Library offering adventures all summer long

It has never been easier to have an adventure in Columbia than it is this summer.
Each week this month, children have the opportunity to go on a different adventure with the aim to encourage them to build strong reading habits over the summer.
During the Adair County Public Library Summer Reading Program, youth will be able to adopt a penguin reading buddy and participate in hands-on activities such as making shark magnets, Egyptian sarcophagi, and playing part in a scavenger hunt.
Summer Reading Program Adventures are held every Tuesday at 10 a.m. and started this week, Participants are creating an Arctic penguin scene.

The final Sumer Reading Program event will be held July 16 from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. and ice cream will be provided. A full list of dates and SRP activities will be included.
For younger children (birth through four years of age), there will be Little Sprouts and Little Learners events on Wednesdays. A full list of these will also be provided.
Adair County Public Librarian LeeAnn Jessee stressed that for older children or those who want to work independently, the Summertime Fun-Time Reading Challenge is available. Participating students will be given their own personal journal to write or draw about what they are reading. By returning to the library each week, participants can be entered in a drawing for a prize.
With the school year over, summer break promises children a respite from academics and rigid schedules. Children suddenly have an abundance of free time, but fewer and fewer of them are using this time to read.

“About 20 years ago, we started seeing research that concerned us about students being out of school for the summer and losing anywhere from half a grade to a grade,” Jessee said, referring to this phenomenon as the “summer slide.”
Jessee said there are ways parents can help prevent summer slide.

“The number one thing is parents need to be reading to children at home. Just sit down and read. If books are in your home, can learn that there is a love of reading,” she said.
Jessee said children at these events can expect to “see materials they might not have realized were in the library.”
Above all, however, she was emphatic that, “They can expect it to be a lot of fun is the number-one thing.”
By Kenley Godby
kenley@adairvoice.com