It's a Library

I am very luck to have 2 adult helpers for the summer reading programs this year. It will be especially important this year because I had to break the program into smaller programs (I choose to do it according to age but I will be flexible for family groups) due to the small size of our temporary space.
One of my helpers was our STEP person (gov't grant for students) last year. When we broke up for activities and crafts she would take the older kids and they had a book club like discussion of what they were reading, talked about fav authors, etc. Cassidy, who is a communications student, also did writing tips and other creative stuff with them. She doesn't qualify for our STEP position this year (she took a year off to go travelling, luck duck) but she wanted to be involved. So she will be hosting the Teen Book Club that we're having on Thursday nights. I'll be taking what I learned from her last year and applying it to a half hour Teen Book Club Tuesday afternoons, and a book club for ages 10 to 12 also on Tuesdays.
My other helper, Jenna, is a student teacher who will be going into her last year of school. While I have known her for years (she's the same age as my eldest son) I have never worked with her. I wanted to use her skills so I offered her the opportunity to do some of the program planning and a chance to take the lead on running some of the programs. I gave her copies of my planning documents, schedule and resource materials that I use. She is quite excited about the opportunity. For me, the best moment was when she indicated she wanted to see me in action first.
Why is this important? It is important because she recognizes that this is NOT a classroom. My focus for any of my programs is to foster an enjoyment of the library as a place to be, and then to foster reading as a FUN activity. As I tell the kids, and their parents, I don't care if they read cereal boxes as long as they read something.
Too many kids, and their parents, view reading as work. A person's ability to read well improves their quality of life. Like all skills, if you don't use it, you lose it. If you don't enjoy something, you will do as little of it as possible. If that something is reading... I think you can see where I'm going with this.
Don't get me wrong, I think teachers do amazing work and they are often under appreciated. Public libraries, and the staff that do programming, are an unrecognized partner in developing and maintaining EVERYONE's reading ability. I'm hoping that Jenna's time with me will show her that there are partners in the community that can help support what she will be doing in the classroom. And if she becomes aware then hopefully she'll share that insight with her fellow teachers.

Growing Up

Our eldest son just turned 21 and is contemplating changes in his life. He has worked full time for the last 5 years. We didn't push going to college or university because we feel the boys needed more life experience before they could really commit to a program. Now he has reached a place where he'd like to make a change. With hubby at work & his little brother out we were able to have a good conversation about possible things he could pursue. Nothing was decided of course, but just having a chance to find out what he was thinking was wonderful. I don't understand how parents think they don't have a role in their adult children's lives. All relationships require work to stay healthy. I'm glad that our relationship is still strong but we do have to work at it.

Blog June

Man, have I dropped the ball this month. I managed to go 4 days without posting even though I thought about it every day. I have to work on that follow through.

Interesting Stuff

Every month or so I go through the various bookmarks, notes and starred websites, articles etc. that I've come across but haven't had the time to read yet.
I have a tendency to keep links "just in case" they might come in handy for the various reports and newsletters I do. If I think that it might be of interest to someone (coworker, friend, family member) I'll send it off to them.
I started going through the list last night and a few things that I will be keeping:
The 40 Developmental Assets for Adolescents
Support Video Games: Get a Library Card
Summer Reading Flow Chart
Cory Doctorow Vivid Sydney Keynote
(I love Cory's talks. Thought provoking ideas presented in an entertaining style.)

What have you read lately?

I Might Have...

to many books
to read
right now.

I'm finishing Jeff Rubin's The End of Growth (loved his Your World Is About to Get A Whole Lot Smaller). Then I have this list of library books to get through:
The Drowned Cities
Kushiel's Dart (for the Vaginal Fantasy book club)
Tigana (for Sword and Laser book club)
Steampunk!
as well as a stack of 7 kids and teen books for potential use in my summer reading programs and book clubs.

And of course I have purchased a few too like:
The Looneyspoons Collection (recipe book that my best friend recommended)
Redshirts audiobook (narrated by Wil Wheaton!!!!!)
and the latest Clive Cussler novel.

Guess I should stop writing and start reading. :D

Audiobooks

Hubby and I love audiobooks for traveling, but I also like to listen while I'm doing chores around the house. I added some new titles to our audiobook collection today The Storm by Clive Cussler and Graham Brown and Redshirts by John Scalzi. Nothing like action and humour to help you pass the time. :D

Summer Reading Programs

After 10 years of offering one summer reading program (SRP) for ages 3 to 12, I have had to make big changes. In the past the wide age range made it very easy for families to be involved. Older kids acted as helpers and the younger kids benefited from the mentoring of the older ones.

Unfortunately our temporary location is MUCH smaller and there is no separate area to hold it in. Since I usually had 20 to 30 kids attending for a 90 minute program there was no way I could hold it at the temporary library. I looked around for a room either in the Activity Centre or in the high school which is next door. Unfortunately all the rooms are booked for sports camps. I could have looked further from the library, but I thought that defeated one of the purposes of the program which is to draw people TO the LIBRARY.

So...I ended up breaking the program into shorter programs organized by age group. I will run them back to back to minimize issues for families with children in different age groups. The Preschool Program for 3 and 4 year olds will be no more than 30 minutes, followed by Booksters for ages 4 to 6, then Imagineers for ages 7 to 9. Booksters and Imagineers will be about 4o minutes. To complicate things I'll be offering a book club for the 10 to 12 year olds overlapping the end of Booksters and the start of Imagineers. The book club springs from an activity that my adult helper began last year. She would take the older kids to discuss the books they were reading while I did crafts with the younger kids.I'll be doing the programs at the temporary library, hopefully outside. This will encourage the kids to pick up items before or after the program and allow the parents or caregivers to remain close by.

Realistically I know I will have some blurring of the age boundaries to accommodate the needs of my families and interests of the kids. It will also mean that I will have to be REALLY organized. We participate in the TD Summer Reading Club which provides reading kits for the participants. This year's theme is Imagine. It is such a broad idea I gave each week a more specific theme, ie. animals, quests, etc. Themes will be the same across the Preschool, Booksters and Imagineers programs. I'm also planning to adapt similar crafts to minimize prep. I have also made it mandatory for parents or caregivers to accompany the 5 and under kids. This should replace the help I use to get from the older kids. AND I have a student teacher who will be helping me this year! Add a few teens in and we should be good.

I have also been working with our summer care program, Summer Fun, for the past 6 years to offer a modified summer reading program to their kids. In the past they would either bring most of their 30-40 kids to the library or I would go to them. This year we are both in smaller locations. So we've decided to break their group into 3 and have each smaller group come to the library, one  after the other, for a 30 minute program. This would be similar to what I am doing with my library programs, but with less crafts. Now if we could decide on the dates and times I could relax.

What Day Is It?

It's Sunday evening and I'm a vegetable.
All this week we've had class visits tot he library from the elementary school. This is an annual event that we do while the school does inventory. It reminds the kids about the public library, gets them looking for their cards (all students get a free membership) and we get a chance to plug the summer reading program.
If that wasn't enough it's been raining. Not your everyday rain shower, but 30 hours of downpours. At one point on Saturday in the library every computer was being used, every chair was full, there were kids on the floor reading picture books and seniors browsing the stacks. I had no idea we could get that many people in our temporary location.
Today started with the usual family calls and chores. This afternoon we had our 18 month old niece for several hours. You forget how busy little kids can be.
Now I'm sitting down with my feet up and I really don't want to move. Unfortunately I have 2 book club books to read in the next few weeks and they are both long ones, Tigana for Sword and Laser and Kushiel's Dart for Vaginal Fantasy . I'm not sure why I thought 2 book clubs would be a good idea.
Tea might be the first thing I do.
What day is tomorrow?

Gardening Wars

There has been an explosion of dandelions in the neighbourhood this spring. It probably stems from the hot dry early part which damaged the grass  and allowed them to get a massive head start. The weather has now morphed into cool and wet which is allowing the grass to recover. Unfortunately it's too late to stop the spread of dandelions. Since we don't use chemicals on our lawn hubby and I have put in a lot of work in digging out the dandelions in the front. It looks good but we still have a small side and huge backyard to get under control. I'm thinking that the only way I can tackle this and keep sane will be to deal with it on small space at a time.
Although I might resort to paying some little people to pluck all the dandelion flowers to keep them from going to seed.

Movie night

After a busy day yesterday hubby and I went to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It was fabulous! I think the reason it works is it tells a number of 'little' stories within the whole. I'm not at the age of these characters (yet) but I could relate to the relationships and challenges they were going through. In the end the movie left you with a sense of hope and that makes the it worth seeing.

Post #2

Hubby & I enjoying the day yesterday.

Late...

as usual. This was suppose to be yesterday's post but life, and technology, got in the way.

Last year hubby and I purchased a Victory Cross Country motorcycle. He drives and I'm the professional passenger. We had a great time touring close to home last year and we are ready to go further afield this year. Of course that means getting back into "shape." I have a hard time sitting for long periods so we have to start the season with short 30 minute trips and work up to 1-2 hours trips. I can't go any longer than that before I HAVE to get off and walk around for about 20 minutes.
Yesterday we took advantage of the great weather and toured out to Moose Lake. I took some photos and I'll post them later today. It was a great time and I hope the weather lets us get out again soon.

A Good Day

Yep, got up too early. Which allowed me to make all my family phone calls, get the laundry and dishes done, pick up some items from the grocery store and buy my sister-in-law's birthday card all before noon. This was followed by getting the last few plants planted and the pots put the their summer locations. Which led to picking up after the dog and cleaning up after the cats. Finally leading to taking the garbage and compost out and sweeping the outside decks.
Then hubby dropped a full jar of mustard on my foot and the productivity stopped. I ended up having to ice and elevate it which I, of course, did at the computer. Which, of course, led my down the rabbit hole that is the internet. It was a good thing I had to go to dinner at my in-laws to celebrate sis-in-law's birthday or the whole afternoon would have been shot. While I was there, I meet a friend's 3 week old son for the first time.

It was a good day.

All or Nothing

What the heck? I haven't blogged since March? I know things were busy but even I am surprised I was away that long. Good thing #blogjune started on Twitter to remind me to start again. And just like last year I started late.
Ok, it is an Australian/New Zealand thing, but if it get me back into the writing habit I'll take it!