The Harrer Happenings: The Pasadena Public Library...not just for books!

Towards the end of the school year, Ellie was really starting to get interested in reading. She would ask us to teach her how to read at night and come home from school excited that she had moved up to the 4-letter word work at school. Also, she has pretty much memorized every book she has so she also needed to be exposed to new books. So I figured maybe she was old enough for a summer reading program at our local library. So we checked out our local branch of the Pasadena Public Library.

Apparently it's not just for books. Ellie really enjoys doing the puzzles they had. She does them by herself, starting by putting the corner pieces in the 4 corners of the table.

There were also lots of stuffed animals to play with. Ellie often would clean up the stuffed toys that other kids had just strewn about on the floor (I think she got that from her dad...).

The library also has a butterfly garden. They had caterpillars at the beginning of the summer and now they had monarch butterflies hanging out around the pretty little flower garden with a fountain. However Ellie's favorite part is a giant hill that she likes to run down...

But yeah, the reading program and the books were the highlights of the library. So this summers program had a healthy food theme, "Reading is SOOOO Delicious!"

To participate we just had to sign up and Ellie got a little "passport" document. Everytime we visited the library she would get a sticker in her passport, where we also would list all the books she read (or had read to her) from the library. At her second visit she got a little plastic duck and on her 4th visit she got a special reward, but we'll get to that.

Part of the program also had the kids write or draw book reports. Ellie drew a couple pictures of her favorite parts of some of her favorite books. Then she would describe the picture she drew to the librarian. For every book report she turned in, she got a pencil.

The book report below is from Harold and the Purple Crayon. You can see that Harold is back in bed and the moon is in his window.

Now after her fourth visit, which was this past Tuesday, she got a special reward, after getting her 4th sticker. She got to pick out a book and take it home! We went through a box of eligible books and, no surprise, she picked the book with a pink cover and a little girl dressed up. She also got a special certificate. She was pretty excited.

Of course, there was plenty of "reading" while at the library. She would pick out a book and choose a seat and flip through the pages.

We really enjoyed our summer visits to the library and participation in the summer reading program. I liked that kids could draw pictures for book reports and little kids had the chance to participate. The librarian was great, always excited to see Ellie and other kids when they came to the library. They have lots of programs, crafts, shows, story tellers, etc but unfortunately they all seem to happen at Tuesdays at 10:00am...alas, they don't work with our schedules. Nevertheless, we have become regulars at our library and it is somewhere that Ellie really enjoys.