Hip Hip Hooray! It's Cousins Day!

July 24, 2018 | Katherine McG

Summer is usually the time of year for family reunions and trips to see relatives who live far away. It's also often when cousins have the chance to spend more time together which is probably one of the reasons why we celebrate Cousins Day every July.

A cousin can be a fellow explorer, a reading buddy, a playmate, a mentor, a friend or all of those things wrapped up in one. They can also be a virtual stranger that a child is made to play with or asked to look after. Either way, caregivers might be looking for ways to bring cousins together and the Toronto Public Library offers many great ways to help to do just that.

A trip to your local library is a great family activity and perfect for kids (and teens and adults!) of all ages. There really is something for everyone, so each child should be able to find something to take home, whether they want to share it with their cousin or not. And since most children love to talk about their favourite books, series or characters, a cousin might end up being someone who provides a good book recommendation or sparks a debate as to what fictional universe is the best.

Browsing the library collections can be a great way for cousins to spend time together or a natural way for them to spend a little time apart. Each person can go to their favourite section, search for information on their selected subject or look for books at their reading level. Their caregivers can bring them back together by having everyone work together to choose something to read, watch, or listen to as a family. When all of the selected items are brought home, there will be an opportunity to foster shared reading time or encouraging quiet time for everyone to be alone with their chosen books.

Of course a trip to the library can be so much more than just a time to borrow books! Toronto Public Library offers programs for everyone and their cousin, including Summer Wonder programs for children ages 6-12 and their families and Ready for Reading programs for children 0 to 5 years old and their caregivers. Summer is a great time to wonder, create and discover and the library is a great place to start. And as my fellow blogger Luke wrote in a recent post, "Fun is meant to be had together! Encourage cousins, friends and neighbours to attend programs together to add an extra layer of excitement to your library visit."

Cousins can even join the TD Summer Reading Club together and each get their own FREE Notebook and Web Access Code Sticker. Being in the same club could mean engaging in friendly competitions as to who can read the most books or earn their "book reporting" stickers the fastest, having fun doing some of the "reading challenges" that are found in the notebooks, or entering their personal web access code and safely exploring all the cool stuff that the website has to offer, in both English and French. And since the TD Summer Reading Club is run in libraries all across Canada, even cousins who are physically far apart can share in the experience.

So let's celebrate cousins because...

...no matter how the visits might begin...