Let's start sharing what we are doing through our library ministries with preschoolers and children. You are invited to join our new Children's Library group to share ideas and concerns. Click here.
For all of us, let's share what is happening here. Perhaps these ideas will prompt some of us to invite new team members to develop a library ministry with preschoolers and children.
Are you hosting a book club this summer for children?
Does your church have a separate location for a children's library that is near the children's area?
Are you collaborating with the preschool and children's ministry leaders?
Comments
In the past we have done story time for the children in Sunday school and/or Children's Church. Eventually it kind of fizzed out so we stopped doing it, but the kids really enjoyed it even if the teachers were lukewarm!!!
We do a fairly involved Summer Reading program every summer that lasts 7 weeks. We have three programs in place and rotate through them but I would like to develop a fourth. In each one, we require kids to read from a number of different genres. In one, they complete writing and drawing assignments and with their permission, we post those on the walls outside the libraries for the congregation to see. We give coupons for achieving intermediate goals, and bigger prizes for those who win (for things like "read the most pages" or "completed the most goals"). We have a party at the end, where we provide some food (usually dessert) and give out prizes and generally cheer for the kids who came!
We typically have about half of the kids who sign up, actually participate and that is fine with me because it's a lot of work with just the ones who do it.
The four-year-olds in our child development center come to the library twice a month. Sometimes we read stories that fit what is being taught in the classroom, sometimes they don’t. We were recently asked to read to the older threes once a month and will begin doing that in October.
As an explanation for the limited times the children come, the library is open Wednesday mornings and evenings and Sunday mornings with an all volunteer staff.
Fay Hudnall, Blue Valley Baptist Church, Olathe, KS, asked me to post the following:
The library at the Ridgeview campus was restored in April. We immediately began planning our summer book club, and we are having our best book club participation ever! In the first three weeks we have checked out and in over 2,000 items! It is so rewarding to see our library filled with children and their parents! Our theme this year is “Bee A Reader!”
We provide two books each week for the preschool Sunday School classes that complement the lesson they are studying. Also, our childcare workers teach Bible lessons for preschool children for events such as choir practice. They requested two books for each of their classes as well. Our library has two different story times for Bible stories each Sunday for preschoolers, too. We love having the preschool children in the library! As the preschoolers promote to the children’s and youth departments, many of them keep coming back to the library!
However, one promotion we started two years ago has really increased traffic flow and books checked out in our library. We call this promotion our “Treasure Chest Books!”. We have three baskets filled with beginning readers. Zondervan has published many Bible stories in “I Can Read” books. Also, they have Christian fiction books for preschoolers. If children check out any of these books, they bring them to a library worker to return them. For each book read, the child can select a piece of candy or an inexpensive toy from our treasure chest. Parents love this promotion as much as the kids. The parents like having their beginning readers read these books. Often you might hear parents remind their children to be sure to check out a treasure chest book! The older kids asked for books they could read to get treasure chest items. They can read missionary or Christian hero biographies or watch DVDs about the same subjects. Bible stories, children’s Christian fiction, missionary and Christian hero biographies ARE treasures worth celebrating!
Our library has four sessions of story time each summer for parents and preschoolers. Older siblings often come, too, and listen to the stories. The story time coordinates with our book club, giving kids another opportunity to check out books and DVDs. We focus on reading Bible stories. One of my favorite sources for stories is Read-Aloud Bible Stories by Ella Lindvall. We have stories, songs, an activity, snacks, and a little toy. This year we are giving different colors of rubber ducks reading a book.
Since our theme this year is “Bee A Reader!” story times were planned around t following units:
Last week, we had 66 participants. I think several more are planning to attend tomorrow! I am off to church making “bee” mix—Honeycomb cereal, honey Teddy Graham’s (the spring mix has bees, butterflies, leaves, etc.), marshmallows, and M&Ms.