Tag Archives: Spokane County Library

Sloan Reaches 500 Books In 2023

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The climatic end to our year of reading went like this…

At #499 it was “Harold and the Purple Crayon.” Then, clinching the milestone at #500, was “The Best Seat in First Grade,” a book that was totally appropriate since a first grader herself was the one who read it.

Sloan holds book #499 and book #500 for 2023.

And with that (the 2023 season… 😂), Sloan Reser had reached the coveted 500-book mark for the second straight year. Thanks to another year of dutifully reading every night, her goal was once again achieved.

Call me a “soccer dad” but when she finished the last page of her 500th book, I made a production of clapping for her. I wanted to commend her for not only committing to something for an entire year but for sticking with an activity that is so beneficial and intellectually stimulating.

A lot of our books come from the Spokane County Libraries. This picture was taken earlier in the year at the old Spokane Valley County Library before it shut down and a new one opened down the street.

Reaching 500 books in 2023 was definitely different from 2022. This most recent time, her milestone was met with a healthy diet of non-fiction books, children chapter books, and more mature-themed picture books. And the biggest change of all? Sloan read many of them herself!

But reaching 500 books in 2023 was also similar to 2022 in some ways, too. We continued to do the bulk of our reading during our infamous Book and Prayers routine. This comes right before bed when we are all relaxed and dialed in. The supply of our books was also fed similarly to 2022—bi-weekly visits to our great Spokane County Libraries. During these trips to the library we continue to check out around 25 books and still occasionally bring home a book or two that we have already read before.

Sloan reads a book at the brand new Spokane Valley County Library during the summer.

Prioritizing reading for Sloan has resulted in her becoming quite proficient at the skill. She is a vivacious reader who has now made it impossible for Sid and I to secretly communicate via note or text. Does she still have a long way to go with her reading? You bet. Sometimes she will read words out of order or she will lose interest mid-book but she is definitely on the right track.

Although we have made reading a big deal for our kids, we definitely can’t take all the credit. Helping Sloan reach her goal this year was the Silverwood Read 2 Ride program (read for 10 hours and get a free theme park pass) and the Spokane County Library summer reading program. Also, Sloan’s first grade teacher, Ms. Lunsford, is a fierce advocate for reading and challenges the students to rate the books they read. Sloan loves that!

We read several of her 500 books in the libraries themselves. Sloan read these two books in the North Spokane County Library.

As we have entered 2024, Sloan now has her eyes set on an even bigger goal. She wants to read 600 books! Her class made New Year’s resolutions last week and when I opened her folder I saw her target written on a piece of lined paper. Will it be challenging? Well, we barely reached 500 books these past two years. But is it possible? She thinks so!

Okay, I don’t really get the “Ms. Reser” business either but her resolution in an ambitious one.

For any parent who is reading this post and aspires to a similar goal, go for it! Reading can fit right into your nightly routine and the benefits—both from an educational and family bonding perspective—are immense. Happy reading in 2024! Don’t Blink.

Summer 2023

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We are more than halfway through September and Labor Day seems like a distant memory so please forgive me if I bring up an outdated word: Summer.

Ah yes, Summer 😎. Because things have been rather busy around the Reser household I neglected to recap Summer 2023 in a more timely manner. I hope you can forgive me. If I do have your pardon, I figured I would rewind the awesome summer the four of us had by listing 10 themes/events from the season. In no particular order (except maybe the first item), here we go…

New Home – At the very beginning of August, we moved into our new house. This major development was felt the entire summer as we packed up our old house during both June and July. After we moved all our belongings into our new abode, it took the rest of August (and beyond) to unpack.

This is our new home by D.R. Horton.

Godparents! – In the middle of June, Sidney and I became Godparents for the first time. We were honored and blessed when our good friends, Ryan and Allyson Andrade, asked us to be the godmother and godfather of their sweet little boy, Noble.

Sidney and I became godparents to Noble Andrade. Fr. Jeff Lewis of St. Mary Catholic Church in the Spokane Valley performed the baptism. Noble is the son of Ryan and Allyson Andrade (photo courtesy of Rachael and Josh Photography).

Hoopfest – A highlight of the summer was definitely competing in Hoopfest! I played on a St. Mary team that under the guidance of Fr. Jeff Lewis managed to make it to the championship game. It was a wonderful bonding experience with my teammates and we all appreciated the chance our children had to be part of it.

I felt like our team overachieved in a pretty competitive bracket. People in this photo include (from l-r) JJ Nazzaro, Amy Martin, Fr. Jeff Lewis, me, and Ryan Andrade.

Weddings – It was such a blessing to attend three weddings at St. Mary this summer. Two of the weddings were for couples that Sidney and I mentored through Pre-Cana. The other couple, Dylan and Fidela, are our friends and former neighbors from our Young Adult Catholic group.

We had the blessing of attending three beautiful weddings this summer.

Extended Fourth of July Weekend – With the Fourth of July on a Tuesday, it set up the opportunity to take a nice four-day weekend. During that time we had a picnic in Riverfront Park, went to the aquatic center, watched the debut of a friend’s band, saw big cats up close at Cat Tales, and more. Independence Day itself was a treat as we sipped gourmet sodas, enjoyed a cookout at my parents, and then watched fireworks with friends at Pavillion Park in Liberty Lake.

Sidney watches the fireworks at Pavillion Park in Liberty Lake on the Fourth of July.

Vacation – For vacation we headed to the west side of the state. We spent one night in Seattle where we watched a Mariners game and then spent several days in beautiful Seabrook. It was great to get up close and personal with the Pacific Ocean.

What a fantastic vacation it was. We took our photo at Seabrook’s signature oversized chair.

Summer Reading – All the fun we had outdoors didn’t stop us from hitting the books. Sloan and Beau participated in the Spokane County Library’s summer reading program. They logged nearly 20 hours of reading over the summer and although they didn’t win any of the drawings we sure read some memorable stories.

Sloan posing with a couple of the books we read this summer.

Fun in the Water – We didn’t meet a pool we didn’t like this summer. Scorching temperatures made the decision easy to cool off at both public and private swimming pools. Sloan is a little fish while Beau is still pretty anxious.

Just some of the pools that the kids swam in this summer.

Labor Day Getaway – We spent the traditional end-of-summer Labor Day weekend in Missoula. The kids enjoyed their first taste of Montana as they attended a Griz football game, ate Big Dipper ice cream, spent time downtown, and hiked The M.

Our family inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium prior to the University of Montana vs. Butler football game on September 2, 2023.

Pickleball – We picked up a new sport/activity this summer. Our new neighborhood has a pickleball court so we naturally purchased some paddles and balls. It has been fun to compete against Sidney while also watching Sloan pick up the game.

Sloan loves pickleball already!

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It was a memorable summer for sure! Thanks to everyone who played a role in making it so much fun, especially my wife and children. Although it is always sad to see summer go, it is hard to dwell on it when your autumn is already off to a busy and exciting start. Don’t Blink.

Sloan’s 500 Book Achievement

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As I browsed social media on Dec. 30 and Dec. 31, the popular topic seemed to be how many books a given person read in 2022. Granted, most of these were quantities of adults. To break through the noise a bit, I decided to share the number of books Sloan read during the year via a tweet…

The tweet I sent out on Sloan’s behalf after reading her 500th book.

After reading a little more than 400 books in 2021, Sloan topped the previous year’s mark by reading 500 books in 2022. The milestone book came on the afternoon of Dec. 31 as we read What If You Had Animal Teeth?, a creative work about different animal teeth and how they would function if they grew inside a human child’s mouth.

On Dec, 31, 2022, we read the above three final books–#498, #499, and #500–of the year. The 500th book was “What If You Had Animal Teeth?”

At the conclusion of the book, we had a little celebration as we recognized Sloan for her commitment to reading over the course of the year. In a ceremonial act, Sloan added a string of emojis at the bottom of the 2022 book log we kept on my Notes app.

A screenshot of the final four days of our 2022 reading log.

Similarly to Sloan’s reading output in 2021, her success in 2022 was consistency. Every night, with the exception for some weekend evenings, we would read 1-3 books as part of our Books and Prayers bedtime routine. Her reading supply came from numerous trips to Spokane County libraries. Every two weeks, we would visit a branch—Spokane Valley, Argonne, and North Spokane were our favorites—and check out 20-25 books per visit.

Sloan poses with “Gilbert the Gnome” during her last visit to the Spokane Valley County Library in 2022.

Because of the quantity of books we read the past two years, a new issue reared its head in 2022. As we would sit down for our nightly Books and Prayers routine, we would look at the covers of the book(s) we were about to read and sometimes say, “Hey, haven’t we read this book before?” I would then search the book’s title in my log, and, from time to time, would discover that we had read that book 18 months ago. It’s okay, I think we still have many books to go before we read the entire library. 😊

In 2022, we started to inadvertently check out some of the books we had already read in the past.

Like 2021, many of the books we read in 2022 resonated with Sid and I. In the same way that the brains behind “Bluey,” make episodes with underlying adult themes, many children’s authors are just as savvy. Thus, for those of you thinking from a parents’ perspective that reading 500 children’s books must be really boring…it actually isn’t.

Sidney and I never tired of reading books to Sloan and Beau in 2022.

Then again, it wasn’t like it was just Sid and I reading those 500 books. Over the course of the year, both sets of Sloan’s grandparents joined in our Books and Prayers routine by serving as guest readers. Some of Sloan’s aunts and her Uncle Glen also assumed the honor. But it just wasn’t adults reading the books. By the time Sloan reached Kindergarten this fall, she started reading some of the books too! It has been exhilarating seeing the progress she has made. In addition to the excellent teaching she receives at school, I like to think the emphasis we have placed on books might have also contributed to her developing reading skills.

Carrots anyone? Sloan holding one of the 500 books she read in 2022.

Just like last year, I think the best part about Sloan’s reading prowess is the universal themes she has picked up on. By reading 500 books, we have learned a lot about love, death, family, honesty, self-care, friendship, hard work, preparation, sharing, diversity, and much more.

The books we read in 2022 dealt with countless different themes.

Looking ahead to 2023, we hope to introduce more books that go beyond picture books. If anyone has suggestions, please shoot them our way. Thanks to our Spokane County Library system for being such an awesome resource for our family! Don’t Blink.

A Library Hack

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Our family makes bi-weekly visits to our local county libraries to check out 20-30 books at a time. Since pandemic restrictions eased and they re-opened about 18 months ago, we have followed this routine pretty stringently. But we don’t visit the library simply to borrow copious amounts of books. We also visit to print documents, attend story time, and select STEM kits to bring home.

Feeling comfortable surrounded by books at the Spokane Valley Library.

However, tonight I am here to offer an additional resource the library has available. In fact, what I am about to tell you goes beyond just a “resource” – it is a hack.

Believe it or not, there is a good chance that your local library has passes to educational and cultural centers in its circulation. And no, these passes aren’t for the library employees…they are for YOU (and, well, me too 😊).

The Spokane Valley Library is kind of like a second home for us. It offers so much more than just books.

I know firsthand. This past Sunday, Sloan and I went to Mobius Discovery Center (aka the Spokane children’s museum) on an outing covered completely by the Spokane County Library System. We checked out the Mobius family pass that provided free admission for a family of four, equating to a $40 value. I didn’t even need to step foot in the library to secure the pass. I simply went to the library’s website, selected the item, submitted my library card number, and was sent a bar code.

The Mobius Discovery Center is so freaking cool. It is full of countless many educational activities that will keep your children occupied for at the very least a couple of hours.

Mobius Discover Center is a children’s museum in downtown Spokane.

A few of Sloan’s favorite activities included using the excavator…

Being able to control a mini (but functional) excavator was a thrill for Sloan.

Blowing enormous bubbles…

Mobius has a bubble contraption that allows you to produce a large sheet of bubble solution.

Dressing up as an astronaut…

Sloan loved jumping into the space suit.

And doing all the various arts and crafts stations, including the construction of a “silly frog” hat…

Sloan gravitated toward the arts and crafts stations at Mobius Discovery Center.

We were given an afternoon of entertainment in an air-conditioned state-of-the-art children’s museum simply because we had a library card.

Speaking of library cards, this is my ancient library card issued to me as a little kid. If you look on the back, you will see my name. I only wrote the first letter of my name before my mom completed the rest of it because of my awful toddler penmanship.

I strongly recommend that you reach out to your local library to see what community entertainment options it might have in its possession. During these hot days, it might just be the answer to making some special (and affordable) summer memories. Don’t Blink.