future. Overall, it was an easy program to execute and the families thoroughly enjoyed it.
Advice
We used a TV to play a YouTube music playlist, and it was very distracting for a couple of the children. Next time, we would just use a Bluetooth speaker to play the music and avoid having a screen on in the room.
Supporting Materials
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