Read, Explore, Create!

It’s that time again! We’re just about ready to kick off our annual Summer Reading Club. If you’re not familiar with how our club works, it’s really easy and REALLY FUN! Registration begins Monday, June 1st and can be done in person at either library (Centerville or Woodbourne) or online. Kids entering preschool - 5th grade can join our children’s club, where they get “gamecards” to track their reading (by hours or by number of books read—it’s their choice). Along the way, there are tons of coupons for free stuff and prizes to win, and each child who completes the children’s club will earn a book! For babies and toddlers, we have activity sheets that are filled with fun early literacy activities for you and your little one to do together. Along the way, you earn rhyme cards to use with your child, and each baby or toddler to finish the club earns a board book to keep!

During the summer, we’ll also have tons of great programs for the whole family to enjoy. Some of these programs include: Life-Size Candy Land, where we’ll have a life-size version of the popular board game; Fun with Mike Hemmelgarn, where the whole family will be entertained by a fun magic show; Look, Up in the Sky!, during which kids can make airplanes and kites to test in a wind tunnel provided by the Armstrong Air & Space Museum; a Library Bake-Off, where kids can show off their culinary skills; and Animal Avengers, during which you’ll have a chance to get up close and personal with animals like a kangaroo and a boa constrictor! Check out all of our programs here.

In addition, this year’s theme is “Read, Explore, Create,” and each week we’ll have a different theme for our craft centers located in the children’s room at both the Centerville Library and the Woodbourne Library. You and your kids can stop by anytime we’re open to make cool crafts and color our coloring sheets.

Finally, I know that many of you, like me, are anxious for storytimes to start up again. Luckily for us, we don’t have to wait too much longer, as storytimes will resume the week of June 8th! Check out the new summer storytime schedule here. Registration is not necessary for any summer storytimes. Feel free to come whenever you can!

We’re looking forward to seeing lots of excited readers at the library this summer!

5 Tips for Summer-Reading Success

With summer quickly approaching, it’s time to start thinking about how you’re going to keep your kids interested in reading this summer. Here are some tips to encourage a summer full of reading:

1. Keep books everywhere—in the playroom, in the bedroom, in the car. The more accessible books are, the more they’ll get read.

2. Visit the library often. You can even make it a part of your weekly routine, so your kids know that they’ll go on a certain day each week.

3. Allow your children to choose at least some of the library books you get. Sure, you may have some books that you’d really like them to read, but make sure that they have a chance to pick out some on their own, too. Kids are far more excited to read books that they have chosen for themselves.

4. Read books in front of your children. You are your children’s biggest role model. If they see you reading for fun and enjoying it, they’re more likely to want to read as well. 

5. Join the library’s Summer Reading Club. Our club offers some pretty awesome incentives for reading over the summer. Check back next week for more details on this year’s Summer Reading Club!