Our Local Library

As home educators, the library is as important as the grocery store to our family! (Maybe even more important? I guess we have to eat, but the library ranks right up there.) Before we had gotten settled, before our stuff arrived from the States, before we had even written a proper grocery list, I ordered a library card and we checked out the local library.

The closest one is in Stow-on-the-Wold. It is in a beautiful old building that also serves as the Tourist Information Center and has various meeting rooms on upper floors. In the entrance there is a display of old armor and weapons from the area. Here is a bad picture from the parking lot (I mean, car park) after the thought when I realized I hadn't taken a photo from the outside. Excuse the roof of our car in the foreground. The building is in the central square of Stow, right across from the post office/news shop and our favorite bakery.

Inside the library, they have a nice children's room, which houses quite a few books for a library of its size. The best surprise for us has been how new the books are to us. We have seen very few books we recognize from our American library and bookstores. So even though the library is not too big, we will take a few months at least to get through all the new goodness. They have an especially strong non-fiction section. I remember my college friend M who grew up in Europe part of the time always commented on the quality of European non-fiction, and this definitely seems to hold true in the UK (at least for the books we've seen so far in our little corner of the book world.)

Having read and re-read the small selection of books we had packed in our suitcases (at this point all our books from home were still on the boat), the kids couldn't wait one more second to check out some new books. Before we had even gathered our full load they both had plunged in.

We have always read with our kids, but have never forced reading, and have not required either kid to read in a certain way or at a certain time. But both kids love books, and love reading (and learning to read, in Becca's case!) They like to read completely different things (well, we manage to find enough overlap to read bedtime stories together), and they both have approached learning to read in completely different ways. (Justin=non-fiction and whole world recognition; Becca=fiction and phonetics, if you're interested.) If I could go back to school and get another degree (not that I need another or really want one!!) it would be in child brain development. I think there's a proper name for that, like cognitive neuroscience or something, but you get the idea.

Anyway, when we got home, both kids attacked our new pile of library books eagerly. Here are a few from our selection of that first library run (we have since been back many times!):

We have especially enjoyed the historical fiction of Michael Morpurgo, a new-to-us author who writes a lot about World War II in Britain. Here are some more kids-with-books pictures, as well as background pictures of our new couch and dirty living room.

Our library is part of a consortium of libraries in Gloucestershire County, so we will explore the other ones that are relatively close by soon. Although we still have lots of good books to read right down the road in Stow!