Sign up for swimming lessons – Check!
Sign up for summer reading at the library – Hmmm….
A lot of parents are good at signing their kids up for swimming lessons, sports and other camps, but
then forget to sign them up for the summer reading program at the library. Sign up for summer reading at Liberal Memorial Library begins tomorrow for everybody in the community. We often get asked a lot of questions about the program (and given a lot of bad excuses about why they didn’t participate once the program is over), so here is the information that you need to know.
1. Who is summer reading for? We have three different programs, one for kids from birth to grade 6, a teen program for kids from grade 7 to 12 and then an adult program for everybody else. While you are signing up you kids, make sure to sign up for the adult program! Each program has different special events all revolving around a theme. For example, the theme of the children’s program is Fizz, Boom Read, a science theme. Each week, we will be discovering a different aspect of science and technology.
2. Why would I sign up for summer reading? I won’t bore you with statistics that show that kids who don’t read during the summer lose some of what they’ve learned the previous year in school, which sets them back when school starts again in the fall. Summer reading isn’t just about the books, it is also about having fun. We have crafts, games, songs, science experiments, stories and more planned for the weekly sessions this year and some stellar special programs. Plus, all of it is free!
3. Isn’t summer vacation supposed to be fun? Summer reading is fun. This year, Dan, Dan the Magic Man is coming to perform a science/magic show. We have a mad science show – Fizz Boom Pop, Science Rocks! We have tons and tons of Legos coming over to the library from the Air and Space Museum. Professor Popcorn from K-State Extension is going to wow us with food science. Weekly movies will give us a chance to just veg out with friends (and with popcorn and lemonade). I promise, it is going to be fun for kids.
4. How does it work? It’s simple. Sign up at the library (or online at our webpage, lmlibrary.org). Choose a reading goal (at least ten hours to earn a t-shirt). Come to programs if you can. Keep reading at home. At the end of the program, return your logs to the library to get a t-shirt.
5. My kid doesn’t like to read books. You don’t have to read books in order for it to count for summer reading. You can read magazines, comic books, anything… We have books on nearly any subject at the library.
6. I live in Oklahoma- I can’t join. It doesn’t matter where you live, you can sign up for summer reading at the library. If your grandkids are visiting for the summer from Arkansas, sign them up too. (Insider tip, Oklahoma residents can get a library card from the library for free now, so you can check out books and participate in library programs.)
7. I work, so I can’t bring my kids to the programs. You can sign up for the reading part of summer reading even if you don’t plan on coming to any of the programs. And none of the programs have registration (although a few this summer do have limits to the number of participants), so you can be spontaneous!
Signing up for summer reading takes less than five minutes and is easy to do. It’s free and it’s one of the great things that the library has to offer. If you haven’t participated in summer reading before, now is your chance to get signed up! For more information, contact me at the library at 626-0180.
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