Bookstart in Scotland Day 2008
On Thursday 15th May 2008 more than 12,000 babies, toddlers and their parents joined in with Scotland’s Biggest Bookstart Rhymetime to celebrate Bookstart in Scotland Day 2008.
Children and parents gathered at free Bookstart Rhymetimes sessions held across the country, from Orkney to the Scottish Borders, to sing exactly the same songs and read exactly the same book at exactly the same time.
In Angus, libraries hosted Bookstart Rhymetimes for 150 children and their parents on the day, while Shetland’s event, featuring a live guitarist, attracted 70 people. Morag Nicolson, Shetland Bookstart Coordinator, commented:
“There was a definite air of calm created by the guitarist - a few babies dozed off and there were a couple of little girls with their arms round each others’ shoulders swaying in time to the music.”
In Edinburgh over 650 children and parents attended the flagship event held at the Hub where everyone enjoyed their favourite songs, rhymes and a stories. At the end of the sessions, each child received a special placemat and sticker, designed by Karen Sutherland, as a special reminder of the day.
New rhyme sheets
Specially designed Bookstart rhymesheets were produced for this year’s celebrations.
- Bookstart in Scotland Day 2008 rhymesheet
(pdf 600Kb)
Scotland's favourite rhyme
Topping the day’s song programme was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, announced by Bookstart as Scotland’s all-time favourite rhyme. Prizes of Bookstart Rhymetime CDs, books and Bookstart bears were also awarded to lucky winners randomly selected from the 6,000 entries in the favourite rhyme survey.
Bookstart Rhymetimes training project
The theme of music was selected for this year’s Bookstart in Scotland Day, in order to highlight the Bookstart Rhymetimes Training Project currently running in many local authorities throughout Scotland.
The Bookstart Rhymetimes Training Project, jointly funded by the Scottish Arts Council’s Youth Music Initiative and Bookstart, has been developed as an extension of the existing Bookstart Rhymetimes programme, and is intended to roll rhymetimes out on a national scale by providing in-depth training and Bookstart Rhymetime toolkits to local authorities throughout Scotland.
The overall aim of the initiative is to make free Bookstart Rhymetime sessions accessible to every parent and child, while raising awareness of the links between singing and rhymes and literacy development.