Storytime as Community with Peter Limata

On today’s episode of the “Helping Families Be Happy” podcast, host Dr. Carla Marie Manly, talks with Peter Limata, who will be talking about story time. Peter discusses what happens in story time with Mr. Limata, and why is it so important? During story time, the whole idea is just to connect with books, introduce students and parents alike. The books that they are reading are not only for funny laughs, but they are books that deal with serious issues. 

Episode Highlights

• 1.30: Peter has taught first grade students the longest. He has also taught 2nd and 4th grade students. He then worked with after school programs at the first two years, after that moved to the US.
• 03.00: Peter explains how family-oriented country Zambia is. He shares instances, experiences and quotes that best describes Zambia. 
• 04.30: As per Peter, in US you become independent at an earlier age. There is more output and opportunities for employment and earning a living on your own. 
• 06.21: As per Dr. Carla, Zambia is doing a very good job of really creating a sense of family no matter where you are. 
• 7.56: Peter shares how he gets his inspiration from his mom who was an educator. 
• 9.44: Peter explains how being an administrator, allows you to see the bigger picture. He says that the people in the classrooms, the people that are working with the children, we need their input we need their voices, and we can't just be as administrators or as people.
• 11.40: Peter has live experience of the classroom, so he brings all of that to the administration or somebody who has only ever been administrator may not have that vantage point, says Carla. 
• 13.48: Peter shares how he enjoyed narrating stories to kids and what led him to launch story time in Facebook and YouTube. 
• 17.47: Carla mentions the beauties of picture books. She says the words can be used or they cannot be used, and you can create your own story and then talk. 
• 20.05: Peter shares how he has received positive feedback from families and how story time has helped people during the pandemic.
• 24.42: As adults engage in a true, genuine apology not only are we looking at the child and modeling for them, but children watch as we apologize to other adults. And so, a true genuine apology also offers us the room to grow and do it differently to move forward, says Carla.
• 26.21: When we are gentle, we can never underestimate the power for children and adults to be gentle. We can say almost anything no matter how pointed a message that it needs to be. But we can say it with kindness and gentleness, says Carla.
• 28.30: Let kids be kids, many times we try to have kids see the world through our lens, says Peter.

3 Key Points

1. Peter talks about his experience as an educator and administrator. He shares how the two are different. 
2. Peter talks about story time and how he makes or help families be happy through the power of story. 
3. Storytime is meant to support reading for kids and of course families reading together but also helping them have those conversations, says Peter. 

Tweetable Quotes

• “Today it's on your friend, tomorrow it's on you and usually it refers to something that is, some of your friend is struggling, don't laugh at them help them because you never know when your time comes on.” – Peter Limata
• “I am in this role because of the influences that I had from my mom who was an educator.” - Peter Limata
• “Decision makers make decisions in a vacuum. We need to bring in the people we need. And that's what has helped me just leaving the class last year and being an administrator now.” - Peter Limata
• “When I started storytime, I started it looking for a way to connect with my kids.” -  Peter Limata
• “I really have embraced it in, in a way that I never would have imagined. But it came about because as I was putting out content for story time, how do I reach more people, more kids, and so my idea was just to put out stuff. And then I started thinking, well, I have these events page on my Facebook that I will put up, but then I needed a way of highlighting those telling people what's coming next.” - Peter Limata
• “Apologies are a gift, so some people definitely steer clear of them, but I see them as a real bonus to everyone.” - Carla 
• “You can wire your brain whatever way you want to wire your brain. It can become part of who you are.” - Carla

Resources Mentioned

• Helping Families be Happy Podcast Apple
• Peter: Instagram | Website 
• Podcast Editing