At this point, I would imagine many of you reading this have had a chance to check out a Grab-and-Grow kit from the Handley Youth Services Department. If you haven’t yet, hopefully after reading this post you will hurry to the second floor to check out your very own kit!
We launched this exciting new collection in early April, and since then we have been slowly adding even more kits. By next year, we hope to have a collection of 150 kits! But what are the kits? Click here to browse what’s available in our catalog right now. Each kit includes 3-4 books, and 1-2 toys or activities. The toys include musical puzzles, doctor kits, coding sets, magnatiles, baby dolls, and both Tonie boxes and Yoto players. The kits follow the themes 1000 Books before Kindergarten, My First Experiences, and Every Child Ready to Read. You are able to check out one kit at a time for 3 weeks, and when you return your kit, you are able to check out a new one immediately! Because these kits include more expensive items than books, we do ask you to sign an agreement before you take one home for the first time that just acknowledges how they are different from other items in our collection. The kits have toys in them for ages 0-8, and each kit will designate the age range of the particular kit on the tag. We set the ages based off the recommended ages on the toys as well as if the kit contains any choking hazards. These kits are part of our Grow a Reader brand, which was launched in March, and they go hand in hand with our Grow a Reader Playgroup, which you can read more about here.
Why make these kits? Many people have more toys at home than they know what to do with- why send home more toys to get lost in the fray? As many of us know, the toys can really pile up; we spend money on a toy our little simply must have, only to have them lose interest in it a few weeks later. But what if when they got tired of the toy, you could just pack it up and send it back to the library and check out a new toy? No money spent on new toys, and no unused toys piling up in your basement? Being able to try out a new toy with no strings attached from the library is also a great way to find out if your little is ready for a Tonie Box, Yoto Player, or a coding set, without needing to commit to purchasing one! As many of you know, I have a 2 year old at home, and we have been taking full advantage of these wonderful kits! We have loved the kits with play food: Pizza Shop, Sandwich Shop, and Favorite Foods. We also enjoyed the airplane kit- it helped get us excited for a plane trip over the summer! Lately we’ve been enjoying the Tonie Boxes and Yoto Players. There are still so many kits we have yet to check out, and we’re excited by all the possibilities as our little one gets older and continues to grow at the Library.
Note: You can not put these kits on hold, so they are first come first served. We have a limited amount right now, so if there are not any on the shelves now that you want, check back soon for more options. We are continually adding to this collection! We know that you will love this collection: its fun, its sustainable, and it promotes so much reading at home!