We Love Our Library

When we moved to Crystal Lake (Chicago) I knew that Bear was going to get bored quickly once his siblings all started school. This is the first year that I have Monkey in school full time and am home with just my youngest. I knew he would need to develop better social skills and interact with kids his age. We can’t afford to put him into a preschool, so the next best thing is our local library.

The Crystal Lake Public Library is one of the top rated libraries in the country. I am honored to have such a wonderful establishment in our community.

On November 15, 1913 the Crystal Lake Public Library opened it’s doors to the community. Over the years the library grew from just having fiction books in a small room in a house to the beautiful two story building near downtown that we love today.

“In 1999 the Crystal Lake Public Library was ranked #10 among public libraries. The September issue of American Libraries included the article “Great American Public Libraries: HAPLR Ratings, Round Two,” by Thomas J. Hennen, Jr. The Crystal Lake Public Library was ranked #10 among public libraries serving communities of 25,000-49,999 across the United States. The HAPLR Index includes 15 factors. The focus is on circulation, staffing, materials, reference service and funding levels.” (crystallakelibrary.org)

The Crystal Lake Public Library offers many activities for families including story time for kids ages birth to 5 years and reading to the dog every Saturday for elementary age kids. I haven’t taken the older kids to “Reading to the Dog,” yet, but Little Bear is enjoying preschool story time.

Each Wednesday we head out the library. He joins a small group of 3 and 4 year-olds in a small room on the lower level of the library. The woman who runs preschool story time, Bear calls her his teacher, is a retired preschool teacher. The kids listen to her read and play fun learning games for about a half an hour.

Bear is a little shy and this past Wednesday he chose not to participate. Instead he wanted me to stay with him so he could sit on my lap and watch and listen to what was going on. The sessions are three weeks long with a week off in between. Your child must have a library card and be registered in order to attend.

We love our library. I go there each weekend to get away from the kids and work on my book. I’ve checked out several sources which will help me quite a bit. Now I just need to make time to take notes on them so I can get some new sources this weekend.

Do you go to your local library? What makes your library special and unique?