As much as I hate to admit it, my family and I are creatures of habit. Like all true Oregonians, we love a good adventure once in awhile. Unfortunately, when you have only the weekend to try and squeeze in ALL THE THINGS and are also wrangling three kids six and under, it’s nice to have a nearby local place you can go to where you know that all the important boxes will be checked. Is it fun, and is there something somewhat educational and redeeming about it? Is there something for everybody? Is it cheap? Does it work for anything this crazy Oregon weather throws at you? If the answer is yes to all of these questions, you’ve got a winner in my mind.
For my family, our place is our local library, The Hillsboro Main Library. Almost every Sunday around noon, after a lazy breakfast, we load up the huge bag of books from the week before and head out for the five minute jaunt to the library. Here are the top four reasons we love our local library:
1. Is it fun and educational? Absolutely, I mean…it’s filled with books! You can’t get more educational that books! And I fully believe that our pilgrimage to the library each weekend has been the catalyst in creating our tiny, voracious readers/listeners. Every week we check out over 25 books (I’ve got a book carrying arm muscle that I’m pretty proud of at this point). I have to admit, checking out this many books is in part to quench my kids’ thirst for reading, but also it’s selfishly for me too, because what mom wants to read the exact same book over and over again every night? Not me! If I am reading them a pile of books before bedtime each night, I need some variety too. The library gives us the variety we need for a great price – free!
2. Does it work for everybody? It does! The children’s section at the Hillsboro Library is fantastically kid friendly with short bookcases for the small people in your life and easy to navigate sections for early readers, picture books, toddler board books and more. And it’s not just books! My kids tend to make a beeline for the play section, where there are educational toys like MagnaTiles, soft toy puppets and tiny tables and chairs for book perusing. There are also child appropriate computer games and educational-use iPads for use within the library. My daughter Lucy played a computer game last weekend where you have to place the body parts inside the body in the anatomically correct places. It was so cool that I really wanted to ask her if I could have a turn. And speaking of something for everyone, as a book lover myself I often grab whatever catches my eye on the bestseller rack as I pass by on my way to the children’s section. I may or may not have time to open it, but hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?
3. Is it cheap? I did mention something about free up above, right? For the most part the library is fantastically free. Unless you’re like us and happen to misplace a book (I swear our couch eats books). Then you’ll get a overdue fee, but with the online notification system they have in place at least you’ll see the weekly reminder emails that you have books that are due soon, and also overdue notifications for those ones that go mysteriously missing, which just means it’s time for a search party kiddos! I swear, I’ve found overdue library books in the strangest places.
4. Does it work with this crazy Oregon weather? See, this is where I love our local library in particular. Is it a quintessential, rainy Sunday? Great! The library is a spacious, dry and kid friendly place for you to take the kiddos when they are feeling a bit of cabin fever from being cooped up in the house. But really, it’s the nice days when our library really shines. On those types of days we pop into the library, spend a bit of time choosing our books and playing with the toys and then grab a dozen doughnut holes at the little cafe and head out back. At the back of the library is this really lovely nature park with wide trails and a lake. The kids can run or bike along the trails, tromp through the trees and around the edges of the lake, quack at the ducks or squeal at a nutria. Most of all we love running around in the fresh air out in the open. It’s the best of both worlds!
What about you my lovely Portland mamas, what do you love about your local library?
We love their storytimes! I take my kids (4 and 2) to family storytime at the Tigard Public Library almost every week. We each enjoy the books, songs, and projects we get to do together during that time.
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