The library is a place for fun!

When I was a kid, the library was a place you had to go to for looking up information in the encyclopedia for a class project. It was where you went to check out your summer reading book. It was where you had to make photocopies of pages for your works cited page. The library was not a place for, dare I say, FUN! I decided when my son was about a year old that we should go check out our local library and get a library card. I could not believe how nice the Fountaindale Library was when I walked inside! The children's area is huge. It does not seem so stuffy as the I remember when I was a kid. Since first going this past winter, I have made a few quick trips to get a DVD for the kids I babysit. It's always been a quick trip. Get in. Get out. This is how my generation was raised to treat the library.

Well two weeks ago I was invited to the drop in story time on a Monday afternoon with the mom's group that I am a part of through Meetup.com. I could not get over how many parents brought their kids there. And the kids had a blast!! There were stories, songs, dances, and happy faces all around. That was the moment I decided that this is going to be my new home away from home when I need to find activities for my son and the 2 kids I babysit regularly.

Today was the first day of Spring Break for the local schools. The kids were all excited when I told them earlier in the week that we would be going to the library on Friday. They had tons of questions. "Can I color?" "Can I read Power Rangers?" How delighted I was to be able to tell them, "Of course you can"! We went in to the library today and we were all greeted with smiles by the librarians in the children's section. First we started our morning with the computers. The oldest child played a few games on the computer while my toddler proceeded to hit the keyboard as if he was a secretary on his typewriter. When they grew restless we found a puzzle and gathered on the floor in the little tree house area. We counted the puzzle pieces, "one, two, three" etc. It wasn't long before the pleas to color began. We went to the Creativity Park where the library was stocked with crayons and pictures of the Easter bunny and baskets for the kids to color. The oldest child made a picture for her mommy, her daddy, her aunt, and one for herself. The younger of those two had a blast picking out books one-by-one and "reading" them to himself. My son sat at the Creativity Park table and played his favorite game of empty and fill with the crayons while enjoying his apple juice and graham crackers.

We must have spent about an hour at the library today. I could not believe there were not more kids there with it being a little chilly on the first day of break. All in all, we had a great time. This was a far better experience than the McDonald's play-land that the kids originally wanted to visit. My heart melted when we got in the car and when I looked in the mirror I saw my son munching contently on his cracker, the middle child adoring his scribble drawing, and the oldest child said to me "Courtney, I had a lot of fun today. Thank you." No, I thought, thank you to the library! Thank you for allowing me to have a calm, learning filled, and fun experience today.