Now that we’re almost to the end of July, I’ll bet kids are so over the summer vacation thing and are ready to go back to school. Stress-free activities like running through the sprinklers, watching reruns of “Bewitched” on television, staying up late eating popsicles — borrring. Now, it’s just possible that the aforementioned stress-free activities factored into a certain librarian’s childhood summers. OK, kids are probably still super ecstatic about not having to go to school, but the parents, well, all I can say is hang in there.
The question is this: how do you keep young brains active and excited about learning during the summer break? Have you checked out the calendar of events for the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site? If not, go to the fort’s official website, www.nps.gov/fova/index.htm, and take a peek at their schedule. Nature walks, 19th century black powder demonstrations, kid-oriented activities — this former fur trading post and Army barracks has a whole lot of cool things happening, and it’s local and it’s free. Awesome sauce.
Now here’s where the library comes in. After you and your little sprouts have visited Fort Vancouver and your brains are packed with information, keep the momentum going by taking a trip to the library. Remember — young, impressionable gray cells will revert to sprinklers and popsicles if not properly guided, so let the library work some magic. To help you get started, I’ve compiled a brief list of children’s Fort Vancouver-related reading material. To do this I first reviewed the list of activities taking place at the fort, then I performed some related subject searching in the library’s catalog and a list emerged. As I like to say, the Fourth of July may be done, but celebrating the fort in July is right on schedule.
Happy reading, young readers — and don’t blame me if you learn something before the summer is over.
