As any frugal person knows, using the library is a great money-saving practice. From books to movies, there is a lot of great entertainment you can get for free at your local library. But summertime is when the library really shines. Longer hours and great summer library programs make the library a good source of fun summer activities for the whole family. And free prizes and activities make the library especially frugal in the summer.
Summer reading programs are pretty standard stuff at local libraries. The way that they work is very simple. Kids read a number of books and list the titles. Then they are rewarded by the library for all of that reading.
The type of reward might vary from library to library. Many libraries offer new free books as a reward for reading. Our old library would offer “book bucks.” For each book (or 30 minutes of reading time for older kids) read, a child would earn one buck. Kids could then go shopping with their bucks at the library store. Prizes to shop for varied in cost and included everything from books, of course, to rubber snakes and Lego toys. Kids participating in the program had the added learning experience of learning to add up their bucks and figure out which prizes they could afford.
Our current library doesn’t give out specific prizes for kids, but all kids who participate in the summer reading program and complete their required number of books read are invited to a free ice cream social at the library, at the end of the program.
Not to leave the adults out of the fun, our current library also features a summer reading program for adults with random drawing for gift certificates, free books and more.
Don’t forget about “Science in the Summer” or “History in the Summer.” Many libraries offer these types of programs for free to kids ages seven and up. Teen program also abound in all sorts of subjects. One library I know offers teens a drawing for a free iPod as part of its teen summer music program.
Mary Ann Romans also writes for the Computing Blog here at Families.com where she shares everything from the latest news on technology to cool downloads and fun websites.
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