The Perfect Saturday at the King County Library

We had a rare thing happen one Saturday recently; we had no sports games or swim meets or birthday parties to attend. A free Saturday! I almost didn’t know what to do with myself since typically our weekends are back to back busyness. I enjoyed my coffee in peace planning out what small chores I wanted to accomplish and was looking forward to a relaxing day.

I hear my ten-year old daughter making her way the short distance from her bedroom to our living room/kitchen area where I was parked on the couch.

“I’m bored. What are we doing today?”

“We are doing nothing!” I immediately reply. This response would be very well received by my 13-year-old. He was still sleeping in this moment and I knew it would be another couple of hours until he graced us with his presence to grab a bagel and likely make his way back to his room.

Stephanie was compensated for this blog from
King County Library System but all opinions and experiences are her own.

In true mom fashion I then rattle off things she could do such as clean her room. She didn’t like any of my ideas, of course.

After a while of having a lazy morning and watching my daughter pace around the house, I decided I would think of something for her to do. For some reason, I thought back to the toddler years when they were not busy with sports or friends or sleeping in. Those Saturdays could drag on and on if I didn’t have something planned. I then started thinking of things I used to do when my kids were little.

The library was one of the first things to pop into my head.

Not sure how my daughter would react, I threw it out there. “Wanna go to the library?” My daughter gave an immediate and excited “yes!”.

We are lucky to live in the King County Library System (KCLS) service area. Our KCLS library is only about a mile or two from our house.

We decided to invite our neighbors who are two and five because my daughter thought it would be fun to have younger kids join us. The mom, who is knee deep in those years of entertaining little ones, immediately said they would join.

The moment we walked in, I immediately asked myself why we didn’t come here more often. Particularly during the dreary months here in the Pacific Northwest, it is an ideal place to come to stay warm and dry, and not be pressured into spending money in order to keep your kids entertained.

Our KCLS library is super clean and we were greeted by two people as we entered. My daughter and neighbor kids immediately noticed a rack of DVDs and had so much fun going through all the kids’ movies talking about the ones they had seen. We then made our way over to a huge children’s area. It wasn’t just books on a shelf. There were lots of tables and comfy chairs to sit at. It was such an inviting atmosphere that gave the message to stay awhile versus find a book and get out.

The kids took some time to pick books they thought looked interesting. My daughter found some that she had read last year and decided she wanted to re-read. Our little neighbor boys of course were drawn to books with bright intriguing pictures and proudly went running to their mom with every new book they found.

We then discovered an area of computers and headphones where kids and parents can listen to books and play games. After listening to Clark the Shark, we wandered around looking for books about space because all the kids seemed very interested in that.

PC: Stephanie O’Farrell

My neighbor and I tried to remember the Dewey Decimal System to help keep things in order as the kids changed their minds from one book to another. Very nostalgic for me!

There are computers specific for internet use and my daughter was very interested when I offered to come back another day soon for her and I to do some research for one of her school projects. We have the internet at home, but there really is something to be said about being in an environment like a library where you just feel motivated to learn. I love that my daughter felt that too.

I was surprised at how long we stayed, and the kids would have stayed even longer. We had a huge pile of books to check out so we made our way to the self-check. My card had expired but I was immediately helped by a wonderful woman who got my card working again and talked to my daughter about some of the awesome books she had selected. My daughter loved using the self-scanner to check out her own books.

PC: Stephanie O’Farrell

My husband works at Puget Sound Energy, our local gas and electric utility company, and is a KCLS fan for work-related reasons that he is very passionate about. He informed me that KCLS made an incredible environmental commitment. They have purchased carbon offsets and renewable energy credits from local independent projects through Puget Sound Energy’s voluntary renewable energy programs that any residential or commercial customer can participate in.

If you are looking for an activity that is indoors, safe, free and great for all ages, check out your local KCLS library! If it has been a while since you have been, I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the variety of things you can do and how interested your kids will be.