Summer Reading Club (Week 7)

CC: bayasaa

Fireworks for Independence Day and because we hit our 2000-registrations mark this week on Thursday! Yup, we have 2000 kids in the Children's Summer Reading Club and about 440 teens. Our teens number is already past what we had last year (hurrah!) and I anticipate our Children's number being a little lower than last year's since one of our biggest schools did not allow us to visit to promote the club. 2000 kids is pretty typical for us, so now that we've hit that marker I can kind of breathe a little sigh of relief. (Of course, I will continue to challenge my staff to hit 2025... 2050... 2100 if possible...)

I've discovered that it is VERY possible to bump your registrations up if you just make sure to ASK people coming in.

This was a short week for us because the library was closed for Independence Day on Monday. It's been a relatively slow week, too. I think a lot of families were on vacation this week. The only program to get major attendance this week was Toddler Time, which is generally one of our biggest programs.

We had our regular Mother Goose and Toddler Times... Very small crowds for Mother Goose this week. We also had Family Storytime, again with a small crowd. On Wednesday, we had a performer - an interactive storyteller who was great at getting the kids moving and giving them parts to act out.

We also had a couple of teen programs this week. My Teen Literary Magazine is going like gangbusters with a handful of very loyal and enthusiastic writers. They're totally taking the reins and that is fine by me! We have one more write-in the week after next and then in early August before I go on vacation, I'll pull together all the stuff and we'll publish it. I am kinda flying by the seat of my pants with this program, so we'll see what happens. The kids have already requested that we keep it going after school starts, though, so I'm going to schedule monthly meetings in the fall!

There was also Teen Gaming - another easy program with board games, the library's Wii, snacks, and a craft. We had a decent crowd this week and the kids that have been coming to programs are starting to get to know each other and become friends, so that's awesome. :)

Since our Children's attendance was quite low, I'm wishing I had given us a break and not scheduled any programs this week. Next year, with Independence Day happening on a Wednesday, I will probably refrain from scheduling any programs that week. Many of our families take vacations around this time and that gives us a good opportunity for a little breather.

I'm at the point where I'm really starting to count down the days until Summer Reading is over. I worked on my August staff schedule this week and August is BLISSFULLY free of programs. In June, we offered 46 programs (including Children's and Teen) and we've got 41 programs on the schedule for July. So, although I love it and I have fun with the kids, I'm ready for a break (and a vacation!).

OH and I don't have an update on my reading log because I forgot to take a picture of it yesterday. But I will say that last night a family noticed and commented on our staff reading logs. They loved that all of our department staff is involved (and they loved how colorful our reading logs are!). That was definitely a fun idea and one we'll be repeating next year!

So, how's your Summer Reading Club going?

Here's another roundup of Summer Reading Club posts... if I don't have your link, please leave it in the comments and I'll add it! :D

Drea at Book Blather
Kelly at Field Acquisitions
Jennifer at Jean Little Library
Jessica at Musings + Teen Librarian (I missed this link in my previous roundups, so I'm including it today!)
Anne at So Tomorrow (and she's got Week 4)
Marge at Tiny Tips for Library Fun
Mollie at What Happens in Storytime