It’s in the Bag: Creating a Babysitting Toolkit for Teens
Traditionally, teens turn to babysitting to make some quick, cold hard cash. There are a couple of things you can do to help teens with their babysitting career while you promote literacy and get teens in using your library.
The American Red Cross offers a 1 day babysitting class that teaches teens basic babysitting skills like diapering. In addition, they do CPR certification. There is a fee associated with the class, which either the library could pay per person or pass that cost onto your teens. In the past I have paid $28.00 a head for the certified training course. The benefit do doing the class is that the Red Cross does all the work and the teen leaves with a certificate in their hand. The downside is that there is no real focus on early literacy, which I think libraries would want to include.
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You can also use your library resources to help teens develop a basic babysitting toolkit that focuses on early literacy.
Sandra Boynton is one of my personal faves |
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Put together mini first aid kits or craft kits (another great way to get rid of all those left over supplies).
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Have teens make a musical instrument to put in their bag; there are lots of great crafty ways to do the maraca.
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Talk about snacks and show them all your fun snack cook books. Let them put one together for a treat at your program.
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Share your kids music collection and show them a couple of fun songs you do at story time.
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Don’t forget to share some sheets with your favorite finger plays and rhymes! Those would make a great addition to the bag.
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Just for fun, have a baby doll diaper changing relay. Or an raw egg relay to show how delicate you have to be while holding a baby; although I definitely suggest putting down tarps if you do that 🙂
Filed under: Crafts, Early Literacy, Programming, TPIB
About Karen Jensen, MLS
Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 32 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).
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