Minot’s Children’s Library to reopen later this month
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The Children's Library at Minot Public Library is set for its grand reopening on Jan. 13. For the last six months, the Children's Library has been remodeling, but soon it will be ready for the public.
Children's Librarian Randi Monley said staff members have many activities in store for children, such as Reading Dogs, Pokemon Club and Lego Club twice a month.
"February 5 we are going to be starting our storytime up again. We have Maker Monday, SmartStart Tuesday and Lapsit Storytime on Wednesdays," Monley said.
Monley said the activities will change and vary week by week based on children's skills.
"One week a child might be working on cutting, and then another week they will be working on gluing. Everything will always be a bit different," Monley said.
Monley said it will be the same with the Pokemon Club.
"We have it set up so that it's however the kids want to play it," she said.
On the day of the reopening, Monley said, they will be starting a new reading challenge to challenge kids to read 1,000 books before kindergarten.
"It's for kids from birth up to kindergarten. Of course, it's not the children reading, but parents reading to them so they are getting their vocabulary and syntax skills and learning new words. It's about gaining those core skills so that when they go to kindergarten they are ready and have what they need," Monley said.
Monley said the library has never held the 1,000 book reading challenge but is hoping for at least 200 children to participate. During summer reading they have more than 1,000 children, but Monley said these numbers drop off in the winter because the children are more worried about school.
"For every 50 books they read they are going to get a prize, and after every 1,000 books they read, they get a free book," Monley said.
Monley also mentioned the parents will get a gift card for coffee.
"It's a great way for families to engage with each other and work on the stuff that needs to be worked on," Monley said.
Grand reopening festivities set
The Children's Library will be having its grand reopening on Jan. 13 at 1 p.m. with a speech by Mayor Tom Ross, followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a dance party for children and a chance to play games and win prizes.