Instructions

I'm writing instruction for an upcoming program for Teen Tech Week.

I'm writing my directions with certain problem patrons in mind.

This may be arts and crafts, but I mean business 

I seem to always fall into this trap. I advertise for a certain age and end up having parents come and bring significantly younger children with their older siblings and insist they are allowed too. My coworkers have this issue as well, but they offer programs for older preschoolers and elementary age. I have people annoyed when I tell them, no you shouldn't expect your toddler to be allowed to do the same craft as his 12 year old sibling.

I've tried signs. I've stopped people at the door saying "Just to let you know, this project contains sharp metal objects/fire/needles/whatever; So we are only allowing older children to do it." I'm meet with looks like I am smug and crazy. Of course my little one can do it or, I'll do it for them (which is against the entire principle of making a craft program for kids)

But, I also cave and flip flop because I've recognize I work in an community where the practice of  the arts is not as important as sports/farming/hunting etc. Unlike my upbringing, the only time kids in our community might get to do a craft is at school or at the library. This applies across the board. To the low income family that doesn't have the money to keep markers in the house, to the well off stay at home moms, who might have a Pinterest board full of activities but no motivation to actually do them with their kids.

Kids are coming to the library to learn new things and work with craft supplies they have never seen or even imagined. So I feel bad about denying access to these materials due to a child's age. I usually have plenty of supplies so I decide to give in and share.
Some times this has worked and been successful. A well behaved younger sibling has been able to grasp the concepts, respect the materials and not be disruptive. Last fall, I invited a group of rowdy girls who were playing tag in the stacks to come into my program and make something instead (even though they were younger than the ideal age group) They had a blast and their caregiver thanked me profusely, admitted that there isn't much opportunity in their home life to do crafts like this.

However, lighting didn't strike twice. For my December program, I had a mother burst in with two little girls and ask "Is this where me make ornaments?"
I had a bad feeling about this, but then I thought "What kind of Scrooge are you to deny kids a chance to make ornaments for their family? Its Christmas!"

Yeah in hindsight I should have been a Scrooge. I should have pointed out that we offered 4 other holiday programs that month for their age group but this program was specifically for older children. They misbehaved. They were pushy and demanded things, including the mother who went over to a group of teens and asked them to share the colored pencils, even though they were sitting at the same table. When the teens, graciously said yes, the mom took the entire box away and hoarded them just for her two kids. They also got bored and threw their stuff animals which hit me and knocked over supplies. When I address this behavior and asked them to stop, they laughed and stuck out their tongues. Oh yes, how I wish I had been a Scrooge that day....

Last week, I became over anxious that these kids would show up again to a Anti Valentines' day party and I would have put my foot down. I had my speech rehearsed and my finger nails bitten down with worry. Yes I would deny children entry to a party!
Thankfully they didn't show up and a bunch of teens had a relaxing fun time without little kids killing the vibe.

But those kids are still out there....

So I prep, worry and wait for the next program, trying to plan every possible outcome. We are going to have a few activities for Teen Tech Week including an afternoon of perler bead crafts. Hence the need for signs warning all under 6 to stay away with from the mad library tech and her hot iron. Hopefully I get a chance to man the craft table the entire afternoon and participate more.

Participation seems to be my only defense mechanism sometimes

Get FROZEN @ your Library!

(sing it with me)

Do you wanna do a program?

The time has come for my library to embrace the smash Disney hit "Frozen" and do a program entirely dedicated to it.  I of course carried the torch on this one and ran it in a similar fashion to my Star Wars program last summer.
Key points being-
1) Open it to all ages and do not have registration. I know this might make some of your heart rates jump at this thought; but for me it is more important to make my programs as welcoming as possible. This is especially true in winter when our attendance drops and just in general to make families want to come to the library. I couldn't stand having a kid wander in during a regular visit, see a cool program in progress and have to be turned away because they "didn't sign up".
2) Have passive activities that can appeal to all ages. Sometimes the concept of lines, waiting and switching stations can be trying on kids (and librarians!) Having no set time limits relieves that pressure and while chaotic at times, takes away pressure to finish activities in a certain time and in a certain way. Pressure is no fun for kids or me :(
3)Sticking to my Resolve to Rock goals

We kicked off our program with activities followed by a sing a long version of the movie. I know that some might look at my line-up with a critical eye and say these were pretty basic and simple activities (I did think that plenty of times). However I was planning on kids as young as 2 coming with their families so I needed something that was simple and flexible. Also I had no idea on the number of people showing up and when you have to plan for upwards of 100 kid, you have to factor in complexity of a craft and how much it cost to make...(Do you wanna raise your blood pressure? You don't have to raise your blood pressure!) So KISS keep it simple stupid.

Crown making stations
Everyone got a chance to make some marvelous headgear for our Frozen party. I found the template for the crowns and reindeer antlers here  and used construction paper instead of foam. We had snowflakes, stickers and markers for decoration. To cut down on the chaos, yes I cut out each crown/piece ahead of time, punched the holes and even found some clear reinforcement holes to make them stronger.

Our Ice Princesses getting some help with their crowns

Indoor Snowman Building
I created some snowman shapes and laminated them. I also drew several designs and accessories (pieces of coal, hats, sticks) and laminated them. Add some double stick tape and the kids had a whole gallery of snowmen with interchangeable parts to play with. This was a big hit at the party.

Crafts
Snowflake making, scissors and paper and you're done. There is a template for fancy Frozen snowflakes. I cut several of these out and they were quite a pain. :| I let the participants know they could take a template sheet home to try them out but they would defiantly need sharper scissors or an craft knife(which I was not going to provide in a room swarming with young kids) We also had a coloring station and a couple of puzzles out in different parts of the library.

Games
I did a similar version of this game and I also had a decorative little sleigh that kids could throw "snowballs" in. We used ping pong balls. I'm pretty sure the same kids just played with this game all afternoon prompting me to quote "the game is made up and the points don't matter"

Olaf's Scavenger Hunt
I'm a sucker for this activity. I was proactive and I made two sets of items to find in case kids once again started taking the clues off the walls and out of their hiding spaces. For simplicity sake I had a set of snowmen in different colors to spell out Olaf's special message. Any guesses on what it was.

Photobooth
Since I didn't have the budget to spring for some princesses to come to the library, nor do I have the build or hair to dress up as either of the lead characters, I put up a photo booth opportunity instead. Works for me!

Snacks and Movie Time!

I did make Gluten Free snacks! We have carrot sticks (Sven's Reindeer Bites) and Elsa' Snowball (and yes more than one of my co-workers giggled childishly at this name!) They were suppose to be powdered doughnut holes but I had to bake them in mini muffin tins. I used gluten free flour with was pricier than the regular stuff, but not nearly as costly as trying to contact a bakery and special order several dozen treats. We also had "Frozen" hot chocolate (chocolate milk) because the complication of making hot chocolate with that many kids makes my head spin.

Wandering Oaken's Trading post and Snack Bar

Surprisingly I lost about half of the group when it came to movie time, and almost all of them left half way during the film. I guess once the singing stopped, kids lost interest.

I had of course so many other ideas to try but I just didn't have the space. Since it was on a weekend, I only had myself and my boss on hand to help out. We had over 80 people show up which is not too shabby :)

As for my other goal of presenting general neutral programming, I would say it was almost half girls and boys doing all the activities. However I did have a care giver show up with three teenage boys saying they were here for the program. Huh? Okay I was open and certainly wasn't going to turn anyone away because of age. When I pointed out the activities available and that they were welcomed to join in, they looked disgusted and said they didn't want to do any of them. The boys left to go read but the caregiver was peeved that this was all I was offering. I apologized that I didn't consider teenage boys as my target audience when planning this program. So I guess I failed on this point. But seriously teen age boys who looked like they did not care on bit about Frozen!


Frozen Sensory Bins: Snowflake Soup, Arctic Slime, Play Snow
Anything ice, or ice colored would work. Or grab some real snow from outside it available


Here a quick blog roll call of other libraries' Frozen programs
Frozen Movie Party - The Loudmouth Librarian
Portland District Library Program
Frozen@ Your Library- Fat Girl Reading
Frozen Sing Along- Green Bean Teen Queen
Frozen Storytime -Literary Hoots
Super Cute Frozen Display- From the Short Stacks

If you have a Frozen program you've done and blogged about, add it in the comments and I'll add it here!

Basically, if it's something kids love, build it and they will come.  

Your winter programing might be already scheduled but you can still plan to get Frozen "in summer" Also if you are a library that will always be open, even when the schools are closed for winter weather,  you can do an impromptu calamity day program. This is something we are working on because we've had two snow days already this season.