Tuesday, October 17, 2006

I love libraries almost as much as I love coffee and chocolate

Some days, I love them even more. We homeschoolers owe our libraries an enormous debt of gratitude for making our lives so much easier, not to mention more economical.

I love taking my kids to a big building full of books and saying, "What would you like to read about today?" I love telling them that this is the beauty of tax dollars at work, and I love that they get so excited about visiting the library.

Homeschooling and libraries is the really interesting blog of Adrienne Furness, a children's librarian who is working on Helping Homeschoolers in the Library, for ALA Editions.

Adrienne has included on her blog a five-part interview with Mary Griffith, which is just wonderful. She recently linked to the blog and website of Scott McCloud, a comics author who is homeschooling and blogging his way across the country with his wife and two kids. And she has lots more there to read about as she investigates the world of homeschooling.

5 comments:

love2learnmom said...

Great post - and thanks for the links! We've had very good experiences being involved in our library - I serve on the Library "Friends" Board and the kids and I do their "holiday giving tree" each year. They only meet three times a year, so it's not a big commitment, and it has been a good opportunity for the library people to get comfortable with homeschoolers. :) (Several other board members are public school teachers.) They appreciate our ability to take care of the tree during school hours when the library is less busy. Naturally I get to share some ideas and book suggestions too. It's a lot of fun!

Jennie C. said...

I miss a decent library. Down here, it doesn't seem that important, and ours is without many children's books which would be, or should be, considered classics. Up north, the libraries were heavenly. Down here in Georgia, I spend a lot more at amazon.

Mb said...

When we moved 3 years ago a good quality library was a must for me.
It is my favorite place in town.
Thanks for the links Karen! :)
Happy Reading!

Leonie said...

So cool to read the links and to hear about your library.

Sadly, I can't afford to go to the library right now - too many fines! lol!

Anonymous said...

Karen, Thanks for the kind words and the link! :) I've so enjoyed my work with homeschoolers through the years, and I'm enjoying this opportunity I have to learn even more about the big, wide world of homeschooling. It seems to me that librarians and homeschoolers make natural partners. If homeschoolers are united by anything, it seems to me that it's the belief in the importance of lifelong learning, which, to me, is what public libraries are all about.

I'll try to keep finding interesting things to post about on my blog. I'm working on setting up a couple more interviews, so look for them soon (I hope!).... :)