Monday 21 January, 2008

Back to school

The holidays – where every day is a Saturday and beach adventures, ice creams and doing nothing in particular are the prime concerns of most – are coming to an end. School terms start over the next two weeks. Some will start school for the first time – others will move up a year, perhaps starting intermediate or high school, meaning lots of new faces, challenges and friends to be made in the weeks ahead. For some it means starting university or polytechnic studies – starting on a career path, and learning in a new environment, with new responsibilities.

If your child is starting school this year Christchurch City Libraries has a great resource to help you, full of links to websites and books for parents. Check out our Ready for Reading and Building Literacy Skills at Home pages, and let the library be your partner in your child’s learning.

Sending kids off to school with� a lunch that they will eat and enjoy can be a challenge, so we’ve created this resource to give you some new ideas.

Making sure children get to and from school safely is a paramount concern for parents, and the Christchurch City Council's Travel Smarter website promotes walking and cycling to school and has lots of good ideas for planning safe routes, walking school buses, walk to school days and more.

Keep the children occupied

Beat the “I’m bored” drone with some of the great events and activities at Christchurch City Libraries. Until February 3 the Summertime Reading Club is giving children aged up to 12 the chance to win some great prizes. All the young ones have to do is read six books and �return an easy form. If you’re still stuck for things to do, the Buskers Festival runs until January 27 with special events for kids. If you’re keen to explore, take a look at some of the different parks and play areas around the city.

Teens can win cellphones on pulse

Young people aged 13 to 18 can also win some fantastic prizes in the pulse digital photo competition. There’s two vodafone cellphones with $500 credit and three Telecom cellphones with $50 credit up for grabs – plus airtime vouchers as consolation prizes. Just send us a photo of your favourite place – where you went on holiday, a park, a beach – and go in the draw to win. It’s that easy!
Visit the pulse flickr to get ideas.

We recommend: back-to-school resources

Our online resources:

Study and learning
Starting school - including kura kaupapa, home schooling and special character schools
School lunches - ideas for
Key skills for primary, secondary and tertiary students as well as help with references, citations and bibliographies
Search tips for library users and resources for educators
localeye resources include school websites, with information os school uniform requirements, stationery supplies and so on.

Our Internet Gateway

Ministry of Education has developed the Team Up website to provide parents with information to find out how they can team up to help their kids with issues like homework, bullying, careers, what kids are learning and much more.
Other resources for children include:

Browse the resources in our libraries:

We recommend: Online resources

Our online resources: What’s new on the blog

The Christchurch City Libraries blog is written for people who love books, movies and music and want to know about the latest developments and trends in the book world. Regularly updated and constantly fresh, the blog has plenty to offer avid readers and music fans. Recent posts include:

What’s new on the library website?

Hone Tuwhare
Central Library floorplans have been updated after last year's rearrangement.
Sir Edmund Hillary

Keep up to date with our newsletters

You can find out about latest and hottest books automatically by subscribing to one of the many library newsletters. Browse the newest titles, follow your favourite genre or area of interest and even reserve them, all in one go. Sign up for free today.

Take a look at the popular culture newsletter. It covers music and film, sports and adventure, and all the other stuff that makes life interesting. Bi-monthly. This month featured books about Eric Clapton, The Beatles, Doris Day, Peggy Lee, Hunter S. Thomson to name a few.

Resource of the week: Sir Edmund Hillary page

When the news broke of Sir Edmund Hillary’s passing on January 11, the library web team quickly pulled together information on the news coverage and detailed resources about the life of this great New Zealander.

The page has many interesting links to websites from organisations all over the world that show the influence that this humble beekeeper had on the world.

Suggest a theme:

We want your feedback on our editions - feel free to suggest a theme that you think other library users would find useful.

Next week: Waitangi Day

Find out more about our national holiday, with a particular focus on Ōnuku Marae, where Te Tiriti O Waitangi was signed in Canterbury. The week after we'll take a look at study and research skills and how your library can help you achieve great results.