This week at the library; or, Revving up for the summer

Programs

• Clifford's 50th Birthday Party
• Messy Art Club: Paper Gardens
• We Explore Giant Boxes

Random Commentary

• This is my last week to grab a breath before the avalanche of school visits, summer programs, and all the attendant joys falls upon me. Happily, the week started with rain! I love rainy days (once I've gotten all my books and bags into the library). Rain washes away all the pollen so I can breathe!
• I love seeing the wacky end-of-semester projects the kids stagger in with. Today's best was a group of teens asking to use a study room so they could work on their "theme park based on the human digestive system". It looked pretty good, nice use of pipe cleaners.
• For the past couple years I've collaborated with Pattie Woods, our Parent Connections' Parent Educator on a big extravaganza program for National Library Week/Week of the Young Child (yes, I know we were a week early this year, but we do it for the four year olds so we have to pick a day when they don't have 4K). Pattie does most of the work and I supply this and that. I have to really let go of my need to organize things for this because it always tends to be a bit chaotic and last-minute, no matter how much we discuss it beforehand! Pattie usually gets volunteers from MOPs to do a lot of the cutting out of crafts and teachers from the local preschools help out as well. She has an army, but still does a lot of the work herself.. This year we had the program throughout the library on Wednesday morning, so I didn't do preschool interactive that morning. There was food, dogs from the local animal shelter, a "real Clifford" as one little girl said, and several activity stations. I have no real idea how many people came, but I'm guessing around 200, including a group from the special education school.
• We did have a few glitches, mostly in the realm of crowd control. We need to try to spread out the stations more next year (we had originally planned to have stations upstairs, but somehow that didn't happen on the day of the program). The circulation staff suggested an area for coats (not needed last year when the weather was warm!) and more garbage cans!