Logs for the Weyburn Public Library's Summer Reading Program for ages six to 12 concluded last week, and tomorrow there will be prizes handed out to those with the most logged reading hours for the challenge part of the program.
Summer Reading Program Coordinator Brianna Eagan said they'll get together one last time for a pizza party, after having spent the summer meeting twice weekly for various activities.
"I had a ton of fun. I'm a big STEM nerd, so getting to teach the kids chemistry in a fun way just made my whole summer," she commented.
"We saw quite a few parents super invested in getting their kids to read consistently, so they would set hours per day that they had to read, and it was really interesting to see their interest develop over the summer and their confidence grow when it came to certain STEM fields or artistic fields that they felt they weren't like really good at or they didn't know much about," shared Eagan.
All types of literacy counted toward the logged hours for the reading challenge, including parents reading to their younger children, e-books, and audiobooks. Eagan said the children read more than 2,000 cumulative hours.
"It's a good opportunity for them to upkeep their literacy skills and develop their interests in different fields that they're going to be exposed to as they go through at school and they move on to adulthood," she noted. "This is a very safe and supportive environment for the kids to come and explore their interests, develop their skills, and just get that sense of community that you sometimes kind of lack in the summer when you move from school."
Eagan said some of the children were bonding over a certain book series. "It was really cute. They talked about stuff that they did alongside their reading as well, like crafts that they really enjoyed or TV shows and places they went."
She said she is super proud of all of the kids who joined the WPL this summer.
"I really think that they're going to go on to phenomenal things. There are definitely a few scientists among the group. It was awesome getting to hear them just excitedly talk about what they're going to do for school when they grow up," she raved. "I'm also really proud of the parents who were diligent about keeping their kids' literacy skills up and investing into their interests and everything like that was really beautiful to see."
"The strength of community and the strength of support that I saw through this experience really blew my mind. I was speechless several times about how polite the kids were, how helpful they were, and how much they wanted to connect with their peers, too."
Grand prizes for readers who logged the most hours include bicycles from Canadian Tire for each age group.