This week at the library

Programs

• Aquanauts
• Family Storytime: Fun in the forest
• Library on the Go: Sunset Pool
• Library on the Go: Kiddie Kottage
• Bookaneers
• Mini Maker Faire

We were closed for the Fourth of July and I didn't have a lot of programs because this is the "off" week between summer school. We're seeing a significant amount of traffic through the children's area in the mornings though. I only had one child and their parent come to book club on Tuesday, but it was actually really nice as I was able to just chat with the parent and we had a long talk about books (and education and growing up in weird/oppressive religious atmospheres) and their child was very enthusiastic about books and made a cool beaded flower completely on their own with no suggestions or help! Nine year olds are cool. 

For storytime on Wednesday I had a theme of forests. We read some stories, then took crayons and paper outside and made bark rubbings. After we got back inside, we wrapped the rubbings around paper towel tubes to make "trees" with paper leaves. Depending on age, some kids were basically scribbling on the trees, but they all had fun in their own ways. We had a great meeting with a local family advocate and community partner and I'm excited about future plans! Somebody needs to weed the library garden... I'll get to it if I can...

Still working on updating the neighborhoods - I am about halfway through the Nature neighborhood, which is about halfway through the whole collection. I had a fun group for book club and, inspired by the ingenuity of my attendee on Tuesday, we had free crafting with beads, acrylic paint markers, wooden beads and pendants, etc.

I revived our "mini maker faire" on Saturday. When I originally did this, many years ago, we showcased the maker kits and things available in the library for use. Now I have many of those things as maker workshops and everything is circulating, so I kind of ended up scrambling for what to do at the end. We ended up testing out paper making, had Sculpey and sewing materials available, and a woven yarn bowl project. We had fewer than 20 people total, but this was good because most of the kids needed a lot of one-on-one help with the sewing projects. I've found that kids are increasingly struggling to have the combination of fine motor skills, patience, and focus needed for sewing projects. I'm going to do a two-part class starting next week and we'll see how that goes. I will say that the kids stuck to their projects, even though they struggled. An interesting side note - the moms that came participated or helped their kids, the few dads just looked at their phones. We probably would have had more people if the weather hadn't been so balmy, but it was a good turnout anyways.

Three more weeks of summer reading, four more weeks of programs.