Lyon County, Kansas
Bedtime Stories
(By Brandy Nance)
Wylie Redeker, 5, of Olpe listens |
Sheila Broyles reads to Wylie |
Both dressed in their pajamas, |
It isn’t often that students get to see their kindergarten teacher in her pajamas and frog slippers. For Olpe kindergarten teacher Sheila Broyles, the nighttime attire is just part of a program to promote reading.
This is Broyles’ second year doing “Bedtime Story Night with Mrs. Broyles.” This year Broyles has 17 kindergarten students. Each one of those students gets to have a home visit by Broyles, who shows up with a book that she and the student picked our earlier that day and as an added bonus, she shows up in her pajamas.
“On the day of their visit, the student and I go to the library and they pick out three to four books and then I just show up (at their house),” she said. “I’ve got my pajamas on and my frog slippers and we read books. We read, we visit and sometimes we just play a game.”
Broyles said she’s been wanting to do home visits with kids for years.
“I thought about doing some type of home visit for several years,” Broyles said, adding that after thinking about it for awhile she just decided to go with a home visit program and have fun doing it at the same time. “I have a majority of all them participate but it’s not mandated. I leave it up to the parents and how they feel about it.”
Broyles said the program has been a hit with the kids.
Sheila Broyles reads to Wylie Redeker, 5, in his room. Broyles is a kindergarten teacher at Olpe School and will have read to every child in her class at their homes by the end of the school year.
“They are usually outside waiting for me on their swing or looking out the window,” she said. “They’re all excited and it’s really, really fun.”
Broyles started the program as a way to promote reading for the students and their families but also as a way to spend one-on-one time with students in their own environment.
“It’s been so much fun going from house to house,” Broyles said. “And it’s nice to see a child in their environment.
“To tell you the truth, during the day we are just so busy with academics. It’s just constantly something with the group and I just want to have time with each child and to share with the family the importance of reading at home.”
Seeing the students’ reactions is rewarding, Broyles added.
“Just to see the look on their faces when I show up and just how excited they are,” Broyles said. “It’s rewarding to have that special time with just that one child.”
Both dressed in their pajamas, Sheila Broyles, Olpe kindergarten teacher, reads bedtime stories to Aubrey Hammond at the child’s house.
Broyles tries to have all her home visits done by Thanksgiving so she doesn’t have to travel in bad weather on rural roads. She sends home letters with each child and the parents pick which day they want. After all the letters are returned, Broyles sends home a calendar so the parents know when to expect her.
“My parents are really great,” Broyles said. “We have wonderful parents who really do care about reading and read to them even at an early age.”
Broyles said she has worked with children for 25 years. Ten of those years she had her own preschool in Madison. For five years, she had a preschool in both Madison and Olpe.
“I just traveled back and forth,” she said.
When Broyles was in her 30s, she decided to go to school and get her master’s degree in early childhood curriculum at Emporia State University. She has a teaching degree in elementary education as well.
Broyles has worked with kids in Olpe for 15 years. She complimented the staff she works with.
“The staff here at Olpe is so motivating,” she said. “They are very open to new ideas. I just think all the staff here do wonderful things.
“This week is Red Ribbon Week and we invited the whole community to come get donuts and juice. The kids come and bring the parents. ... I cannot say enough good things about the administration and the staff I work with and absolutely number one is the children.”
While Broyles teaches the children, she learns, too.
“They teach me so much more than I’ll ever be able to teach them,
I’m sure,” she said.
Photos by Carly Pearson
(Emporia Gazette ~ 27 October 2007)
Copyright © 2007 to Kansas Genealogy Trails' Butler County host & all Contributors
All rights reserved
