Oh, Library. How Can We Resist You?

The kids love Mondays, because that is our Library Day. Delaney has learned where to find her favorite books, and lately I have been so happy to see her branching out and looking for other books that she might like. She still tends to gravitate toward fairies and magical creatures, but she has brought home some other interesting books of her own choosing, too.

We skipped our Library Day yesterday, because we both have several books left to read from last week. We are book-aholics, though, and by today, we had to go feed our addiction. I only meant to stop in and pick up the three books they were holding for me. We didn't even mean to go to the kids' section. But 45 minutes later, our book bag felt really heavy!

She looks so tiny in the library.

Delaney often stops to chat with the librarians, or other library patrons. Once she has amassed a good stack of reading for the week, she finds her favorite rocking chair and reads until we have to leave. This might be her favorite part. Some days we are in a hurry, and have to pick out books and go. Some days a school is having a field trip and her reading area is noisy and busy. Her favorite days are the ones in which she gets to enjoy a nice, quiet reading moment all by her self.

Sophie walks around with me for the most part. She picks out her own books from the little kids' section, and helps me find non-fiction for her and Delaney. She knows where Delaney's fairy book section is, and likes to look at those books too.

When we are finished picking out our books, she enjoys pulling a rocking chair up beside Delaney and we read together for awhile.

Delaney is very interested in Abraham Lincoln and Shakespeare right now, so she has several biographies of Abe, and a copy of Beautiful Stories of Shakespeare for Children, by E. Nesbit. I love this book. According to the book, E. Nesbit's children loved the stories of Shakespeare, but found the plays extremely difficult to read. She felt the same, and put them into story form so she and her children could read them together. It's lovely.


Our library has a wide selection, and a great inter-library loan online request available. I really appreciate that...I find so many books that I want to read, and the online system lets me find and request them without feeling like I am bothering the librarian every other day.

Just a small "to read" stack, right?

Once we have all collected enough reading material and have taken some time to bask in the library's quiet, we check out all of our books.  Delaney has her own card and PIN for the self check-out, so she takes care of her own books. Sophie knows how to scan all of our books, so once I enter my info, she takes care of the rest. Cullen went to the library with us a few weeks ago, and was impressed with their independence in this area.

 

The only drawback of Library Day is that once we get home, nothing else gets done...The laundry stays in baskets, the toys stay on the floor and math is completely forgotten. A small sacrifice, I say. :)

I love the library...I love its quiet calm, the endless shelves of books, the smell of all the paper...I am glad my girls do too.