Recipes for Summer Fun!

We have been having so much fun at the library lately! Every summer we host lots of events for kids and teens. We try to make them fun, social, and educational. We love programs that pique a kid's curiosity in new subjects or put a new spin on familiar ones. The best programs are ones that prompt kids to ask lots of questions - then we can encourage them to check out a book to find out more! We hope we are inspiring future artists, engineers, writers, scientists and more!

Here at EFPL we aim to provide high quality services for kids, so we are always researching and learning about child development and education. Here's a list of some of the books and websites we find inspiring for working with children. You'll find great ideas you can do at home and recipes for many of the hands on activities we've done here at the library.

Books

Art Workshops for Children by Hervé Tullet

This book inspired our Music & Paint event this year and some of our artful events in previous summers. There are a lot of fun art games and projects in here with step by step instructions for leading a group through them. While many of these activities work well for the large groups we get at the library, they could also be scaled down to do with a smaller group of children. Tullet is also the author of many wonderful picture books for kids.



The Artful Parent and The Artful Year by Jean Van't Hul

These books are loaded with ways to bring art into your family life. Jean Van't Hul also has a wonderful website and blog that is full of ideas and instructions. This is where the inspiration for this summer's wooden sculptures program came from.

Geology Lab for Kids : 52 Projects to Explore Rocks, Gems, Geodes, Crystals, Fossils, and Other Wonders of the Earth's Surface by Garret Romaine

Our theme is summer is "Libraries Rock" and while a lot of our activities have been centered on music this summer, we also partnered up with the Evansville Community School District Environmental Education Nature Center to offer a series of programs about physical rocks. This book has a lot of great hands on science activities for kids.

Tinkerlab: A Hands on Guide for Little Inventors by Rachelle Doorley

This book has a lot of great creative building and maker projects. Our paper houses workshop this summer was inspired by an activity in this book.









Recipes

• Crystallizing Paint Recipe - we did this at our Winter Science Experiments event. 
• Erupting Snow - this was another fun activity at our Winter Science Experiments event.
• Homemade Play Dough - our favorite recipe is the no-cook method from The Artful Parent
• Homemade Bubbles from RedTedArt - a summertime favorite! 
• Sand Clay - we used this at Book Buddies this summer.

The last resource to recommend is your kids! We try to plan activities that kids will find exciting and engaging, so we love hearing from them about what they are interested in!