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School is back in session and teachers aren’t even easing us back into homework season. It’s alright though, the Library’s got you covered and we are always open at www.krl.org. Let me walk you through a few of our great online homework resources.

Step 1: Head to our website www.krl.org

Step 2: Hover over the “Research” heading and select “Homework Help”

Step 3: Find your library card.

Step 4: Get all the best homework help the Library has to offer, online, for free.

In this day in age, there are lots of “talks” we need to have with our children. So many in fact, I often get overwhelmed (as a parent) and paralysis sets in. But one talk that has been tried and true for some time is the sex talk. Looking back at my childhood and adolescence, the sex talk happened once around puberty and that was it. Our parents took a deep breath and had at it, usually a boy with his father and a girl with her mother. I think both kids and parents wanted it to end as fast as possible, never to be mentioned again.

My first Bumbershoot was in 1989. The highlight was Ry Cooder with David Lindley, Nick Lowe and Flaco Jimenez. It was in Key Arena with a very small crowd and I was in the center with my Bumbershoot buddy John, leaning on the stage barriers.

I’ve been to many, many Bumbershoots since, mostly attending all three days. The weather doesn’t always cooperate. I remember it raining so hard one afternoon that I signed up for a Seattle Times subscription just so I could get the free umbrella, which inverted on the first moderate gust of wind. Oh well.

School’s back in session, and with it the library says “goodbye” to another successful Summer Learning program. But our STEM activities for kids, tweens, and families don’t disappear with the sunshine. We youth services librarians have been busy preparing a fun-filled fall for those who want to tinker, play, and learn in a low-stakes environment outside of school.

A dilettante is someone who dabbles in a given field. They are non-experts, they are amateurs, and they will not usually receive a paycheck for their interests or their work. Nevertheless the dilettante is drawn to explore and learn what they can about a given subject through study, practice, and experimentation. Perhaps you are a dilettante woodworker (whose chairs are never perfectly straight), or a dilettante gardener (who has killed a cacti or two). Maybe you like to sculpt with clay, but your sculptures would never earn a spot in a museum.

Overwhelmed with health and wellness advice? Facing some scary health treatment decisions for yourself or a loved one? Suddenly thrown into the role of a patient with a chronic condition or a caregiver? I have just the book to calm troubled waters and put you back in control.

Science can be scrumptious, especially when your experiment results in delicious ice cream.  We recently did this project at the Kingston and Little Boston Libraries as the grand finale for our summer STEM programs and it was a big hit. 

Enjoying ice cream in the shade of the Port Gamble S'Klallam Longhouse

Here are directions for you do try this at home:

Ice Cream Ingredients

In a quart-size Ziploc bag, mix together:

This week, we welcome special guest blogger, Shelby Barnes, graduate of the BiblioTEC Intern program at the Sylvan Way Library, to share her insight into what going back to school means after graduating high school: 

Harry Potter is all grown up and the subject of a new play by Jack Thorne and John Tiffany. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the sold out, two part play, currently showing at the Palace Theatre in London is based on an original story by J.K. Rowling. The play picks up 19 years in the future from where the original series left off in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Harry Potter is now a dad and working at the Ministry of Magic and his son, Albus is a student at Hogwarts.

For families and kids living with an autism spectrum disorder, things can get a little overwhelming. What can I go to with my child? Where are the resources in my community? How have others handled this? I don’t have the answers to all of those questions, but here at the Library, we do have some resources for you. Here are just a few selections that are available from Kitsap Regional Library for parents, kids and teens:

Parents

This blog post was written by Keagan Blackford, the Bainbridge Youth Services teen intern at our Bainbridge Island location.

Reading books is a great way to get the imagination going. But I find it's more fun when you read about things that don't really exist- it causes your imagination to branch out more!

Three of my favorite supernatural and paranormal are Paranormalcy, Clockwork Angel, and The Young Elites.

Today's blog post is brought to you by special guest blogger Lia Johansen, BiblioTEC Intern at the Bainbridge Island Library. 

Summer is the perfect time for kids to play with LEGOS. Not only are LEGOS fun to play with, they also strengthen creative and problem solving skills. Kids can build fancy dream castles to fast sports cars; there are endless numbers of LEGO creations.

Kitsap County is a military county. It was difficult to miss this fact when I recently moved to this area from out of state. While doing storytimes with young families, I was immediately struck by how many dads and moms were serving our country, both overseas and locally. It got me thinking about how difficult it must be for a child when one of their grownups is away for six months or more. While the spouses I run into are tough and matter-of-fact about the situation - I know it must be difficult for them.

As a children’s librarian, I have the extreme joy of watching kids get excited and genuinely interested in learning about a wide variety of subjects. Their thirst for knowledge is ever growing, and it’s a wonderful feeling to be able to connect them with experiences to satiate their curiosities. One subject that never seems to fail in piquing the interest of inquiring minds is reptiles. There is just something about these (mostly) cold-blooded tetrapods that continues to fascinate people. While reptiles might not be for everyone, they are definitely a huge crowd pleaser for many.