How To Use the Library for Kids

What if you could go to the mall and check out any outfit to try on for FREE?
What if you could go to a restaurant and get little nibbles of any of the menu items for FREE?
What if you could go to a fancy museum and see all the exhibits for FREE?

I’m pretty sure you know where I’m going with this:

Can you imagine how exciting it was when the very first library opened?
And then, we allow the library to sit, with all those books inside…..

Smart moms use the library, they make friends with it and build it into their family routine.  This post will show you how to use the library for kids (and thereby helping yourself as a {smart} mom):

1.  Schedule it in.  We try to go to the library every 3 weeks.  Does it always happen like that, no…. but we really try.

2.  Get enough books.  It’s a fine line between too many books that your kids can’t keep track of, and not getting enough to give you new/exciting reading material for your family’s schedule.  We go weekly during the summer, so I get a lot less books (although, the kids are home full time during the summer too, though, so there’s lots to balance out).

3.  Make friends with the librarians.  Having kids become friends with librarians is such a great skill to have.  To ask them where specific books are, or where specific types of books are is such a great skill to learn.  Learning how to navigate shelves is a great skill also! The skill of being able to ask a stranger a question is something a lot of kids don’t master anymore.  Use the librarian!

4.  Informational books are important, possibly even more important than fictional books.  It’s so hard to get many informational books in your home library to get all the information that your kids need!  It’s a great way to find out what kids are interested in.  I usually let them pick out a few, and then I get some from other parts to try new things.

5.  Use the online library.  I have a family regular kindle, and we also have a kindle fire.  I load books up on both for them for vacation.  It makes it so easy to haul around lots of books without taking up space or making our bags heavier.

6.  Use library books to schedule your at home routine.  Maybe choose a time of day to share a informational book (I also liked to do projects based on the informational books we got when the kids were little and at home full time), and another time for a picture or fictional book.

7.  Foster independence — as my kids get older they get to pick out many of their own books.  Because their mom is truly a library tiger mom, I usually add a couple to their piles.  We can’t go to the mall and let them pick out whatever they want, but we certainly can go to the library!

Now, I know many of you are thinking that your kids are noisy, and pretty much the anti-library.  Could anything be MORE exciting than teaching your kids to be QUIET at the library?  UM, no.  Quiet places are everywhere, and the library is a great place to teach that we need to blend into our quiet surroundings instead of running around like a beast.  In fact, I got my ire up when my library created a play space, and within a few months it was actually gone.  I’m grateful there are spots to teach kids to be quiet.

Some other library posts you might find interesting:

So, head on over to the library in your town today!  Get them a library card and let them start making great literary choices of their own!  I promise that their love of reading will thank you a thousand times over!

**{Smart} Moms is a relative term.  I had to give it a name, but I am the first one to say I’m not smart all the time. it takes a while to get into a good library routine, I just find it easier when I have one.  This series is just a list of things I’ve found to make life easier — not to say — WOOT WOOT, I’m SOooooOOOO smart! {said like Steve Martin}

Check out all my other {smart} moms posts:[pt_view id=”4256a9870e”]