S/O Nazi homeschoolers thread--What do you wish your public library offered homeschoolers?

[Kidlit]

This question is prompted by a comment on Nazi homeschoolers thread about libraries and other community resources providing normalizing/world-widening programs, etc., for homeschoolers. I am a month into what I hope is the career that sees me through to retirement, currently as the children's librarian at our public library. I'm looking to generate a list of potential programs and services to provide for the local homeschool community.  Please share if you have an idea or if you've experienced a successful library program or service provided for homeschoolers.  

[Brittany1116]

Our system is just getting back to some of their BC (before covid) programs. They have an art class for ages 5+ once a month where they teach about a specific style or artist, then everyone works in that style. They have a standing Lego play date, song and story time for preschoolers, gaming for teens, and chess club. Therapy dogs come in weekly for early readers to practice reading to. One branch used to have a Spanish class for kids and I don't know if they still do.

The best programming was always in the summer where they did bike safety and gave away free helmets; a kitchen safety day where they made smoothies; several days with animals (reptiles, rodents, birds); an intro to coding class; a magician, etc. We miss all the great stuff the library offered. 

[Heartstrings]

We had an amazing library before we moved, that was just a hub of activities for the whole community.   Just for homeschoolers they had a STEM class that was matched with a STEM story hour for younger siblings, books club, a computer class.   Open to the whole community was a theater club, chess blub, DND clubs, graphic novel book club that also had crafts, a comedy book club.  They brought in dogs for kids to read to as well as had teens available to read to.  I've moved but they recently started a yoga night, an adult DND night, a stand up comedy open mike night monthly.  They had fun parties and escape rooms around all of the holidays. 

[Kidlit]

Thanks so much!  Keep the ideas coming! I currently have two toddler/preschool Storytimes that are well attended.  I am especially interested in what other libraries offer during school hours, etc. During our homeschool decade we were avid library users, but very little of what we did was homeschool-specific.   I'm wondering what libraries offer specifically for homeschoolers. 

Edited February 1, 2023 by Kidlit

[Terabith]

Back when I lived in San Antonio, when my oldest was maybe three years old, so we were not remotely in a place that we could avail ourselves of the many programs the library offered for homeschoolers, they had a weekly class where they did activities from Story of the World activity book.  That would have been awesome.  

I would love art classes.  Honestly, science labs would be awesome, but I don't really trust the library to do a good job, but if they did, that would rock.  I would have really appreciated just support group, or maybe a support group that also brought in experts on different things.  Kids board game days would have been fun.  

Our current library has an absolutely AMAZING D&D program that really was huge in the lives of both of my kids, but especially my youngest.  Her core group of friends comes from that group, and these are kids that have been together for seven or eight years now.  I cannot say enough good things about it.  

[Lecka]

I don’t know if there is anything a librarian could do to discourage this, but I used to live in a town with very friendly librarians for homeschoolers,  but I witnessed some very unfriendly things by homeschoolers.  Like — I witnessed a parent of older homeschoolers intimate to a parent of pre-schoolers that she was part of a desirable homeschool group that was open by invitation, and the pre-school parent wasn’t going to be invited.  It was not turn-on to me (for various reasons) but the other parent seemed been hurt to seem to be excluded from a desirable group.  I think the content may have been a Lego-themed club.   
 

I guess I would say to try to make things inclusive and wonder about exclusive things that might meet at the library (which would be very understandable where I lived then, where the library was very nice) but it did seem like there were exclusive groups meeting at the library.

 

At parks it never seemed to me like homeschool groups were not inclusive or not open to anyone at the park that day.  
 

At the library it did seem that way.

 

I have no idea if those library groups formed out of library programs or if they knew each other from elsewhere and then met at the library. 
 

I guess I just saw some snobby behavior I never saw at a park or at recreational sports.  In this town a lot of homeschoolers did rec sports and we met many homeschoolers that way as well. 

[Lecka]

Oh — a Lego club.  
 

Various clubs offered in the daytime. 
 

I think they were very good and to be clear — what I saw as being a snob or exclusive was not based around library clubs.

 

i think they had clubs for K-2nd and then 3rd-6th and then some clubs that seemed more girl- or boy-themed.  I was more aware of Lego or Minecraft clubs at the time.  

[Lecka]

This is also something that hurt my feelings but I also couldn’t blame anyone for… sometimes I took my daughter to the library in Pre-school or early elementary, and she always got stickers from the librarian.  She was always adorable and well-behaved.  Sometimes I took my son who had autism and behavior issues, and he never got a sticker.  He never had a librarian be nice to him or engage with him.

 

It was a very noticeable difference to me.  
 

But I think that was a tough situation, too.  
 

Edit:  but I definitely felt like the librarians favored well-behaved girls!   But it’s hard to say.  I don’t blame them,  but it worked out not to seem fair.  

Edited February 1, 2023 by Lecka

[Kidlit]

8 minutes ago, Lecka said:

This is also something that hurt my feelings but I also couldn’t blame anyone for… sometimes I took my daughter to the library in Pre-school or early elementary, and she always got stickers from the librarian.  She was always adorable and well-behaved.  Sometimes I took my son who had autism and behavior issues, and he never got a sticker.  He never had a librarian be nice to him or engage with him.

 

It was a very noticeable difference to me.  
 

But I think that was a tough situation, too.  
 

Edit:  but I definitely felt like the librarians favored well-behaved girls!   But it’s hard to say.  I don’t blame them,  but it worked out not to seem fair.  

Thank you for sharing.  I do my best to give stickers indiscriminately.  I have one particular little fella whose mother disclosed to me that he is autistic, which I honestly had not discerned. It was helpful to me to know this, and I have done my best to engage with him to the best of my ability.  (This isn't saying that was the problem at your library--just that it was helpful to me to be told explicitly since I hadn't figured it out on my own.)  

[Brittany1116]

50 minutes ago, Kidlit said:

Thanks so much!  Keep the ideas coming! I currently have two toddler/preschool Storytimes that are well attended.  I am especially interested in what other libraries offer during school hours, etc. During our homeschool decade we were avid library users, but very little of what we did was homeschool-specific.   I'm wondering what libraries offer specifically for homeschoolers. 

The art class is specifically for homeschoolers and is over before PS lets out. However, it was so well-received they ended up capping it and requiring registration. When it started, there were less than 10 kids. The last one we went to had 60 kids in a meeting room for 45 and they ran out of supplies. 

[Kidlit]

1 minute ago, Brittany1116 said:

The art class is specifically for homeschoolers and is over before PS lets out. However, it was so well-received they ended up capping it and requiring registration. When it started, there were less than 10 kids. The last one we went to had 60 kids in a meeting room for 45 and they ran out of supplies. 

I would love to do this.  I used to teach an art class at our co op that was based on picture book illustrations.  My biggest hesitation is that I had two of my homeschool besties help me with that class, and I'm not sure I could do it without them.  We're understaffed at the library for something like this, too. 

[Eos]

*

Edited February 2, 2023 by Eos

[historically accurate]

Over the years, my kids have done Readers' Theater, public speaking classes, TedEd research talks, (there was a librarian who was a drama major for a while, so there were a lot of performance type activities), Dungeons and Dragons, science experiment night (led by a middle school science teacher), Lego Engineering, and coding class. Also, a preschool art class - children's book and then do art in a certain style. Before covid, with 3 kids, we were at the library 3-4 times a week for a class. They've done some outdoor nature classes/walks as a collaboration with the local nature preserve. Currently, they do DND, Service Saturdays (the teens do their volunteer hours - making hats for homeless, helping at the library, making toys for the animal shelter, etc), and banned book club. Most of these were/are not homeschool specific, but were absolutely dominated by homeschoolers. TedEd was homeschool specific as was a Lego group during the day.

Book Clubs over the years: Books that Cook - read a beginning chapter book, make a simple recipe, and write it out - end of the season get a self-made cookbook to take home. Mother Daughter book club, Beginning chapter book, middle grades, banned books, "Read around the World", and picture books for teens (If You Laugh, I'm Starting This Book Over took about 25 minutes to get through due to the group of giggling teens a couple of weeks ago!).

They've read to therapy dogs and therapy birds. They've done "Homeschool Days" where there were many different activities throughout the library for different age groups on a topic "Spring or Apples or Abraham Lincoln or some such. 

One library received a grant and purchased a whole bunch of STEM kits - they've started doing a monthly "Teaching STEM" class for parents so they can showcase a kit, show some books they have on the topic and let the parents get the hang of the kit before checking it out.

Currently, one of the libraries I work at is starting a homeschool group monthly. It's a parents' get together to discuss curriculum or whatever with storytime provided in another meeting room.  They've also set up a homeschool corner with brochures from local libraries, books on homeschooling, and contact information for local co-ops. I haven't gone as I am at the tail end of homeschooling, but it's been very well received.