SUMMER READING PROGRAM

The Wimberley Village Library offers a reading incentive program and special events to the children of Wimberley free of charge every summer.

1. Reading Incentive Program The research is clear that children who don't read during the summer can lose up to three months of reading progress and that loss has a cumulative, long-term effect.The incentive reading program is available for children ages 2 yrs though high school. This program is designed to give children an added incentive to read during their school break. Reading logs are sent home with all children in area schools or can be picked up any time at the library. Children read or listen to books, fill out their reading logs and redeem them for prizes at the library. There is a variety of incentive prizes offered, ranging from coupons for a free ice cream cone at The Wimberley Cafe, a one day pass to the Mckenna Children’s Museum or a movie pass to the Corral Theatre. Last summer 923 reading logs were redeemed.

The entire community benefits from the summer.  “Public library summer reading programs are estimated to save schools $873 per reader in the cost for teachers to review basic skills.” What is a Summer Worth?” by Stephen Brown Texas Library Journal 2005.

1. Special EventsThe library offers 17 special events for elementary age children over the summer months.

Wacky Wednesday: Eight events are offered for families with for school-age children. The events offered were varied, giving children opportunities to learn about music, exotic reptiles, arachnids, magic and storytelling.   The Wednesday programs were very well attended last year. 731 children and adults were counted.  Books were displayed for check-out to further stimulate the child’s interest for each event. Sponsored by various area businesses.

Summer Camps: This was a new series of events offered last summer designed as interactive workshops for elementary- age children.  All of the programs were scheduled on Thursday afternoons between 3:00-4:00pm.  In June, all of the programs were art related and the July programs were all related to science.  To ensure the presenter would have the proper amount of materials available for participants, registration was required.  All of the camps were full on the first day of registration and had waiting lists.  Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.