Thursday, June 30, 2011

a really great, very cool thing!



We have a lot of books at our house and usually read before each nap (still two a day, woohoo!) and bedtime and sometimes other times as well.

Earlier in the summer my mom suggested that we do the summer reading program at the library with David. I kind of thought that was for kids who were reading books like these


but I am so glad I got over my feeling silly and signed him up.

Because . . .

I learned that my little fourteen month old can help these guys





Isn't that amazing??!!!!

You see, the summer reading program goes like this




For every 20 minutes the bigger kids read or every 2 picture books the littler kids read, they get to color in a circle (here I thought I was going to have to write down a pageful of titles, authors, ISBNs . . . )

Simple coloring and thanks to the crayons Jenny gave him for his birthday, I discovered that he can actually color and he really likes it! So fun!

Anyway, you keep coloring circles and the first prize along the path is a coupon book for places about town, the second is a frisbee and the third is a book and bookmark.

But . . .

at the library they had a table set up with all kinds of different GRAND PRIZES!

There were tickets to baseball games, a ball popper for babies, etc. but the one that grabbed hold of me and made me so excited to get home and get to reading was

Chickens!!!

The librarians had the awesome idea to make one of the grand prizes for reading even more books a donation of a flock of chickens through Heifer International.

How cool is that?!!

I just love it and told them so and they thanked me and said they weren't sure how it would go over.

I love that my sweet little boy who doesn't even know about poverty yet or the fact that there are different countries in the world can read books with his Mama and Daddy and Nana and anyone else who wants to sit down with him for a few minutes and in return he can participate in feeding children, parents, a family in a village who will be able to pass it along to another family and so on.

Now THAT is exciting stuff!

Thank you librarians in the Pikes Peak Library District!

If you are local, please consider joining in the summer reading program and make a big difference in the life of others as you share such a simple thing with your kids. Even if you think that you don't have enough time left, we are nearly through with coloring in our chart and ready to start on the Bonus Reading chart that will earn the chickens without hardly trying. You can do it!

If you don't live here I encourage you to share this idea with your local library. I think it's a wonderful idea as most of our homes really don't need another "thingamajig".

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Kelly

edited to add: I did not realize that the chickens and all of the grand prizes were a drawing. That's how it works so I guess only one flock of chickens will be donated, one set of baseball tickets given out, etc. but that is still so cool that chickens will be donated. It's only $20 to donate a flock of chickens so maybe we'll just donate some ourselves whether we win the drawing or not.


12 comments:

mer@lifeat7000feet said...

The PPLD is AWESOME! This is our 8th year to take part in their summer reading program, and honestly, it's just flat out AMAZING. This year's grand prize definitely takes the cake!

BTW, all of the branches are terrific. We're partial to the Monument branch (they actually won Colorado's Best Library award a few years ago) but they're all great! Sometimes we go downtown (Penrose) or to the Union Branch in the summer just to switch things up. :) The Briargate Branch is pretty fun for kids too!

mer@lifeat7000feet said...

Other things I love about PPLD:

1. You can put books on hold online
2. Email/text notification
3. Playaway audio books for car trips!
4. Their book club collection. One person from our book club selects a book from their list, reserves it, then checks out a cute bag of books (instead of everyone buying it). They have a longer check-out time than normal too. After book club, the person who checked them out collects then and returns them in the cute bag. SUCH a great concept that has saved my book club a LOT of money over the years!

Jenni said...

I think that is a great idea!!

Deborah said...

This is such a great idea!

Anonymous said...

this is great!
my mom just signed up my 5 day old nephew for the library program here in fort collins.
thanks for your comments on the blog, kelly, thinking of you and your mom!

Melissa Jackson said...

Very cool! It's fun that you're starting so soon, and he will have lots of memories as he participates in the program every summer.

gail said...

PPLD is awesome! i have been so happy with this library system. my kids are doing the 'teen' program this year for the first time - i will have to see if this is an option for them too.

Mindy S. said...

That is absolutely awesome! I love that idea. Now, I will just have to figure out who to pass that to at the Tulsa library. The children's coordinator that was there when I was working has since retired. Some of my favorite grand prizes here in Tulsa are family memberships for 4 to the zoo and the local aquarium--again a much better prize than some doo dad. I also like the idea of coloring the circles. More fun for the kids I think. I have to say that as a librarian who has never visited a library in Colorado, they do have a very good reputation for being really great public libraries. I think that we have great libraries in Tulsa, but I have always heard really neat things about some of the things that the libraries in Colorado do. Have fun getting to explore them!

Karen said...

Another great thing about the PPLD. Love it! I'm so proud your're raising a reader.

Christian - Modobject@Home said...

That. is. awesome!!! Now that is a summer reading program that I love. Keep turning those pages.

Heather said...

I wish our library would do real prizes like that again. I remember good prizes when I was young for reading so many books. Now, Emily gets a prize just for going to the library. I get that idea, but that doesn't encourage the kids to actually read!

Sarah B said...

I think Heifer is a great organization. Sounds like a great library, too! Fun to start so early in his life. Libraries are one of our best USA benefits.