Testimonials

Katie’s Stories, Songs, and Stretches! trainings and resources offer us great ways to support all facets of school readiness through library storytimes and programs. Her knowledge, creative ideas, warm manner, and encouraging attitude combine to make a unique experience as public libraries move toward developing the whole child. As public libraries are expanding from early literacy to early learning, it is gratifying to see ways that Katie ensures that books, reading and early literacy continue to be a central focus.

Katie is a genius when it comes to early childhood and social-emotional learning. If you are the parent of a young child, if you are an educator, or if you love yoga and would like to learn how to use mindfulness strategies with kids in any setting, I cannot emphasize enough how much I believe in what she has to offer.

My 2017 survey of movement-based programming in North American public libraries found that the two most commonly offered programs are: 1) Yoga and 2) Music and Movement for Early Literacy. Katie Scherrer's Stories, Songs, and Stretches! program ingeniously and seamlessly weaves these two ideas (plus books!) into a holistic, evidence-based program that engages the body, heart, and mind to support physical literacy, social emotional learning, and early literacy. These types of programs for the whole person are only going to increase, and Katie's Stories, Songs, and Stretches! fills a very important gap. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

I just finished my regular storytime, and I threw in a few yoga-inspired touches. It was amazing! I can’t stop smiling! I realize the practices I did weren’t that different from my typical programs. However, I was very intentional in my planning and presentation, rather than just running on autopilot, as it’s easy to do when you’ve been doing the same thing for a decade. That intentionality made a big difference in how I felt, how I connected with the group, and how they received what I was doing. And there are so many lessons in that for every facet of my life.

Let’s get serious about silliness for a moment! This is the most engaging, informative workshop I have attended. Katie is a sparkling star of joy and light - who also Really Knows Her Stuff! I had the expectation that SSS would be like other kids yoga trainings - delightful and fun, with lots of great ideas for activities and fun names for poses. Which it was! What blew my socks off was that for every activity and action, movement and mindfulness moment, Katie had considered how each tied back to child development competencies. Sign up right now!

Learning to relax and be mindful are important tools for thriving in today's pressured world. Katie Scherrer is a visionary who has expertly woven together her knowledge about yoga and mindfulness with a commitment to the well-being of children and diversity in library programming. She shares easily implementable tools to help children cope with stress in these charismatic presentations.

Diversity and inclusion are seamlessly woven into everything in Stories, Songs, and Stretches!. Katie is very gentle yet assertive, and she makes everyone feel comfortable, even when it isn't easy. This was one of the best trainings I've ever attended. I feel like SSS is an organization that I can trust to accurately guide individuals in supporting diversity and inclusion, as well as teaching social-emotional intelligence.

Katie is one of the most passionate and professional instructors I have had the pleasure of working with. She has created a top notch program that’s accessible and relevant to a wide audience. Katie made it easy for us as she took care of many important details along the way including marketing, collecting payments, community engagement and staying active on social media. It was certainly our pleasure to host Stories, Songs, and Stretches!