Family Day is a day of workshops, music, activities, and refreshments just for kids ages 0 to 13 and their parents and guardians. It’s free and open to the public, and is a great way to engage with your child through reading, writing, play, and dance.

Family Day begins with a set of hour-long creative writing workshops. We offer four age-appropriate workshops simultaneously, serving children aged 0 through 13. Parents may self-select the workshop that works best for their child (see descriptions of our four age-appropriate workshops below). Workshops are designed to be fun and playful. This isn't school (yeah!), but you may notice an increased facility and interest in reading and writing when your child attends. Family Day workshops are designed to for parents and children to do together, and can provide a new, rich way for you and your child to interact. Arrive a little before 10:00 a.m., when workshops start, to register! After the workshops, we offer a breakfast concert featuring healthy food, coffee, and live local music that can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. Drop-in writing activities, games, and typewriters are scattered throughout the library and available for use until the library closes.

A typical schedule for the day is as follows:

• Sign in from 9:45 to 10:00 a.m.
• Writing workshops from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.
• Breakfast concert from 11:00 a.m to 12:00 noon.
• Activity stations throughout the library from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

FAMILY DAY WRITING WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

• Sing-a-Long (for children ages 0 to 3): Local musician and educator Gabrielle Pietrangelo teams up with creative writing UA students to lead this fun and heartwarming sing-a-long story time.
• Ready to Read Poetry (for children ages 4 to 6): Participants in this workshop write collaborative poems and stories while practicing letter recognition, rhyming, and a variety of literary elements like onomatopoeia, metaphor, simile, and others.
• Creative Writing Workshop (ages 7 to 10): Participants in this workshop write both independently and collaboratively and read classic poems and stories as a means to inspire their own writing process. Workshop leaders guide participants through a series of playful, fun, and interesting explorations of language that emphasize the stages of the writing process. Participants leave with an original story or poem.
• Creative Writing Workshop (ages 11 to 13): This workshop is similar to the 7 to 10 age group, but the texts we investigate are more complicated. Standard literary elements such as metaphor, simile, symbolism, and hyperbole are explored in addition to more complex concepts such as paradox and allusion. Additionally, participants may spend time exploring the more performative nature of poetry. All participants leave with an original story or poem.