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.