Library Column for January 2, 2019

@ Your Library

Welcome to 2019! May your year be filled with gorgeous books, awesome reading adventures and terrific opportunities for learning new and delightful things! The library would love to be your first stop on your book and learning adventures, let us help you discover new things, old things and everything in between.

In 2018, we received a Knudson family grant to enable us to expand our collection of kits available for families to borrow and items for use in the library. We purchased really cool items to pair with books about colors, numbers, shapes, farms and a visit to the beach for the youngest members of our community and themes like trains, weather, road trips and Minnesota for early elementary students and families. Each kit can be borrowed for a two weeks at a time.

We also expanded our game collection that can be borrowed to include a number of titles for the youngest game players. Several of these games are cooperative games that help kids understand game mechanics while fostering sharing and cooperative play. “Hoot Owl Hoot” and “Count Your Chickens” are fun, silly games with delightful graphics and easy to learn rules for families with children ages 4 and up. “Feed the Bunny” and “Stack Up!” are fun, competitive games for multiple ages that help young kids build fine motor control while “On the Farm” and “In the City” are 3-D puzzles for ages three and above.

We also purchased Starlings for use by families with babies. Over thirty years of research have shown that the more words a baby hears early in life the more likely they are to reach their potential. The Starling will count the words a baby hears and encourage adults to talk more to them. Thank you to the Knudson Family Community Fund for the opportunity to purchase these resources to share with the families in our community.

The metal stamping kit is now available to borrow for a week at a time. We provide the tools to stamp and bend metal bracelets or whatever you choose to purchase. At this point in time, I am not sure if any location in town has metal blanks so you might need to plan ahead and order blanks before checking out the kit. We also have a variety of Wii games, a Wii console with controllers, video cameras and a variety of board games.

It can be so very easy as the January doldrums settle in to hole up at home. We want to help keep you participating in the community. If you like to do creative endeavors of any sort join us Monday night, January 7th from 6 – 8 pm for time to work on whatever creative project you choose. We provide companionship, warmth, light and usually plenty of laughter and you get two hours of time to work on a project. Being creative is great for one’s mental health so join us on Monday night and give yourself a new year boost.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *