To ensure that children have a safe, productive and fun library visit:

• Parents/guardians/caregivers, not library staff, are responsible for the safety and behavior of their children at all times while using the library.
• Children 12 years of age and younger should not be left unattended in any area of the library.
• At the discretion of a parent/guardian/caregiver, children older than 12 may use the library, unaccompanied, for a reasonable period of time. Library appropriate behavior is expected.

From High Plains Library District Policy Documents-2011 Update

Click below to get the most up-to-date storytime schedule for your favorite library.

Summer Storytime Session
June 3-July 28, 2012

The High Plains Library District has great resources to help you with those tough subjects that come up as you raise your children. Click on the links below to see a brochure that will guide you to books and DVDs that will help.

Toilet Training
Bullies and Bullying
Grieving and Loss
How Was I Born?

Parenting is a tough job and sometimes it's a relief to know that there are moms and dads going through the exact same thing you are. Check out the links below and share tips and tricks with other parents.

BabyCenter
This site is full of information for every stage in your child's life as well as for you and your grown-up life.

Parenting.com
Everything you wanted to know about parenting from pregnancy to baby names to celebrity mom tatoos and so much more!

Parenting.org
Your go-to source for parenting help.

Parenting: Medline Plus
Great parenting resources for raising happy, healthy kids.

Wonderopolis
Visit Wonderopolis.™ It’s a place where parents seek and nurture a brighter world for their children through the power of discovery, creativity, learning and imagination. Wonderopolis™ is brought to life by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL).

Everloop
Is your tween looking for a social network sight that is fun and safe? Everloop is an online social homebase for kids under 13. It's a free place where kids can connect with their friends, play games, share pictures, send messages, discover new talents, learn and have fun. This site has state-of-the-art privacy protection and monitoring technology to guard young users against bullying, bad language and inappropriate sharing of information.

What in the world is early literacy?! It seems like that term gets thrown around a lot. Well, here it is in a nutshell: Early literacy is what children know about reading and writing before they can actually read or write.

As parents and caretakers of these young ones, you have an essential role in early literacy because learning begins long before a child ever steps foot in a classroom. You can help your child learn important skills now that will set them on the right path to becoming good readers and writers. And the best news of all is that it's FUN!

Forget the flashcards and step away from the computer and the television. Instead, sit down together and play a game, laugh and sing songs, tell stories or take a walk outside and talk about all the wonderful things you see...birds, clouds, stop signs, grasshoppers! You'll have a grand time together and your child won't even know that you're getting them ready to learn to read and write.

Need some ideas? Click on the links below.

High Plains Library District Early Literacy Brochure

StoryBlocks
A Colorado website filled with early literacy songs and activities.

ELSIE-Early Literacy Storytime Idea Exchange
Hennepin County Library in Minnesota manages this database of titles sorted by literacy skills.

Get Ready to Read!
This website has lots of good information to help you get your child ready to read.

Family Education Network
Fifteen-minute reading activities put together by the National PTA. Browse the rest of the site for more reading tips.

Family Reading Partnership
"Creating a culture of literacy, one book at a time!"

International Children's Digital Library
This site offers free access to works from more than 42 countries. It is an online library that can be accessed for free in 11 languages. Read the books right on your computer! The ICDL Foundation's mission is "to prepare children for life in an ethnically and culturally diverse world by building the world's largest online multicultural repository of children's literature. We have set out to change the world, book by book, byte by byte."

Kids Need To Read
Kids Need to Read is a national nonprofit foundation that promotes childhood literacy and addresses the crisis in library funding that currently exists in the United States.

Reading Rockets
A marvelous site with resources on "Teaching kids to read and helping those who struggle."

ReadWriteThink
Your trusted reading and language arts resource--in & out of school.

TogetheRead
A great site with advice and tips to help you make reading a family affair.

Guys Read
Having problems finding the right book for that boy of yours? Guys Read is a web-based literacy program for boys. Their mission is to help boys become self-motivated, lifelong readers.

Have fun!

Click here to get all the details about getting you and your family their own library cards.

Links to schools in the High Plains Library District.

Elementary Schools.org provides a list of public elementary school and private elementary school data.

High-Schools.com is a resource of public and private U.S. high schools data.

U.S. Census Bureau-Education presents data primarily concerning formal education as a whole, at various levels, and for public and private schools. In addition, data are shown for charter schools, computer usage in schools, distance education, and adult education.

ColoradoSchoolGrades.com provides accessible, easy-to-understand information about Colorado school performance.