I’m lucky enough to live in Ohio, which offers the Imagination Library on a state level. My library system works closely with our county’s Imagination Library lead.  We have registration forms at our branches and regular mention registering in our programs and outreach. 

The Imagination Library is in five countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and Australia.  An international study of the impacts of the program yielded some interesting results that were steady across all five countries:

• The program closed literacy gaps that persist throughout the school years.  In fact, after just receiving 10 books—not even a year into the program—children in the program were four times more likely to demonstrate stronger early literacy skills.
• Participating children were nine times more likely to be read to four or more days per week.
• Children were more likely to enjoy books and engage in meaningful interactions surrounding books.
• The Imagination Library encourages family reading and builds a reading culture inside the home. 

In 2022, Parton was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Philanthropy for all her philanthropic work, including the Imagination Library.  On the website entry for this award, the Carnegie Family of institutions stated:

In The Gospel of Wealth, Andrew Carnegie urges us to ponder this question: Because of the life you are living, has “one small part of the great world … been bettered just a little”? The Selection Committee of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy salutes Dolly Parton, who has done more than “a little.” With her philanthropy and her artistry, she has empowered and lifted up the citizens of her Tennessee home county as well as millions more around the world. We believe that her many philanthropic achievements embody the values of our founder, who, with us, would surely greet Parton with “affection, gratitude, and admiration.”

Thanks, Dolly.  Rest well.

This post addresses the core competencies of I. Commitment to Client Group and V. Outreach and Advocacy.

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All the Ways We Learn

By Chloe Ito Ward, Illustrated by Yaroslava Apollonova

The stereotypical vision of “perfect” learning looks like a class sitting still, quiet, and staring at the teacher. However, this is not a realistic portrayal of learners with a variety of needs. In this story, multiple ways of learning are showcased along with examples of how children with different needs can be accommodated. A few examples include using a calm corner when the room is too loud, choosing flexible seating options, or using a tactile beaded abacus to practice math. Each way of learning is accepted and celebrated as the book emphasizes that “learning can look a lot of ways”. Children will feel seen for their accommodations, empowered to identify their needs, and have an opportunity to practice tolerance and acceptance of their fellow classmates. The back matter offers additional information about accommodations and neurodivergence.

Stubby: A Pencil’s Journey

By Sydra Mallery, Illustrated by John Hare

Throughout our lives, we have used thousands of pencils. And, working with children, we’ve witnessed the treatment of such writing utensils…sometimes they are adorned with cute erasers, and other times they are completely beat up, chewed, or sharpened down to a pulp. Have you ever stopped to think about the pencil’s perspective? This story takes us on a journey through the life of a pencil, Stubby, from living as a tree in the forest, to being created into a pencil, to his experiences in a classroom. There, Stubby is passed around from child to child and used for a variety of things, whether that be drawing cool pictures, doing math (where his eraser was used a lot), rolling under desks, getting chewed on, grading papers with smiley faces, and more. It’s a funny read aloud that will get kids laughing and maybe even encourage them to take better care of their school supplies.

A Not So Perfect Start (The Caring Classroom, Book 1)

By Trudy Ludwig, Illustrated by Maribel Lechuga

Trudy Ludwig, author of The Invisible Boy, has released another inspirational picture book. In this story, Thea wants everything to be perfect for her first week of school. Like many children at the start of the year, Thea is having many big feelings, including being nervous, excited, hopeful, and worried. Thea can be very hard on herself; she worries immensely about making mistakes and presents as frustrated and overwhelmed when things aren’t perfect. When there is a spilled paint disaster during art, Thea is able to work through her feelings of worry to find a way to make “perfection” out of a mess.  

The back matter includes tips for “perfectly imperfect you”, which are helpful reminders for children who worry about making mistakes or experience perfectionism.

The Ribbon

By Tessa Blackham

This beautifully illustrated wordless picture book will be published soon on September 29th. While this is not directly a “back to school” book, it centers on bravery in new experiences. The story follows a young girl who is nervous for her ballet recital. She receives a special ribbon from an older ballerina which gives her the encouragement to perform. The ribbon comes full circle when, years later, she passes it along to another young girl who is nervous, acting as a symbolic object of helping others, courage, and hope. While the setting is a ballet recital, the story will appeal to all children who have felt scared or nervous as well as the positive feelings that come with helping and encouraging others. The gorgeous illustrations portray the emotional experience of the characters and offer readers an opportunity to connect empathetically through the visual, wordless storytelling.

Joannie Lauria is the Youth Services Consultant at the Suffolk Cooperative Library System in New York.

The post Back to School Picture Books appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Stories first! Emotionally compelling, animal adoption stories often reflect the unique bonds of animals and humans and show pathways to building connections while dealing with challenges. Stories of found family also invite readers to reflect on empathy skills and encourage understanding across differences.

Lulu Didn’t Want a Dog by Laurel Molk (Age 4-8). This delightful picture book invites readers to see what happens when a perfectly happy house cat meets a newly adopted shelter dog. The bond isn’t immediate, but readers will be charmed as understanding grows into appreciation.

Jasmine Warga’s new middle grade story The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan (Age 8-12). A stray dog and orphaned cheetah find friendship and family when a chance encounter leads to new lives for them both. A hopeful story of friendship, found family, and the power of second chances.

Libraries aren’t always the most animal friendly spaces, but a few simple options can make a little room. A Little Free Dog Library that invites passersby to take a stick or leave a stick can be as simple as an outdoor sign and is sure to attract attention (and smiles). Dog-themed story & craft time delivers a winning combination for afterschool activities or storytime. Some animal adventures may require a little planning and community support. Partnerships with local animal nonprofits can lead to adoption meet & greets, and partnerships with therapy dogs can be virtual as discussed other ASLC blogs. Here’s to finding some tail wagging activities to make your Dogust the best.

This blog addresses ALSC Core Competency III. Programming Skills

Cover images courtesy of Random House Studio and Balzer + Bray

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What is Color Powder?

If you’ve never heard of it, colored powder is what it sounds like: vibrantly colored powders. They are often sold in variety packs, so you can have many different colors at the same event. They are often used in outdoor color runs, where different colors are thrown at runners in a 5K or 10K race. You toss them in either a paper bathroom cup or out of a squeeze bottle. There are many different companies to choose from, but I went with Chameleon Colors.

Hosting an Outdoor Storytime

Since the color powder is so messy, I knew this program had to be outdoors. My library has a place called The Green Space Project, which is an offsite community garden next to a local elementary school that the library oversees. If your library doesn’t have an outdoor space, consider reaching out to your local park district and see if they are interested in collaborating.

I had never hosted an outdoor storytime before, so I was a little nervous, as well as very excited! Cassie Chenoweth has a great checklist of things you need to make sure you have with you for your event. I would also recommend having a portable speaker. If your program features music or has a large attendance, it can help make sure everyone can hear. If your library has a lot of outdoor storytimes, you may also want to make an outdoor storytime kit like the Suffolk Cooperative Library System (NY) does.

Planning the Colorful Storytime

The main focus of the program was the color powder, so I selected books and songs that featured many different colors. As we read the books and listened to the songs, I tossed the color powders at the kids that matched the books and songs. I wanted the kids to get many different colors, so I selected materials based on how many different colors they featured. Immediately, I decided to include Dog’s Colorful Day by Emma Dodd. I also knew I wanted to have materials that included the names of colors in different languages, not just English. I love the song “¡A Encontrar Colores!” by 123 Andrés, so I added that to a Spotify playlist of color songs.

To make the event easier, I put all of the color powders into squeeze bottles. I also labeled each bottle with the color. When I arrived at the Green Space Project, I set up a folding table with the books, the color powders, and the portable speaker.

How It Went

The outdoor color storytime was just as fun as it was messy! As we read books and danced to color songs, I sprinkled and gently tossed the color powder at the preschoolers. They loved it! While one child kept hiding behind his mom in a quest to stay clean, the others all wanted to get as messy as possible. Sometimes, the wind would blow the color powder back at me, so I got messy, too. My manager had a great idea to advise patrons to bring sun glasses or googles for their eyes and towels for their car seats. Those were definitely needed, as they were covered from head to toe by the end of the program. I also needed a towel for the inside of my car.

I would recommend having either volunteers or another staff member to help distribute the color. Especially when singing and dancing to color songs, the songs change between colors rather quickly. Having more hands helps the kids get covered with more colors, which means more fun!

Have you ever used color powder in an outdoor storytime? How did it go?

Ann Baillie (she/her/hers) is the Youth Services Assistant Manager at the Alsip-Merrionette Park Public Library in Alsip, Illinois. She serves on the Illinois Youth Services Institute Planning Committee. Her main interests are the connection between Readers’ Advisory and technology, and how libraries can use technology to better reach patrons.

This post addresses the ALSC Core Competency III. Programming Skills.

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Translating Books

I love a good story time theme. I feel that having a theme really helps with designing how a story time flows, helps kids understand concepts, and can reflect life events (such as holidays, seasons, etc.). While searching for titles for BFST, I realized that there just weren’t that many titles already available either in Spanish or bilingually for many of the themes I wanted to do. To do themes, I would need to create my own translations. I would spend hours going through potential titles to assess the length, content, and how feasible it could be translated. Here are the types of translations I do:

1:1 translation

• Easy to do if the book exists as a bilingual title or has separate English and Spanish edition.
• If no Spanish edition exists, I translate by hand and run it through Google
• Translate to catch any grammatical errors (while I grew up speaking and reading Spanish, writing in it was never my strong suit).
• I type up the translation, print, then cut and tape into the book.

Inclusions

• Titles that sprinkle in Spanish words. Book is not fully bilingual, but the message still comes across to speakers of either or both languages.
  • Example titles: Mi Casa is My Home written by Laurenne Sala & illustrated by Zara González Hoang,Menudo Sunday: A Spanglish Counting Book written by María Dolores Águila & illustrated by Erika Meza
• If I have a relatively short English only book, I’ll do sight translations as I read.

I also do my best to includes titles that are created by Hispanic/Latine authors and illustrators. It is incredibly important to me that diversity is reflected during story time.

Translating Songs

Translating songs is where it got tricky for me, as sometimes phrases can get lost in translation, or no longer follows a recognizable tune. When I went to ALA Annual 2024 in San Diego, I attended Sheridan Jay Cazarez’s pre-conference workshop Bilingual Storytime Academy. He gave us some amazing examples that he had translated himself that are available on his website, BiblioCuentos. Since we have a mix of Spanish and non-Spanish speaking families attending story time, I keep printed versions of our story time songs available for parents/caregivers to use during story time. This makes it easy for families to follow along. I rotate my transition songs about every 3 months, as I find that this is a good amount of time for families to learn a song.

I feel like I can talk endlessly about BFST, so I want to hear from you! Does your branch host a bilingual story time? In what language? What has worked for your program and what do you hope to improve on? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

Maria Leon-Roman is a Children’s Services Librarian at the Seattle Public Library (SPL). Her childhood love of books and libraries inspired her to try to apply for a library job at the age of 8. She eventually got hired as a Student Assistant at age 17 and has spent the last 12 years working through the ranks at SPL. She is currently serving as co-chair of the ALSC Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee. Outside of work, Maria loves to play video games, bake, and obsess over her dog, Simón.

The post Translating Books and Songs for Bilingual Family Story Time appeared first on ALSC Blog.

The Association for Library Service to Children’s National Institute is a biennial conference for those serving children and families in libraries; children’s literature experts; education and library school faculty; and other interested professionals. It includes a one-day, stand-alone Teen Services Development Day!

This intimate, intensive learning experience is a fantastic opportunity to network with colleagues from across the country, attend practical and meaningful professional development programs, and hear from field leaders and children’s literature creators at keynote sessions.

Sadly, not everyone will be able to attend this excellent and intensive learning opportunity. That’s why we are putting the call out for Conference Bloggers for the Institute!

Curious about what this type of blogging entails? Take a peek at our live blogging archives to see examples of past coverage of a variety of library conferences. If this sounds like something you’d enjoy, we’d love to have you join our team! Your contributions will play a vital role in making the conference accessible to all.

So, are you ready to share your journey to the 2026 ALSC National Institute with the world through live blogging? Just fill out the Conference Blogging Interest Form and we’ll send you all the details.

(You can also use this form to volunteer for other conferences.) We can’t wait to hear from you!

The post Attending the 2026 ALSC National Institute? Join us as a Conference Blogger! appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Anime Programs

If there’s one thing that teens and tweens love, it’s anime and manga. To tap into that love, last summer, I hosted an anniversary celebration for the One Piece manga series. We made buttons of favorite characters, exchanged friendship bracelets, watched episodes, created keychains, and took photos in a DIY photo booth. Roughly a month later, I hosted an anime trivia night, which garnered a crowd as well. The tweens, teens, and a few young adults interacted across ages to chat about their favorite characters, episodes, arcs, and more. They loved seeing who knew more about the series as well. More recently I have hosted programs around other series, video game programs, and craft programs. Anime programming is a great way to easily tap into something that this age group is already excited about.

Gaming Programs

As I highlighted in a previous blog post, Pokémon Club is heating up at my library! The patrons who attend enjoy playing the card game and battling it out with one another, but they also greatly enjoy the aspect of bonding over a shared love of Pokémon. This is such an intergenerational game, and often the librarians hosting the program have been fans of the franchise since they were young. In our club, debates about who is the best Pokémon often ensue (The favorites are often Eevee and Mewtwo). Even when the game isn’t being played, participants bond over crafts, the show, and their favorite cards. Thinking about a gaming franchise (DnD anyone?) that your teens and tweens enjoy could be a great way to engage them in programs.

KPop Programs

My most recent venture into fandom culture was through a KPop craft night. We played music videos and curated a playlist of old KPop hits as well as new, which eventually turned into participants requesting their favorite KPop hits. Participants decorated photocard holders for their “bias” with beads and tiny tchotchkies. Teens and tweens absolutely loved the activity, and were so excited to see photos of their favorite band members that I had at the ready. I even had some parents get very into decorating for a band that their kids loved!

Teens and tweens love to share their passions, especially around fandoms. There are so many more fandoms out there that are going strong, whether from books, media, or music. Bringing fan culture to your library is a gateway to connecting teens to the wider community and to the other amazing services that the library can offer them. 

All photos courtesy of blogger.

This post addresses ALSC Core Competencies 1.6 and 3.1.

Annaliese Melvin (she/they) is a children’s librarian at a neighborhood library in Washington, D.C. Originally from Pennsylvania, she moved to the DC-area in 2020 to become a special education teacher after graduating with her bachelor’s from Arcadia University. In 2023, she graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a master’s degree in Library and Information Science and transitioned into the library field. Annaliese currently works to bring more inclusive programming to DC Public Libraries for children of all ages. She is passionate about equity, inclusion, reading, and Philadelphia sports.

The post Engaging Teens and Tweens in Fan Programs appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Obviously, some of this is a necessity of baby development. Babies aren’t ready to jump up on their feet like toddlers, but caregivers are ready to help babies move. By incorporating more movement, we support caregivers in working towards developmental milestones and learning what a more active and engaged storytime looks like.

Movement for Different Ages

Depending on the age range for your storytime, you’ll see babies at various developmental stages. Offering a variety of movements helps keep all families engaged and prepares them for the jump to toddler storytime. If you are only offering all-ages storytimes, these tips will help you invite caregivers with infants to participate more.

You don’t have to be a developmental milestones expert to encourage bigger movements with babies. (Although you can give yourself a crash course here, or by following infant occupational therapists online.) I like to introduce new movements with “if your baby is comfortable, you can try…” and offer options for younger and older babies. The simple act of sitting in a circle helps set the tone that you’re all trying this together.

If you’re able to set out toys, you invite older and more fidgety babies to engage in self-directed movement. Listening while making up your own moves is welcome at storytime!

Lifting and Rocking Movements

Lifting songs are a favorite of many families! You’re likely already doing them, but you can go beyond just raising a baby straight up in the air and bouncing. These movements help stimulate babies’ vestibular system and develop their balance.

Encourage caregivers to rock their bodies too instead of just moving their baby while they stay stationary. This is a more comfortable way to add in bigger falls backwards and side to side. You can also do rocking songs standing up. This is fun for songs with opportunities to dip a baby down and come back up.

Caregivers can tip babies back over their shoulders to add a new lifting style. This works great with “I’m a Little Teapot”.

Tummy Movements

Even those of us who aren’t parents ourselves have heard of the importance of tummy time! Laying babies down on their tummies helps to develop the muscles needed for rolling, sitting, and crawling. 

Tummy time is great for rhymes that you can act out by touching a baby’s back, like “Round and Round the Garden” or “Pat-A-Cake”.

Older babies who are beginning to push up may also enjoy having props like eggs and scarves held in front of them to reach out for. 

Back Movements

Flipping a baby onto their back allows caregivers to face their baby. Choose songs to support movements like pulling and pushing the baby’s arms and legs up/down or out/in. These movements encourage working toward rolling and develop core-distal and head-tail movements.

Try full body “Open Shut Them” or “Wind the Bobbin Up”. This position is also great for enjoying a parachute or scarf shaking above them.

Rolling and Wheelbarrows Movements

Babies learning to roll onto their sides and developing strength to support crawling may benefit from rolling and wheelbarrow positions. 

Caregivers can support rolling their baby from their tummy to their side and back. To work on wheelbarrows, caregivers support the baby’s pelvis by holding the baby over their leg and encourage them to push up with their arms.

Try “Rolly Polly” or “Rock A Bye Baby”.

Caregiver Directed Movement

Storytime doesn’t all have to be offered sitting down! Choose songs that encourage caregivers to stand and move while carrying their babies. These songs create opportunities for babies to see other babies up close and build their visual tracking skills as they move through the room. 

A favorite song for this is “In and Out the Window” with everyone saying hello as they come together at the center of your circle.

Instead of singing, you can also play music and direct caregivers to move through the room in different ways. Prompt them to switch up their speed or how they’re holding their baby.

Move While Reading Too!

Choose books with action words or movement prompts in the text. Describe illustrations and move like them, reaching high like giraffes or swaying like trees in the breeze. Encourage caregivers to move their babies throughout the story.

Get Moving

Being bigger with our movements is fun for caregivers and informative. Experiment with trying your favorite songs in new ways, adding a few more varied motions in at a time.

Did you read any of this and think to yourself, “this sounds a bit more like a music and movement program”? It does! I encourage you to bring some of that fun into storytime too. Music is a huge part of early literacy for infants and engaging for caregivers!

Since I’ve started incorporating bigger movements, I’ve heard from caregivers about hidden benefits like helping them to spot and address developmental delays in their child. Families are more eager and prepared to move up to toddler storytime sooner and are very engaged in the bigger movements that await them there.

Get wiggly, jiggly, and giggly in your baby storytimes!

Eleanor Howell-Shryock (she/they) is the Head Children’s Librarian, managing family and outreach services at Burlington Public Library in Burlington, Washington. They are the Chair Emeritus of the Washington Library Association’s Children and Young Adult Services Section. They are excited to highlight some of the unique challenges and opportunities of working in small and rural libraries for the ALSC blog.

The post Beyond Lap Sits: Movement for Babies appeared first on ALSC Blog.

The Fox Series

Corey R. Tabor is the author of many beloved children’s books that are perfect read storytimes, read-alouds and quiet reading with families, but his Fox easy reader series is a particular delight for storytimes with kids from around 2 or 3 in age to 1st or 2nd grade. There are eight books in the easy reader series–all leveled as “My First” in the I Can Read Series. The books follow our protagonist, Fox, on various adventures alongside his animal friends. He skateboards, he goes on trips, he survives a lonely winter, and he plays ball. All of the stories are made up of simple sentences, illustrations that draw the eye and help the story feel more complete, and recurring characters that children can get to know. 

Animal Signs

The most obvious signs to teach and utilize during a Corey R. Tabor storytime are animal signs. For the recurring characters, you might teach FOX, RABBIT, TURTLE, and BEAR. I love to teach the signs as we first meet the characters, and then ask readers to show me the sign when we meet them again. I may read a line of dialogue, but not say the dialogue tag, and ask the students to “sign me” who they think said that based on context. Other animal signs that can be taught throughout the books include BAT, RACCOON, SQUIRREL, TIGER, SNAIL, and SKUNK. 

Communication Signs

While a lot of sign language learning for younger students outside of traditional ASL classrooms focuses on nouns, I found that the Corey Tabor Fox series sentence structure lent itself to teaching some “communication” based signs as well. The sign for SAYS was easy to teach to even the youngest readers who could touch their chin with their pointer finger. There’s also a fair amount of discussion about what a character “likes” that allows for students to learn and utilize the LIKE sign. In “Fox at Night” Fox spends a lot of time looking through binoculars to see what he can find–letting us utilize the LOOK sign, which feels very familiar to students in early elementary school. 

Feeling Signs

Finally, we can bring in a little social-emotional learning to the conversation by utilizing feelings signs that students can then deploy when words escape them later. We see Fox and his friends experience various emotions throughout the series–ANGER when Fox is skating over them, LONELINESS when all his friends go off to hibernate for the winter, and many characters also feel SCARED when faced with a night full of monsters.  You can also add in signs like ANXIOUS, NERVOUS, ANNOYED, or FRUSTATED by asking students how particular characters might be feeling at moments in the text. 

Incorporating movement and language learning into storytimes made by read-alouds twenty times more engaging for my early elementary school readers. Corey Tabor’s books are a natural way to bring those signs in, but I encourage you to think as you read about other books that might naturally expand for the reader with the inclusion of American Sign Language. 

–

Aryssa Damron is a librarian living in San Antonio, Texas. She’s been a public librarian, a school librarian, and a personal librarian to many friends and toddlers. She is an ALA Chapter Councillor and a former member of the Alex, Carnegie, and Caldecott awards committees.

The post Bringing Sign Language into Story Time with Corey Tabor’s Fox Books appeared first on ALSC Blog.

But something often changes when children reach school age. Programs increasingly become for the child. Adults become the people who drive children to the library, wait nearby, watch from the sidelines, or use the time to check their phones. As children become more independent, we naturally begin to give them more space.

And that independence matters. But I’ve started to wonder: What if school-age children don’t have to age out of shared experiences with the adults in their lives?

In several of the school-age programs I’ve facilitated, I’ve noticed parents, grandparents, and other caregivers doing more than simply accompanying children. They participate alongside them, not because they are required to, but because the experience seems to invite them in.

In Let’s Create, an open-ended process art program, I’ve watched adults sit down and create alongside children. Grandparents make art with their grandchildren. Parents explore the same materials their children are using. The adult isn’t necessarily there to help the child produce a better final product. Each person can make their own choices and follow their own ideas while still sharing the experience.

I’ve seen something similar during STEAM Fridays, a drop-in program where school-age children explore hands-on science, technology, engineering, art, and math activities at stations throughout the program room or at Bookmobile stops. Depending on the theme, families might experiment with balloon rockets, build and test paper helicopters, explore ocean science, or try other activities together. I’ve watched adults become curious about the activities, too. They stop to experiment alongside their children, talk through what they’re observing, and try to figure out how something works together. The activities may be designed with children in mind, but the curiosity they spark isn’t limited by age.

During a drop-in history escape room, I noticed parents becoming completely absorbed in solving the puzzles. In the program, adults were studying clues and pointing toward different parts of the puzzles alongside their children. In those moments, there isn’t necessarily one person teaching and another learning. They are trying to figure something out together.

Tech Take-Apart seems to draw adults in particularly strongly. Give families old electronics and tools and invite them to discover what’s inside, and suddenly everyone is curious. Parents and children lean over the same device, examine the components they uncover, and share the process of figuring out how something was put together.

Cardboard Construction has been slightly different. Adults participate, but I’ve also noticed them stepping back. When children begin building independently, caregivers often seem comfortable giving them room to test their own abilities and let their curiosity and creativity run free.

That stepping back is important, too. Co-generational participation doesn’t have to mean an adult is constantly helping, instructing, or directing a child. Sometimes participating alongside a child means making something together. Sometimes it means solving a puzzle together. And sometimes it means recognizing that a child is deeply engaged and giving them the space to see what they can do on their own.

Perhaps the goal isn’t maximum caregiver participation. Perhaps it’s creating programs flexible enough to allow adults and children to find their own way of participating together.

School-age children are developing independence, but independence and shared experiences are not opposites. A child and a grandparent can sit beside each other making completely different pieces of art. A parent and child can puzzle over the same escape room clue. A family can take apart an old keyboard together. And an adult can stand back while a child turns a pile of cardboard into something entirely their own.

These moments also allow adults and children to see one another differently. A child might see that an adult doesn’t immediately know how to solve a puzzle. An adult might notice how a child approaches a problem, persists when something doesn’t work, or comes up with an idea they never would have considered. They are sharing an experience without necessarily occupying the traditional roles of adult as teacher and child as learner.

This makes me wonder whether we sometimes underestimate the potential for co-generational participation in school-age library programming.

We already know how valuable shared experiences can be in early childhood programming. Perhaps we can continue making room for those experiences as children grow, not by requiring adults to participate, and not by suggesting that every caregiver needs to be actively involved at every moment, but simply by continuing to extend the invitation.

Open-ended programs may be particularly well suited to this. When there isn’t one right answer or one expected outcome, adults don’t need to know more than children do. Everyone can enter the experience from a different place. They can make, experiment, investigate, build, and wonder together.

The invitation can remain low pressure: Join in if you’d like. Watch if you’d rather. Step forward when your child wants to work together. Step back when they’re ready to try something independently.

This approach, inviting participation without expecting it, can become part of how we think about designing programs for school-age children. Perhaps the question isn’t simply whether caregivers are involved. Maybe we can ask a different question:

Are we still creating opportunities for children and the adults in their lives to experience something together?

Because growing independence doesn’t have to mean growing apart. And school-age children may not need to age out of the joy of discovering, creating, and wondering alongside the people who care about them.

(Featured photo at top of page courtesy of Katie Hom)

Today’s guest blogger is Renee Kitson a Youth Services Librarian at the Mountain View Public Library in California. She loves creating hands-on programs that spark curiosity and encourage families to learn together. She enjoys sharing ideas that help make libraries welcoming, engaging places for children and their caregivers.

Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.

If you are interested in submitting a guest post, please read and fill out our Guest Blogging Interest Form. We would love to hear from you!

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