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The school year may be ending, and that signals plenty of hours in the days ahead to fill for community children.
An ideal way to do that is by checking out the summer programs offered by your local library.
The James V. Brown and other area libraries are again offering their summer reading program, as they have done for more than a century.
What's different in 2021 is how the library system plans to use a virtual platform to reach more children than ever before, a sort of spin-off from how we had to learn to function during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Virtual programming is not just a response to COVID. It's also a response to reaching our children who won't have access to get here," said Nina White, youth services coordinator at the James V. Brown Library.
That's important, given that not all children have access to transportation to get to scheduled programs, yet the programs are beneficial to their long-term development.
When youngsters participate in the summer reading program, it helps to combat the "summer slide," a phenomenon in which students may drop up to 26 percent of their learning achievement in between school years.
"We try to be a bridge to the learning that tends to stop at the late spring, early summer to fall," White said.
The ability to access the program, even when a youngster may not be able to be physically at the library, provides a smart path to keeping that student's mind sharp.
As we see it, the virtual platform is a definite advantage, while the additional programs that take place in libraries pay dividends.
When you take your child to one of those programs, we suggest that you consider checking out a book for yourself.
Reading is among the best escapes we know, and it doesn't have to cost a dime. And who couldn't use a good escape, given the way the past 15 months have gone?
So, what are you reading this summer?