Things just didn’t add up to have the party we planned—just too crazy right now. But we WILL have one. Just not on the day.
So I’ve gotten at least a dinner rez. And we’ll hope that wedding cake we saved is still edible.
Our anniversary…today
by CJ | May 17, 2015 | Journal | 39 comments
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OMG. 😉 I can only imagine.
I am about ready to bite buttonholes out of something. Our library system is gearing up for the big yearly event, Summer Reading Program. It’s a good way to keep kids and adults reading over the summer; as long as you read at least one book a week, you can come to the library and collect a little trinkety prize. We are scheduled to start the end of May, however, none of the paper supplies (booklogs, etc.) have arrived yet, and we can’t get a definitive answer on when to expect them. This is after admin decided they wanted to expand the program by 2 weeks and have a second tier of prizes for extra work by the kids (Essays? I don’t know a single child who wants to write an essay when school is over. That idea was roundly shouted down by the children’s librarians.)
Many of us have discovered that by doing pre-registration the week prior to the Big Show, and getting registration packets prepared in advance, our aggravation level drops significantly. Without the promised supplies, we can’t make the quantities of packets we will need; better than half of our participants sign up in the first week. Why oh why did The Powers That Be elect to expand the program, then drop the ball on getting us the stuff we need to make it go? Grrrr.
I have Feliway on order from Amazon. Junior is being a greedy peeg, having rediscovered kibble stolen from Zorro(?!) He mostly pulls up his nose at gooshyfood any more, probably because with all the additives he needs to take in it, it tastes ‘off’. Kibble, OTOH, is GREAT! He needs to take some gooshyfood so I can give him his drugs, but he is actually putting on a smidge of weight, even though the doc says kibble is supposed to be off his diet; he was a bag of bones when he first got here.
Oy. Idea. Put up a chart of the people who are participating, and put a gold star on it in neat columns for every book read. And a green star for every 5th book read.
This is oldfashioned as the one room school, but I’m remembering the time I established that sort of list on the board for my highschoolers to indicate progress in some required basics, bless ’em, and they turned predatory. They WANTED those stars. I ran out of gold ones and used a few green ones. OMG. They wanted to know were the green ones better? If they were better, they wanted green ones. HOw did you get green ones? They would have knifed each other over those stars.
Fearing the stars would get way out of hand, I terminated it, but there is something about public honor and reward of effort that does get the spirit going. And it costs pennies. Hand out ribbons at the end. Tiny trophies. I can only imagine the carnage.
LOL. I remember one summer a zillion years ago, when I think I was a freshman or sophomore in high school. Our local tiny public library did a summer reading thing and I volunteered to help. Still not sure how that happened. Anyway, it was a pirate themed moment. The kids would get a card with a printed open-lidded treasure chest on it. When they read a book, they would come and tell me or whomever was there that day about the story and what they liked about it. We tried to ask questions and if it was obvious that they only read the dust jacket, they didn’t get a ‘jewel’. If they got a jewel, it was glued to their card. At the time I think they were little amorphous blobs of glass in all sorts of colors, less than fingernail size, but they might have been plastic. We kept a list of kids names and how many ‘jewels’ At the end of the summer, the kids with the most jewels got a pizza and bowling night on library. I think they limited it to 10 or 12 kids. Was a lot of fun actually and all the down time waiting for a kid to appear left me exploring the kids section. I read all sorts of things I had managed to miss when I was younger– Paddington Bear, Pippi Longstockings. Not sure what I was reading as a kid that I managed to never run into those good books, but I had a blast!
Chondrite, our Summer Reading Program (which libraries run independently but is thematically coordinated across the whole province)is time based, not book based. The reader booklet is a calendar thingie. The idea is you are supposed to read, or be read to, for at least 15 minutes a day. Every day this happens, you mark in your calendar. This way you might have your mummy reading 3 picture books to you per night or spend the whole summer chewing through War and Peace, its all good. (When we used to do this book-based the little trolls would scour the children’s department for the thinnest possible books)
At the end of the summer you bring your calendar in and if you have X amount of days of reading you get a medal. These are on ribbons and look very Olympic. The kids actually love them, especially since the first opportunity to pick them up is at the big medal ceremony at the main library.
However going into Summer Reading Club mode without the proper props is thoroughly awful. I truly sympathize. It’s bad enough having to do the sign-up spiel over and over and over and over, but at least if you can give them their calendar, stickers, bookmarks etc. they go away from the desk and you don’t see them until medal time.
We always have the kids sign up by putting their name on some theme-related tag which is posted on the wall. This gives us a count and allows them to brag to their friends, but it means every staffer spends a lot of time cutting out hundreds of stars, canoes, teddy bears or whatever. So I guess there is stress in Summer Reading Club however it gets arranged.
Hang in there, this too shall pass.
* Something special? Have them write stories! Poems! (Either. Both. Two contests, two winners.) That sounds like a lot more fun than an essay, for even the most motivated schoolkids. Have 1st, 2nd, 3rd prize or 1st price and a few runners up.
A chart with stars or two or three sticker symbols, maybe? — What about colored dot stickers and a star on top of that, if star color is a problem? IIRC, you should be able to get sets of gold or silver stars, or else a variety pack, gold, silver, red, green, blue.
Prizes, Ideas:
* A gift certificate for a book store, so they can buy a book or two (three, four).
* A nice quality bookmark, something cool for the boys or the girls, picture or saying.
For the Writers:
* Handsome journal or notebook, preferably refillable, and a quality gift pen. These are prizes, keepsakes, for their desks at home. A ream of ivory/cream stationery and envelopes along with it. The idea being that it looks classy and writerly. Obviously, to encourage further writing, the habit of writing.
* I don’t know what I’d suggest as a book on writing stories or poetry, or else a collection of stories or poems. The former might vary too much in quality of real advice. The latter has the risk that the winner might already have that book or has read it and isn’t as interested, and we want to give a good reward that also models and motivates with good writing to treasure. A gift certificate maybe, or a choice of books, enough copies so if one is more popular, you don’t run out? But for this, a book or two seems like a better prize than the certificate. I would think big readers and any kid who’d write and win might have read or own a given book.
In order to encourage the kids to write, perhaps some recommended books of short stories and poems? Including enough male poets so the boys get the idea without too much discussion, that boys can write poetry too and have anyone know about it.
Note: On the poetry thing, there’s another easy way to sidestep the “poetry is for sissies” thing, for boys or girls. — Song lyrics! They can write songs. Song lyrics = poetry. Heheheh. And everybody likes a cool song and even the hardest rocking boys will accept that instead of calling it poetry. And the less sure but poetically or writerly inclined boys wouldn’t feel so self-conscious about the other kids knowing they wrote (gasp) poems.
If some kids get highly motivated and write longer stories, then there could be prize categories, if there are enough entries. Being dedicated and motivated enough to write a long story should get a reward, as long as the kids who wrote shorter stories do not feel the long story got a bigger, better reward. Just writing any story is something, for a kid.
Story entries are likely to be more flash-fiction or short-short size. A short story or novella size might happen. Anything longer than a novella? Get that kid hooked up with a publisher.
Publication of any stories and poems! — Suppose the winning entries appear in a “special publication” from the library, available in printed copies for every library patron, separate from the library newsletter so it sounds/looks like more, as a writing credit for future résumés. (Seriously.) And prep it as an ebook. Could the ebook be published so anyone could buy it, and proceeds go to the library or library system? Or charity? Something. — But many library patrons, and the kids’ relatives and friends, would want to buy it, in print and in ebook. (Heck, I would.)
Another possible prize: There still may be stamp kits with individual letters, serif or sans-serif, from Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, or online. Probably. This lets the kids play, and if they like it instead of thinking it’s a boring prize, it could spur an interest in art and typography and publication design. — More than one designer got such things as a kid, on their own or as gifts.
A book on the history of the alphabet, calligraphy, how books are made, or graphic and web design, how books are made, how specialty paper is made — any or all of these could work as good prizes for readers and writers who win at the contests. Heheh. (A book on how the Dewey Decimal system was created? Information design? Information science, library science?) Or how about a book on deciphering ancient writing? I read at least a couple of books on Champolion and the Rosetta Stone and related things, as a tween and teen. Yes, motivate the kids with somehting that might actually be fun to read and in their areas of interest.
For that matter, any subject they’ve shown an interest in.Anything at all.
There’s probably enough wiggle room in there to tailor it by age group or reading level or maturity.
Good luck, everybody!
P.S. — I doth detect a touch of chauvinism in my own thinking. Mea culpa.
Song Lyrics — should appeal to the toughest, hardest rocking *boys* and *girls* alike — and should also appeal to the more shy but writerly or poetically inclined *boys* and *girls* too, who might be self-conscious about the other kids knowing they wrote, you know, (gasp) poetry.
There are plenty of examples for 19th and 20th century poets, male and female, that boys and girls might like, for the unspoken message it’s cool to write poetry.
Or get ’em with songwriters from popular songs of, oh, say the 1950’s or 1960’s, on up to current hits, with an emphasis on hit songs that would be “cool” to today’s kids. The 1990’s to today. Rock, country crossover, alternative, punk, R&B, aw, heck, rap and hip-hop, folk and local artists, everything. Any dang thing that shows them song lyrics = poetry and their favorite singers and bands write, ahem, poetry. 😀
Yes, science fiction and fantasy writing is OK for entries, kids. There’s some books on the space program right over there….. OH, and hey, there’s this whole science fiction section. Why, look, there’s this lady named C.J. Cherry, and hmm, over here is…. 😀
Wretched auto-incorrect. I do know how to spell Cherryh properly, but auto-incorrect is…most disagreeable. I, ahem, have been a professional proofer before; was good at it.
One apologizes for the typo and the multi-post. Grrr. Auto-incorrect. Grrr. Will not turn off. Grrr.
In my neck of the library (Technical services) we are always getting children’s books with accompanying stuff that is too fiddly to circulate: posters, mini-figs embedded in Lego books, flash cards, etc. This is how I got the paper 3-D glasses shaped like a T Rex. Anyhow we collect all this swag and send it to the Children’s Dept. where they use it for display, prizes for little contests, or just plain bribes.
I like BCS’s ideas, and if I were running a library program, or young enough to participate in one, I’d be all over it. Re: CJ’s suggestions on stars–I do that now to motivate myself to do stuff. I have to accomplish 25 things during the week to get a ladybug sticker on Sunday. If I sketch or write, I get a star. And if I stick to my diet, I get a butterfly. (Woefully few butterflies on my calendar. 🙁 ) But I will work to get that ladybug, man. My sister thinks it’s funny I have a star chart at my age, but it’s better than bribing myself with chocolate… 😉
Oh no, no, no mrgawe. There is nothing better than bribing yourself with chocolate. I do tend to have things like Hersey’s kisses about. If figure 2 or 3 of those is manageable. Besides, chocolate actually has a lot of things in it that are good for you.
Ah, but the problem with chocolate bribes is that I’ll eat the chocolate anyway. Whether I’ve done the designated work or not. That’s what happened to the “you can buy a book” bribe. So I buy the books and eat the chocolate and give myself a sparkly, no calorie bribe for actually doing what I was supposed to. 🙂
Chocolate is a way of life.
Thank you everyone for your excellent suggestions. Fortuitously, most of the missing paperwork appeared this morning, and I had a lovely volunteer lady assembling my pre-registration packets this afternoon, so I can begin signing up kids next week. One of the other libraries in the system took a good hard look at the notion of weekly prizes, and decided the game wasn’t worth the candle. I have to reread their proposal, but I think it involved a big party at the end of SRP for all the participants, and no weekly handouts. I’ll have to see at the end of the program how that worked.
How many weeks is the program, and how many books are usually read? For example, 12 weeks, a book a week = 12 books, with something like 5 books a week (60 total) being around the upper limit?
It occurs to me, further on the poetry writing contest idea, “One Page (or Less)” and “Two Pages (or More)” might take care of it, if there were sufficient long entries. Or “Half Page (or Less)” and “Full Page (or More)” would also work.
Summer Reading Program (SRP) runs from May 31 to July 8 this year, and the number of books varies wildly. The motivated elementary school kids can crank out over 100 of the skinny picture books read, and that was when we only had a 5 or 6 week program. OTOH, we have kids who come in, sign up, and return maybe once during the course of the program; I think they’re in it mainly for the initial packet which includes an El Cheapo book bag and a small prize like a pencil. It’s all good, although I tend to hope that one of the kids who made an effort wins the prize drawing we usually have at the end of SRP. This year we have a tin of cookies, and a proper backpack full of school supplies.
Hmmm, I have a quarter size reproduction poster for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, autographed by Harrison Ford, Sean Connery and Steven Spielberg. If I ran a side contest, that might make a good prize. Provided anyone remembers who those people are.
I am very pleased with how the display case turned out. I brought in a lot of our own collection of comics, figures, toys, props, etc.; they did very well with the theme ‘Every hero has a story’. Our young adult librarian nearly plotzed when I bought out the Varitech model and demanded to know where I had gotten it; Forbidden Planet in NYC, baby! I wish I could figure out how to take and post a picture here.