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Whether it's getting them to eat their vegetables or understanding what's going on inside their heads, being a caregiver of littles can be challenging. Each month's caregiver workshop explores a different topic to support and enrich relationships between kids age birth to 6 and their caregivers.

• September: Resiliency and Self-Care for caregivers with Johnson County Mental Health
• October: Your Preschooler's Big Feelings and understanding them with Johnson County Mental Health
• November: Food Play with kids cookbook author and blogger Amy Palanjian
• December: Decoding Strategies for practicing early literacy with Dr. Marnie Ginsberg founder of Reading Simplified

This week at the Library, you can join us for:

Walk and Read – Daily, All Week

“Take a walk and read a book.” Not normally sound advice, but that is exactly what Johnson County Library is suggesting families do this week at Veterans Memorial Park, Pawnee Lane, Gardner, KS) and at various locations throughout Johnson County. Walk and Read creates a family reading experience in the great outdoors! Families who participate will read two stories posted around the path, one going each direction. When you finish one story, you can flip around to the other side of the sign and begin the next story, which will lead you back around the path. 

Rethinking Aging with Janine Vanderburg – Tuesday, Sept 28, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.  

Janine Vanderburg, Initiative Director at Changing the Narrative, is a driving force in changing the way people think, talk and act about aging and ageism. In this lecture, Janine will share her experiences and commitment to leveraging the talents of people of all ages to benefit community. Janine currently chairs the Encore Network Leadership Council. Her favorite saying: “We are the leaders we are looking for.”

Moving is Learning for Babies and Toddlers – Thursday, Sept 30, 1 – 1:45 p.m.

A moving baby is a learning baby. Grounded in best practices and current research, this session helps connect the dots that link brain activity, motor and sensory development, movement, and early learning. Movement experts from Johnson County Parks & Recreation District will lead 45 minutes of activities, exercises and games at Stoll Memorial Park, 12500 W 119th St, Overland Park. Best for ages 1-3 and a caregiver.

Build Your Resilience Circle with Elizabeth White – Saturday, Oct 2, 9 – 10 a.m.

In this workshop, Elizabeth White will lead participants through questions to help identify trustworthy community members with whom to form Resilience Circles. Participants will walk away with the tools to form their own Resilience Circle support groups, where members can support each other and discuss issues related to aging and living a good life on a limited income. Before attending the workshop, we recommend watching "55, Underemployed, and Faking Normal with Elizabeth White" in Library OnDemand or reading the book.

And much more …

Nate Hofer, whose photographic work is currently on display at Lenexa City Center Library until Friday, December 31, 2021, has been named a Winner of the Global Peace Photo Award –  Alfred Fried Peace Medal. His series, "One and a Half Acres: Images from America’s Decommissioned Minuteman Missile Silos," utilizes aerial photography to explore his fears and hopes for the future of the world.

The Global Peace Photo Award recognizes and promotes photographers from all over the world whose pictures capture human efforts towards a peaceful world and the quest for beauty and goodness in our lives. The award goes to those photographs that best express the idea that our future lies in peaceful coexistence. Nate is a design director for a creative digital agency and grew up locally during the Cold War era. His work is inspired by his experiences as a child and by more recent international relations.

Our new drop-in program, The Genealogist is In, is held at branch libraries across Johnson County. A Johnson County Genealogy Society member will be available to meet with members of the public who drop in and ask genealogy questions, obtain information on how to get started, learn about genealogy databases on library computers and what will be available at Central Resource Library when it reopens.

Save these dates:

11:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021, Gardner Library

11:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021, Leawood Pioneer Library

Walk and Read – Daily, All Week

“Take a walk and read a book.” Not normally sound advice, but that is exactly what Johnson County Library is suggesting families do this week at Wassmer Park, 6700 Roe Ave, Prairie Village, KS) and at various locations throughout Johnson County. Walk and Read creates a family reading experience in the great outdoors! Families who participate will read two stories posted around the path, one going each direction. When you finish one story, you can flip around to the other side of the sign and begin the next story, which will lead you back around the path. 

Danger & Refuge: A Reading & Conversation, Meg Kearney with Wyatt Townley – Tuesday, Sept 21, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.  

The poems in Meg Kearney's and Wyatt Townley's most recent collections walk the line between danger and refuge, exploring the effects of violence, abandonment and loss. The collections do this while also finding solace, safety, acceptance and love in unexpected places. Meg and Wyatt will each read a sampling of poems from their books, and speak about the ways they have faced danger and found refuge in their art.

Moving is Learning for Preschoolers – Wednesday, Sept 15, 1 – 1:45 p.m.  

A moving child is a learning child. Grounded in best practices and current research, this session helps connect the dots that link brain activity, motor and sensory development, movement, and early learning. Movement experts from Johnson County Parks & Recreation District will lead 45 minutes of activities, exercises, and games this week at Big Bull Creek Park, 20425 Sunflower Rd., Edgerton.  Best for ages 3-6 and a caregiver.

Workshop: Finding Refuge in Form: The Sonnet & The Extended Metaphor – Saturday, Sept 25, 1 – 3 p.m.

This workshop puts the ideas from Meg Kearney’s September 21 craft talk into practice. Writers will spend the first hour exploring the power of the extended metaphor and create poems that express the otherwise inexpressible. In the second hour, we’ll talk about sonnets and what these “little songs” might lead us to sing. We’ll begin with a simple exercise to get participants thinking in fresh, concrete ways; read some sample poems; and then draft some new work.

And much more …