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.

Mid Month

The weather is not cooperating. It's been raining so much I'm draining plant pots of excess water. It also means that programs that I usually do outside now have to be done inside. I've been very luck the past 2 years, that I've been able to handle the large numbers I've been getting for the summer reading programs by being outside. This year means having to make our small children's section work for groups of 30 or more.
For the SRP group (1.5 hours every Tuesday afternoon for 8 weeks), numbers plus the odd age distribution I've been getting has meant we have had to get creative. The older kids are often there because they are caring for the younger kids so I couldn't simply move them to another time.
After some discussion with our library summer student, who is helping me with the SRP, and the kids, we decided to keep everyone together for the beginning (prize draws, info etc.) and the end. When we split up for activities we split into 3 groups instead of 2. The older kids do a book talk on what they are reading at the moment, then they do an open ended craft. I put a variety of items in a box and they can use them however they want to.
There are enough younger kids to make it practical to break them into 2 groups when doing activities. There is a game and a craft (more structured than the older kids) with 1/2 doing each then we switch. Thank heavens my teen volunteer of the last few years has come back. She is very good with the youngest kids which allows me to oversee the mid age group.
For the Summer Fun group (local care program that comes to the library once a week for 45 minutes) the weather has meant too much time inside and in close quarters. If we need to be inside they have to come in 2 groups, on after the other. This is making planning stuff more difficult, as we're used to doing everything as one big group.
All this wet weather has really illustrated the need for more programming space. Something we'll have to keep in mind as we're designing the library expansion.