All Posts
School’s back in session: Picture books about new challenges and situations
Posted in Parents and Teachers on October 9, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Rachel Edmondson There are lots of wonderful books about first-day school jitters. But reading to our kids about school doesn’t need to end once school is in full swing. There are all sorts of challenges that kids face while at school. Fortunately, there are also a wealth of books that cover situations such as […]
Tags: accidents, art, back to school, booklists, books, bravery, bullying, courage, creativity, embarassed, embarassment, family, fiction, fitting in, friends, kids, kindness, parenting, parents, playing, reading, teachers, teasing, young learners
Taking care of you: Modern day self-care
Posted in Explore and Discover on September 27, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Susan Goertz September means many things to many people—leaves changing color, shortening days, pumpkin spice everything. Did you know that September is also Self-Care Awareness Month? You wouldn’t think people would need tips on how to take it easy and pamper themselves. How hard can it be to slow down and breathe, right? Yet […]
Tags: adults, aromatherapy, books, breathing, clutter, downsizing, fidgety, fidgety meditation, health, healthy happy, meditation, mindful eating, mindfulness, parents, relaxation, science, self-care, self-caregiver, skeptics, sleep, stress, walking, yoga, yoga breathing
Banning books silences stories: Reading a banned book celebrates your intellectual freedom
Posted in Explore and Discover, Parents and Teachers on September 18, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Melissa Rhoades Banned Books Week is September 23–29 this year. Did you know that at least 23 of the 100 books on PBS’s 2018 Great American Read book list have been banned or threatened with a ban in the United States? That means almost one-fourth of America’s “most loved” novels (as determined by popular […]
Tags: adults, ALA, American Library Association, banned books, Banned Books Week, book challenge, books, censor, censorship, fiction, intellectual freedom, kids, nonfiction, parents, reading, teachers, teens, tweens, YA
Plan Well, Age Well: Explore issues related to retirement and aging
Posted in Explore and Discover, News on September 11, 2018 at 6:00 am
You’re never too young or too old to prepare for your future. No matter your age, you can start planning for your retirement years now, and if you’re already retired, this is a great time brush up on your knowledge of downsizing, financial planning, long-term care, care management, Medicare and Medicaid, and Social Security. The […]
Tags: aging, care management, consumer reports, downsize, downsizing, family, family dynamics, financial planning, future, Legal Forms, long term care, Medicaid, Medicare, real estate, retirement, retirement planning, SERT, Spokane Elder Resource Team
Five early reader books for fall school jitters
Posted in kids, Parents and Teachers on August 28, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Sheri Boggs Most of us are not strangers to the first-day-of-school jitters—that delightful mix of excitement and mild apprehension as one contemplates what the new school year might bring. Such a feeling has as much to do with our need to connect and to be accepted as it does with our need to discover […]
Tags: back to school, book list, books, early literacy, early readers, getting along, kids, literacy, multicultural, parents, reading, young learners
How to Identify a Dragon
Posted in Explore and Discover, kids, Parents and Teachers, Teens on August 21, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Caitlin Wheeler When I was young, I loved C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. I especially loved The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a book that, in my eight-year-old estimation, had everything a book ought to: quests, nightmares, magic spells, enchanted islands, warrior mermaids, anthropomorphized stars, and of course, dragons. Eustace Claren […]
Tags: adults, authors, booklists, books, dragon, dragons, fairy tale, fairy tales, fantastical, fantasy genre, kids, reading, speculative fiction, teens, tweens, YA
The Great American Read book list and half-time report
Posted in Explore and Discover on August 7, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Dana Mannino Welcome to August—a great time for a summer reading half-time report! My summer reading looked a lot like this picture of the bulletin board in the staff break room at Spokane Valley Library. Waaaay back in May, PBS launched The Great American Read, a program that highlights 100 of America’s beloved books […]
Tags: book list, books, reading, Summer reading, The Great American Read
Let’s dance, let’s play: The genius of Jim Gill
Posted in News, Parents and Teachers on August 2, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Erin Dodge If you’re a parent or caregiver of a young child, then you may already know the joyful, playful music and stories of Jim Gill. If you haven’t yet heard his music or attended an interactive performance, then you are in for a treat! Get ready to jump, dance, sing, clap, and even […]
Tags: babies, caregivers, childcare, clap, dance, early learning, family, jump, kids, learning, music, music play, parents, play, playing, preschoolers, q&a, sing, STARS Training, toddlers, young learners
The art of saving seeds
Posted in Explore and Discover on July 31, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Abra Cole In a remote vault located halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, nearly one million seed varieties are stored. The purpose of this immense storage facility is to ensure the genetic future of these seed varieties, should any of the gene banks located around the world suffer catastrophic disaster. One hundred […]
Tags: adults, books, DIY, family, food, garden, gardening, health, hobbies, kale, kale seeds, library hacks, onion seeds, onions, parents, saving seeds, seed library, seed saving, seeds, sunflower seeds, sunflowers, teens, tweens, urban farming
Microadventure: Day trip to Stonerose for fossils
Posted in Explore and Discover, kids, Parents and Teachers on July 24, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Rachel Edmondson Even though I’ve lived in the Spokane area for over 15 years now, every once in a while I find out about something and wonder how I’ve never heard about it before. This past fall I learned about the Stonerose Interpretive Center. While it’s a bit of a drive from Spokane (about […]
Tags: adults, archeology, day trip, digging, fossils, kids, life sciences, microadventure, microadventures, parents, science, shale, STEM, Stonerose, teens, tweens
