(Seguin) — Reading this summer will be out of this world. Local children are invited to mark their calendars for this weekend’s Summer Experience Kickoff party.
Hannah Farmer, the youth services librarian for the Seguin Public Library, says this year, the group is promoting every inch of what local children can expect at the local library.
“This summer, we are calling all of our programs, our Summer Experience and that’s because it’s more than just a reading program. Of course, there’s a reading portion but we want to highlight all of the fun events that we have and the learning opportunities
and the theme is ‘A Universe of Stories.’ So when I hear universe, I think of space so we are definitely going with the outer space theme this summer and that ties into a lot of our weekly events, our kickoff party and then also the reading game boards that we are doing this year,” said Farmer.
The theme for this year’s summer program is outer space. Library officials say the program will coincide with NASA’s 60 years of achievement and its celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.
Farmer says during the kickoff party, there will be plenty of fun and games plus sign-up for this year’s summer reading program.
“We will have some space races — games where kids can win prizes geared toward elementary ages. We will have activities for kids in the children’s area as well like a giant coloring page that we will do as a group, scavenger hunts for younger children and elementary age children as well as ice cream, while supplies last, donated from Blue Bell. So, that’s really exciting and of course, the registration for the reading program begins that day and so if you come to the kickoff party, we will, of course, be registering people. They can pick up their reading game board and we will explain all of the rules and how the game board portion works where kids can earn prizes for reading,” said Farmer.
Farmer says sign-up for the summer reading program is especially encouraged as it promotes reading among elementary-aged children.
“We want to encourage kids and teens and adults to read during the summer especially with the kids. It keeps their brain active and prevents the summer slide which is what teachers call when kids can sometimes fall back a level when they return to school if they’ve forgotten some of the things they’ve learned over the summer. Reading actually helps prevent that summer slide so we really want to encourage that plus all the fun programs. We are going to learn a lot about space. It ties into the 50th anniversary of the moon landing so if you are interested in all of that kind of stuff, we’ll have something for everybody and it goes all the way through Aug. 3 so it’s definitely a summer long program and I’d also like to remind everybody that it is completely free to sign-up and to attend and to participate in all of the events. It’s completely free and we don’t have fees to get a library card either so a really great opportunity for the community to have a fun summer,” said Farmer.
The “A Universe of Stories” Summer Experience Kick off party will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the library. Registration, again, is free.