When: Saturday, May 26th, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm.

Where: The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library in the South West employee staff parking lot.

See how long you can hang onto a wild, unbroken bicycle at our Buckaroo Bike Rodeo! Bring your trusty bike and we’ll show you how to properly fit your helmet. Then, practice riding and when your ready, tackle the obstacle course.

That’s what you’ll learn at the Buckaroo Bike Rodeo. See you there  pard’ners!

Pictures from: ehow.com, pdxk.com, lugano-toursim.ch, endeavorfit.com

Children’s author Jon Scieszka (Stinky Cheese Man, Time Warp Trio) saw that boys were reading less, but he also saw that teachers and librarians weren’t doing a good job finding books boys would want to read. So he started Guys Read, a national web-based organization to get more boys reading by showing them that there’s plenty of fun, awesome stuff to read.

The library is getting in on the act as well. I’m starting a Guys Read field office. What’s a field office? I’m glad you asked! It’s kinda like a local chapter of the Guys Read organization. Here’s the official description:

Hang out, snarf snacks and meet new characters – real and fictional – at our book club just for gents age 8- to 12-years-old. No parents, no girls allowed…
JUST GUYS.

Read awesome books dudes will dig – explosive action and farts! Then talk ’em over with the guys, play games, wolf down some food and meet new friends. Score a members-only bookbag and receive books on a first-come, first-served basis. Sign up with secret password: GUYS READ.

How cool does that sound?!

Here’s how it’ll work: Meet up on the second Saturday of the month, 2-3 p.m., in Youth Services. We’ll have snacks and get to know each other with an ice breaker. Next we’ll talk about the book we read together and any other books we might have read separately. Then we’ll do some kind of activity, like making something we can use or whatever — but it’ll be somehow related to our book.

Books will be signed out to boys, but don’t worry, the boys’ library cards do not have to be in good standing. All that we ask is they return books to the Youth Services desk as soon as they’re done reading it so other boys can have have fun too.

Oh, and we have a limited number of bookbags, so boys should be at the first meeting if they want to score one.

Speaking of the first meeting, it’s important! We’ll be picking a name for our little field office and signing a charter for the club. And if boys can’t make it, they can sign the charter next time.

For more information, surf over to these sites:

• XYZ Magazine’s article about our new field office: Boys Will Be Boys
• Guys Read’s official website

We know you moms and dads are busy, so we’ve made it easy to participate with an online program at summerfest.tscpl.org and we will provide buzz-worthy reading prizes to encourage early literacy skills.

6 Reasons to Sign Your Pre-reader Up for Summer Reading

1. If your child hasn’t gotten a library card, this will be your first step. Come in and fill out a Read With Me library card application and get a free t-shirt for baby. Already have a library card for you our your child? Skip to step 2.
2. Surf over to summerfest.tscpl.org to sign your tot up for summer reading. There you may download a Bee a Reader reading tracker (also available at the library) to get on your way to raising a reader.
3. On the tracker, you’ll see that we’ve come up with some fun and easy ways to build reading skills – such as how to hold a book properly and even how to clap to a beat. By accomplishing items on the tracker, you are taking baby steps toward literacy.
4. As your child reaches certain milestones, bring him to the library to get his prizes, including his own book to keep and a canvas tote to carry it in – plus a chance at the grand prize, a handmade baby blanket.
5. Moving beyond summer, register for library programs that set the stage for developing a love of reading later in life. Regular programs like our educational and interactive storytimes are, for many, the gateway to becoming a reader for life. Programs like Baby Bookworms build skills to help your child get ready to attend school. See page 13 for kids’ programs. We also hold annual special storytimes to observe occasions like April’s Week of the Young Child and November’s Kansas Reads to Preschoolers Week.
6. Parents can research their own raising-a-reader activities. Check out books, DVDs and magazines, like Jackie Silberg‘s Baby Smarts: Games for Playing and Learning and 125 Brain Games for Toddlers and Twos and Johnson and Johnson’s Your Baby From 6 to 12 Months. You will find the Parenting collection in the Kids Library – just ask for a tour!

3 Buzz-worthy Prizes

• Achieve 10 literacy skills and receive a booklet of rhymes
• Achieve another 10 literacy skills and receive the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear
• At the conclusion of 30 activities or skills you earn a Bee a Reader tote bag

Learn more about Screen-Free Week to get ideas — and remember entertainment screens include television, video games, computers, hand-held devices –even Facebook for Iphone (which is my personal favorite entertainment screen!)

What would you miss most if you gave up entertainment screen media for 7 days? What would you do instead? Why do you think screen-free week is especially promoted for children and families?

An AMAZING line up of library events during SCREEN FREE WEEK

• Preschool Storytime in The Story Zone at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
  (Ages 2-5) 10:00-10:30 AM, 5/1/2012 Tuesday, 5/2/2012 Wednesday, and 5/3/2012 Thursday
  Stories, songs and fingerplays that encourage a love of reading and develop early literacy skills.
• 4-H in the Library in The Story Zone at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
  [6-11 years] 4:00-5:00 pm, 5/1/2012 Tuesday
  Have fun creating a variety of crafts and projects with Shawnee County 4-H as they bring youth and adults together to learn everyday skills with hands-on learning.
• Sing, Move and Learn in The Story Zone at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
  [3-5 years and their families] 6:30 PM 7:30 PM, 5/2/2012 Wednesday
  Learn how to use music, movement and books to connect with your child and promote playful learning. cosponsored by Child Care Aware of Northeast and North Central Kansas. Registration required. Call 357-5171.
• Baby Bookworms Lingo Story Room 121 at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
  [0-18 months] 9:30 AM 10:00 AM, 10:30 AM 11:00 AM, or 5:30 PM 6:00 PM, 5/3/2012 Thursday
  Entertaining our youngest readers with stories, songs and bounces. For information call 580-4565
• Zoo Animals Live in Marvin Auditorium 101B at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
  [All ages] 3:45 PM 4:30 PM, 5/3/2012 Thursday
  Meet some of the Topeka Zoo animal residents up close as Rachel Kilian, Education Specialist, helps you separate animal fact from fiction
• El Dia de Los Ninos in Marvin Auditorium 101ABC at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
  [all ages] 6:00 PM 7:30 PM, 5/4/2012 Friday
  Celebrate our multicultural heritage as renowned storytellers such as Rosie Cutrer weave traditional and new tales for you. Watch performances of a variety of traditional cultural dance. Stick around and join our community partners in making your own book, perhaps a mask, or a tasty ethnic snack!
• First Friday ArtWalk in the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
  [Adults and Families] 5:30 PM 8:30 PM, 5/4/2012 Friday
  A second chance to meet and mingle, and view Carol Ann Carter’s “Threadings: Body & Space” exhibit. Part of Topeka’s city-wide celebration of art. Make our gallery one of your stops on your ArtWork through Topeka!
• Kansas Wildlifer Challenge in The Story Zone 121C at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
  [all ages] 10:00 AM 11:00 AM, 5/5/2012 Saturday
  Get started on a series of adventures. The WildLifer Challenge is a series of outdoor challenges geared toward getting you outdoors. Prove that you can master the WildLifer Challenge. Visit kansaswildlifer.com to register – you must complete 15 of the 20 challenges to win cool prizes. Sponsored by the Kansas Wildscape Foundation.
• World, Art and You in Perkins Room 201 at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
  [Teens and Adults] 1:00 PM 3:00 PM, 5/5/2012 Saturday
  Participants will learn to observe and record through drawing what they see utilizing a variety of media – charcoal, pencil, oil pastels. This class is for Teens and Adults, Beginners, Free, supplies provided, Registration required. Call 580-4515
• Gaming for Adults in Marvin Auditorium 101BC at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
  [18 and older] 2:00 PM 5:00 PM, 5/5/2012 Saturday
  If you love games and you need a new challenge, then join us on the first Saturday of each month as we play unusual board games. Bring your own, or play ours. This month, we’ll also offer war related video games on the Wii and Xbox 360.
• Free Comic Book Day YA David J’s Place
  [all ages] 2:00 PM 4:00 PM, 5/5/2012 Saturday
  You’re used to getting free stuff from the library, but this is different! Whether you’re an adult, a kid, a guy or gal, we have a free comic book for you! We’ll have crafts and other activities as well.
• Don’t forget to check out books from the library (we are open 78 hours during Screen Free Week) and read!

Screen-Free Week is a national movement which is locally supported by the Shawnee County Health Agency.

Besides visiting the library, what will YOU do to celebrate Screen Free Week? Share your ideas below and inspire other people to unplug for a week and turn on life!

Finally my daughter has reached the age where she is interacting with our dogs quite a bit. In fact, she calls out their names, runs after them, and even sits in their dog bed with them like it’s a sofa. And when she’s upset I’ve found that all I have to do is say to her, “Let’s go find Paddi” (the toy fox terrier), and she immediately forgets her troubles, starts saying Paddi’s name, and takes off after her. I’m not sure if Paddi enjoys this, but we all have to make sacrifices sometimes, so for the time being she’ll just have to deal with it.

This new interaction is a lot of fun for my daughter, and sometimes for the dogs, but we’ve also had to teach her the proper way to pet and touch them. Walking up to our pug and hitting her on her back is not okay, nor is grabbing her tail. And our little toy fox terrier, while excitable and active, does not want to have her face and ears grabbed or smacked. Mostly this appears to be a result of excitement on my daughter’s part, and not completely understanding how to control it. She has been getting better at petting and patting both dogs in a gentle manner in recent weeks and days, but she’s still in the learning phase.

Overall, the relationship between the dogs and my daughter is coming together. Even though she can be annoying to them, they don’t mind her sitting in their bed with them, and will often come over to her to smell and lick her, which makes her squeal with delight. Sometimes they even lick her feet which makes her laugh hysterically. And now that it’s warm out, she’s begun to enjoy running around with them on our deck, or in our back yard. I’m thinking that soon they’ll be best friends just as we envisioned.

As soon as she removes smacking, grabbing and tail pulling from her repertoire.

Check out some of these books in our collection that deal with the relationship between little ones and pets:

For Adults:

Childproofing Your Dog: A Complete Guide to Preparing Your Dog for the Children in Your Life by Brian Kilcommons & Sarah Wilson

Can We Have One? A Parent’s Guide to Raising Kids with Cats and Dogs by Lynn F. Buzhardt & Sue D. Steib

Raising Puppies and Kids Together: A Guide for Parents by Pia Silvani & Lynn Eckhardt

For Kids:

Tails Are Not for Pulling by Elizabeth Verdick

How to Talk to Your Cat & How to Talk to Your Dog by Jean Craighead George

Playing off the Summerfest theme “Dream Big,” we’re encouraging children to decorate or write on a Dream Cloud. Bring the cloud into the library to hang with other kids’ dreams. Visitors to the Kids Library in June and July will then be able to marvel at the aspirations of local children.

Kids can write or draw their dream – or dreams – inside the cloud shape of Create your own Dream Cloud Summerfest 2012 with crayons, markers, pencils, collage, stickers, paint (basically anything that isn’t flammable or glittery).

Cut off the top part and return it to the Youth Services Desk by June 1. Remember to put the child’s name on the back.

If you mess up, download and print off a copy or ask for one at the desk.

Sign up for summer reading  at summerfest.tscpl.org. For every reading milestone reached, your child will receive a prize. At 12 hours, kids receive a book and are entered  to win one of our grand prizes: passes to the Children’s Discovery Center or a Nook Tablet.

NOTE: Clouds will not be returned to their creators, but you can always make more than one so you have one to hang at home.

Extra Yarn

Written by Mac Barnett
Illustrated by Jon Klassen

Annabelle brings color to a dreary, snowy and soot-filled town as she knits sweaters with a supply of yarn that never runs out. Annabelle knits sweaters for everyone and everything in her town until a greedy and fashion-conscious archduke decides he wants Annabelle’s yarn box for himself!

This children’s picture book will appeal to those adults with a yarn stash full of possibilities. Plus, the beautiful story of creating, sharing and brightening the town through colorful knitting will help introduce the joy of yarn-crafts to a younger generation.

Best line, and the theme of the book-  “And when Annabelle was done, she had some extra yarn.”

Personally – I brought this picture book home hoping to read it with my three year old daughter. I used to knit all the time before I had kids, and right now I struggle to make time for my own hobbies. I thought reading a book about yarn would be a fun way to introduce her to the joys of knitting. Of course, I underestimated the power of her own interests — when the archduke travels by ship and sends robbers to steal Annabelle’s yarn box, the only thing my currently-obsessed daughter remembered about this book was “Pirates!” (At least we both found something in the book to interest us?)

Fellow Crafters – What are other examples of children’s books about the crafts you enjoy?

Fellow Parents – Have you ever found a children’s book that helped you show your child about a hobby or interest of your own?

On the menu were Blueberry Bumplings and Moose Juice. The translation: Orange Julius and Blueberry Muffins. Each child was given an apron of their choice. Boys chose the puppies or frogs, the girls were more into bunnies and kitties.

These kids were making Moose Juice with orange juice, orange sherbet, vanilla extract and banana. They were learning to follow a recipe, measure ingredients and operate a blender. The result was a healthy drink to enjoy while their Blueberry Bumplings were baking.

These girls are measuring their dry ingredients to put in their bowl of egg, cream and oil. To make their Blueberry Bumplings they learned to crack an egg, measure liquids and dry ingredients and use a mixer.

Kyla, wearing the puppy apron, has mixed her blueberries into her bumpling batter and is filling her muffin cups. Each person put their name on the muffin cups so they could claim their muffins after they were baked. There were even muffins to share with family members

Under Kathy’s supervision, all the eggs were cracked successfully. There were extra eggs available in case there was a catastrophe. Lena, Kathy and Gayle all agreed it was a fun, great program and are ready to do it again.

I didn’t get to see my sixteen month old daughter for a whole week.

Now, I knew this would be difficult, but I think I underestimated just how much I would miss her.  The first day or two weren’t that bad, as I had been away from her a couple of times in the past for a day or so, but by the time I got to days four and five, my heart was aching.  The worst was going to a restaurant and seeing a little girl that was my daughter’s age, doing many of the same things she does.  I would call home at night and hear her “talking” in the background, or on speaker phone and want to give her a hug or chase her around the living room like I do when I’m home.

I was missing her A LOT.

And it wasn’t just missing her that was difficult.  When I finally got home I realized that she seemed taller, had more hair, and that her hands and feet seemed bigger.  It doesn’t take long for changes to occur in little ones her age, and a week is a long time.  Other things I missed:

-Her twelfth tooth broke through

-She now says “wiggle, wiggle” when she dances

-She has started sitting in the dog bed as if it is a couch – cute

-She also rolls around in the bed, and eventually starts to smell like a dog – not cute

-She went to her first St. Patrick’s Day Parade and acted uncharacteristically shy when she was given beads by someone in the parade

And I’m sure there were many more little things I missed too.  So what I would say is to enjoy the times you have with your little ones, whether they’re here or will be soon.  Before my trip, I didn’t realize how much I experience in a week with my daughter.  I learned quickly.

It made me think of something my Mom said to me after my daughter arrived.  She saw me playing with my daughter when she was visiting, and she said it reminded her of when I was just a year old.  She said that one day she was on the floor playing with me, and she thought to herself, “It can’t get any better than this.”

Truer words have never been spoken.

Here is a book in our collection about raising toddlers aimed at Dads:

A Dad’s Guide to the Toddler Years – by Armin Brott

This day is sponsored by the New York-based literacy organization LitWorld, participants are asked to read with loved ones and friends to help reach a goal of 774 million minutes of reading to recognize the 774 million people worldwide who are illiterate.

LeAnn Petrie, the library’s Youth Services Supervisor, says,”World Read Aloud Day’s purpose is to emphasis the importance of reading. Worldwide at least 793 million people remain illiterate. Two-thirds of them are women. Reading promotes learning and learning brings empowerment. As a public library we want to highlight that.”

Reading aloud with children:

• Helps them make connections between their lives and the world around them
• Strengthens bonds between the reader and the listener
• Builds vocabulary as kids are introduced to new words
• Grows attention span and listening skills
• Exposes kids to the rhythm of language and conversation

The whole of it is that when kids are read to they get all the warmth of having attention from someone they love, and they develop a love of reading and learning.

Wednesday Library Storytimes

The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library will host four storytimes throughout the day for World Read Aloud Day.

Preschool Storytime [3-5 years]
Stories, songs and fingerplays that encourage a love of reading and develop early literacy skills. 10:00 AM to 10:30 AM

Sing, Move and Learn [3-5 years and their families]
Learn how to use music, movement and books to connect with your child and promote playful learning. Cosponsored by Child Care Aware of Northeast & North Central Kansas.
6:30 PM to 7:30 PM

Sneak, Peek and Read [18-24 months]
Bubbles and books, wiggles and songs! Early literacy exercises for toddlers and adults to enjoy together. Registration was required prior to this program.
9:30 AM to 10:00 AM and 10:30 AM to 11:00 AM

If you can’t make it to any of our storytimes or maybe you are just out of time and energy (it happens) we’re always here to help. Go to http://tscpl.org/kids you’ll find some of your kid’s favorite characters and many of them will read a story. At the bottom you’ll see a link to my favorite storytime site by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation http://www.storylineonline.net. Let famous actors read to your children. They read from some of our most beloved story books.

It’s not just for toddlers! Reading aloud to elementary-aged children is also very important. Our Kansas Connections programs reach many children right in school. This year we have read to over 800 children at 33 different programs so far this year, and it’s only early March. Ask you kid if their library came to them today in the classroom.

Reading aloud can nurture within each child an enthusiasm for literacy. Learn more about this at Literacy Connections.

If you need advice on reading aloud to children we have that covered too. Check out these books:

The Read-Aloud Hand Book

Father and Son Read-Aloud Stories

Once upon a Family: Read-aloud Stories and Activities that Nurture Healthy Kids /

While searching for books about reading to children I found this wonderful book. Reading aloud isn’t just for kids.

The Sunshine on My Face: a Read-aloud Book for Memory-challenged Adults