Yes, We Go To The Library Every Week

An email recently asked me about the book finds that I do every month. They asked if we went to the library every week. I said Yes, we go to the library every week! We don’t miss a week and sometimes we go twice a week. I was asked why we go. We check out tons of books and sometimes keep them for a while until we read them all.

I have found that going to the library helps my girls and me with reading more books and getting helpful suggestions on books my girls might like. There are many reasons to visit the library and we love going.

Several years ago I wrote a post called Using the Library. It was different ways to use the library. It also had some reasons why to go. After getting the question I thought I would expand a little more about the what going every week to the library has done for us.

There are some areas I’m going to focus on.

Building a Relationship with the Librarians

Over the last several years we have really made and effort to go every week. We picked one day a week we go for sure. We stick to this day as much as we can. Now the librarians ask what was wrong if we miss a regular day. Now years later the librarians really do know my girls.

Plus with this relationship they are comfort asking them for help looking for books. They have an adult or teen who knows them by name that is not a school teacher. Kids love having someone greet them by name.

The summer reading program is coming up and my oldest is starting the older program and was nervous about it. The librarians talked to her about it and helped her see how fun the changes were. Plus I was able to talk to them about things to make the transition easier for her.

Interaction With Other Adults and Kids

Interaction with others is very important. They will see other kids from school or kids they might not know. My girls get to greet other people and introduce themselves. They build social skills while looking for books. Plus their peers might suggest some books for them to read or play a game together.

You get to see parents of their friends and say hello. We have done mini playdates at the library to have friends help pick out books to read. This is tons of fun and we all learn about what our friends might like to read.

Having Someone Else Point Out a Book To Read

For over half a year, I tried to get my oldest to read The Stonekeeper (Amulet #1). She would not even look at the book. But when one of the librarians told her about it. She picked it up and did a picture walk through it and found out that it might be a book she wants to read. Now she has read the whole series and loves it. I have found that sometimes when someone other than mom suggest something in the way of a new author it might go over better.

Now our librarians suggest books when my girls are browsing the shelves. They will 50% of the time get the book then or might another visit. I make a list of the books they suggest to keep in mind for other visits. I also take pictures of some of the displays to keep in mind of series of books for another time.

Finding New Books & Authors

I love looking for new books. I’m always looking for different authors to read for myself and for my girls. As my girls have progressed in their reading ability the books have been harder to pick out. You can’t always do a picture walk to see if you will like the book. And the librarians often have read the book or at least know the different series.

My oldest is getting into reading many different series. One of my most recent posts about this Animal Books My Tween Likes To Read is an example of books we found with help from the librarian. She knows my daughter likes animal books and helped her find books to read. These were all new authors but because they had one of the books of the series on display my daughter asked the librarian about it.

Learning the Art of Picture Book Walking

Picture walking is very important to do. It was something I really did not understand when my girls were younger. I would just have them pick out a book and we would read it. Often it would go okay and we would enjoy the book.

Now my girls will pick up the book and flip through the pages before getting the book. We really look at the books and not just the cover. My youngest would grab a book and not even look at it. Now years later she looks at the book pictures before taking it home. For my older girls, I still have them read some picture books along with their chapter books. They book pick out a book to read to my youngest. They have to look through to see if she might like having the book read.

This has carried over to older books as well. Now my oldest will look at the description of the book she is getting and read a little of the first few pages. She will see if the text is something she is okay or about her level in reading.

We love visiting the library and it should be something fun that kids enjoy. My girls will ask if it is library day or if we are going to the library again during the week. We enjoy visiting the library and love it. The summer is great time to start building relationships with the library.

Plus I love finding new books to share each month in the monthly book finds

Check out some of these other posts on reading and the library:

• Using the Library
• Monthly Book Finds
• How Teaching My Daughter Helped Me to Read Better

Cassie – 3Dinosaurs.com