Mollygrace Posted July 2, 2023 Share Posted July 2, 2023 Hello! I am a Children's Librarian and have recently been asked to do the programming for our homeschool community. I would love to hear what programs, resources, networks, and connections that you have found to be useful. I am a prior homeschooling mom who used to read this site regularly (years ago) I am excited to reconnect with homeschool families! Thanks for all of your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisdomandtreasures Posted July 3, 2023 Share Posted July 3, 2023 ASL classes Chess A children's room (with bathrooms attached) so toddlers have a place to run around and have fun while siblings do their activities. A library near me has this and it is sooo nice. It was on the far end of the library behind the children's section (which also had a conference room attached and that's where my oldest would go to his chess games, so we were right on the other side of the wall if he needed anything) so no studying adults could hear and be annoyed. 😉 A Godsend when my 3 middle children were all under 5! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertflower Posted July 3, 2023 Share Posted July 3, 2023 Hi! Thanks for asking. My kids enjoyed Crazy 8's Math club. It's not in every public library. https://crazy8sclub.org/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freesia Posted July 3, 2023 Share Posted July 3, 2023 One library where we once lived had unit kits with books, activities and sometimes things like musical instruments grouped in a bin that could be checked out. It wasn’t just for homeschoolers, but it was a lot of fun for the pre-k to 2nd grade level. Our library now has homeschool philosophy books. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted July 3, 2023 Share Posted July 3, 2023 I guess you'd need to survey your local homeschoolers, but scheduling events that are up during the day, not at the end of the school day would be supremely helpful. We have sports or other events at the end of the day. Chess Thematic History or Science Presentations Foreign Language Story Time Poetry / Writing Events Academic Competitions Readers Theater Groups Craft Workshops 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malam Posted July 3, 2023 Share Posted July 3, 2023 Carrying books used by homeschoolers (the stuff you would find in homeschooling booklists) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 Chess Connections with the elderly. Some of the most underrated potential activities are ones enjoyed by previous generations: beekeeping, bird watching, papercrafting i.e. quilling, handicrafts.......frankly, my own kids would have loved someone to help lead them in playground games and chants that are starting to get lost. Bringing in people who enjoyed these as kids or have them as their own hobbies right now would be fabulous. Tween activities. Our library has a strange gap for 12yos. Book club goes up to 10/11yo, and then junior friends begins at 13, and the 12yos wander away in the meantime. The same sort of class that public schoolers get: how to use a library, how to research. Our library finally had a tour on a weekend instead of just for schools that would come through and I sent my oldest. He was amazed at how much there was available that he didn't know about. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted July 4, 2023 Share Posted July 4, 2023 Science labs Math circles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted July 8, 2023 Share Posted July 8, 2023 Dungeons and Dragons groups have been amazingly popular and fantastic for my kids. They are technically a teen program, but my youngest started in fourth grade, and they have had to start a young adult group because so many graduates didn’t want to leave their community and friends. The key is allowing four hours a session. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollygrace Posted July 8, 2023 Author Share Posted July 8, 2023 Thanks for all of your wonderful ideas! We do a survey every year which is helpful.- I really want our library to support our homeschoolers as the community is rapidly growing-- so any new ideas or thoughts are welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xahm Posted July 9, 2023 Share Posted July 9, 2023 The biggest desire I have is for the opportunity to form more community, so I'd want repeat activities rather than one-off big things. Also, I'd like clear communication about age expectations. Our libraries are very loosely-goosey with ages, which is great when I want my 9 year old to join in a group for 10-13 along with his sister but disappointing when we go to something advertised to ages 6-14 and it's entirely ages 2-7. I'd like "this is aimed at age 8-10 but older/younger kids are welcome if they want to work at that level" or "this is a teens-only space but siblings and parents are welcome to wait in the children's area." Or "This is aimed at older elementary. Younger siblings are welcome to sit in, but the event for then is on___" 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenecho Posted July 9, 2023 Share Posted July 9, 2023 That's so great that your library is doing that. Here are classes I would have loved... Any Language classes but especially ASL. Science classes. Science fair. Geography/culture day. Art classes. Learning game day and regular game day. Book clubs or writing club (where you can share your writing) for older kids. History Potluck and Play Day. Pick a historical time and place (Ancient Egypt, France in the middle age, Edo era Japan, Ming Dysnasty China, wherever). Pin historic recipes on a pinterest board. Invite families to bring a dish from the board for people to try (have them write ingredients on a notecard so people with allergies could know if they could eat it). Encourage those who want to dress in a period costume. Provide a craft or other activiy related to the time period and do a read aloud of a story from the time period (or watch a short video). Since a lot of families go on a 4 year history schedule, if you did this weekly you could pick something from each level (ancient, middle ages, Renaisance to early modern, late modern) each week. Or you could do this once a month and pick from a different level each month so all families have something related to where they are in history. Geography day. Similar to history day but in stead pick a country. Geography fair. The Girl Scouts in our area used to do something like this (just swap troop for "homeschool family" and it works for homeschoolers. Homeschool families could also team up to pick a country). Every troop would pick a country and set up a table about it. Each troupe was required to make a dish from that country, and to make a stamp for people's "passports" (which were just folded up paper stapled in the middle...I think maybe with a printed cover), and to make a souvenir related to the country (some things I remember were toothpick flags, woven bracelets, bookmarks with animals from the country, etc.), and decorate the table with information/visuals related to the country. Half of the troop would stay at their tables while the other half would visit others and pick up the souvenir and stamps. The food was served in a potluck later--or maybe it was first (with someone from the troop explaining the dish and where it was from as they gave you a sample). Each troupe also did a performance (a dance, a short skit, played music, that sort of thing) which people watched while they ate (this I think might not work for homeschool families...but it could be an optional thing). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenecho Posted July 9, 2023 Share Posted July 9, 2023 Also, if you have any power to do this, I've long thought it would be wonderful if Libraries carried curriculum that could be lended out for longer periods (however long the curriculum was intended for...6 months to a year, etc.). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malam Posted July 10, 2023 Share Posted July 10, 2023 (edited) 5 hours ago, goldenecho said: Also, if you have any power to do this, I've long thought it would be wonderful if Libraries carried curriculum that could be lended out for longer periods (however long the curriculum was intended for...6 months to a year, etc.). And maybe also things like Cuisenaire rods, decodeable readers, ten-frames, place value blocks, pan balances, MiniLUK, etc Carrying textbooks might be expensive (and lose-able given the longer borrowing/renewing periods) but could be something to look into. I know my local library carries test-prep books; you could do something simlar. Edited July 10, 2023 by Malam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted July 10, 2023 Share Posted July 10, 2023 One thing I'd suggest-check with other people who do homeschool programming. For example, we have a full day of homeschool programming at parks and rec for ages 6-12 (ish) on Weds, so that probably isn't the best day for a homeschool book club for elementary schoolers-but might well be a GREAT day to do programming for teens because there's something for the elementary kids to do close by. Tuesday and Thursday are when high school classes take place at the closest big tutorial, so probably not the best day for an ACT prep class-but might be great days to do something for younger ones. I Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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