Making the Most of a Library Trip

We love books. Our shelves are packed with amazing books in all sorts of genres, but {sigh} we don’t have quite enough. So enter… the library!

Our local library solves that problem for us. We have two branches that we use alternately and we make a big trip about twice a month. Our home library baskets are completely overflowing with books at all times. The kids don’t know what to do with themselves if the baskets are empty. Everyone gets very sad and kind of wanders the house muttering to themselves and twitching.

Well, I’m kidding. Maybe.

We have gotten our library trips down to a science and since summer reading programs have just started, I thought it would be a good time to share what works for us.

Tips for a great library trip:

Know what you have. Our online library service makes it really easy to keep all of our books current and renewed (if needed). Before we head out to the library, I go online and check all five of our library records (the kids each have a card, even our youngest who just turned five). I mark the ones the kids are still enjoying and renew them, and jot down the names of those that are ready to be returned.
Enlist help. The kids help me gather all of the books that need to be returned. For us that means a lot of books- well over a hundred, usually. I call out the names and they find them in the basket, or retrieve them from their rooms and we put them in my cart and some sturdy bags. I have a couple of rolling carts like this one from Lakeshore Learning:
Jot down ideas for books or topics you want to look for. Throughout our week I’ll brainstorm topics and take note of what my kids are reading. I also ask them what they want to learn about, and check my school plans for the weeks coming up.
Set them loose to find books! I do have limits, though. They are allowed only two “junk books” each every time we go to the library. Junk books are pop culture books, or books based off of TV shows (like Dora the Explorer, or Pokemon cartoons- junk!!). I want to be as careful about what goes into their minds as I am about what goes into their mouths. I also accompany my oldest (who is 12) to the teen section. I can’t stand the teen selection these days. But there is an occasional book in there that he will want, such as Lord of the Rings, or something similar.
Teach them to search. I don’t do much formal teaching about “library science”, but when it comes up, the natural thing to do is have the kids search with me by their side. They learn how books are categorized, how to use the computer to look something up, and where things are in the library. My friend Amy does something fun with her son: each time they go to the library, they choose a number between 1 and 999 and get a book out on that topic. It’s an easy and fun way to learn about the Dewey Decimal System! We did that last time and ended up with a book on the “Mummies of Greenland”.

Once we check out, we lug all of our books home, and inevitably they all sit down to read with a stack at their side. As of now they are all signed up for the summer reading program and are racing to see how much they can read and how quickly they can earn free books!

Most importantly, cultivate the habit of reading in your home. No trip to the library is successful if our kids don’t choose to read at home on a daily basis. Have a regular D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read) hour and make everyone a bag of gummy worms or gummy bears with toppers like these. Read aloud a fun novel at lunchtime and stop at a critical point, creating a cliff-hanger that will leave them clambering for more the next day!