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By Stephen Press
Hometown Weekly Staff
A toddler crawls out of a clear plastic tunnel that lies on the floor. At the end, the child’s mother waits with open arms. The two are reunited for a brief moment of affection before the kid runs back to the other end of the tunnel, crawls in, and repeats the process from step one. This is Preschool Playtime at the Dover Town Library, and this tunneling tot is just one of the several kids who are having a blast on the day.
Just a stone’s throw away from the tunnel, a little girl colors a picture of Curious George. “I’m going to make one for my dad, too. It’s going to be pink,” says three-year-old Anna Parsons (though if you ask her, she’ll claim she’s four).
“She likes to say she’s four,” remarks her mother, Margaret, as Anna continues coloring away. “She’s three-and-a-half, going on 40.”
“She does a lot this at home, but this is kind of nice - I figure maybe she can meet some other kids,” Margaret says. “She starts preschool in the fall, so I figured if we could meet a few of the kids now, things will be less dramatic in September.”
Despite it being a beautiful summer day, there are plenty of kids here. And there will be even more soon. “The summer is a lot more hit-or-miss,” says Jim Weston, Head of Adult Services at the library. “Once the school year starts, then they drop the older kids off at school and then bring [the little ones] over here for playtime.”
“We do a drop-in every week in the morning from 10:30 to 12. We put out some toys, and it’s a place for family to come and meet each other and have the preschoolers play with each other,” continues Weston. “It changes every week. It’s a nice drop-in. Some weeks, we’ll have a movie. Others, we’ll just put toys out.” He pauses a moment to sum it all up.
“It’s a nice way to go.”
