Happy Fall. I missed the last deadline due to attendance at a conference in Wichita, Kan. Did you know tarantulas migrate in the fall? That was a surprising discovery on the road to the conference.

We began a new program in September for families homeschooling their children. It is an opportunity for children and their families to create something and spend time together sharing information about the home-school experience. This group meets twice a month, the first and third Fridays at 10 a.m. We hope those in attendance can share information on curriculum, learning opportunities and get to know others in the community on the same journey. The next program will be Friday, Oct. 20.

We have a green craft event on the second Thursday. The program will be on Oct. 12 at 10 a.m. The group will be making dryer hose pumpkins. All materials are provided, and it takes about an hour.

We have a Math Club on Tuesday afternoons at 4 p.m. for children kindergarten to fifth grade.  It’s a chance to use math in different ways. Did you realize you use math when you are keeping score in a game? You can use math when drawing (think geometry and shapes), and it was used as an activity for talk like a pirate day in deciphering codes.

We continue to offer Toddler Story Time on Tuesdays at 9 a.m. for children 18 months to 3 years with their parent or caregiver. Children hear a story, have an activity and get the opportunity to learn to play together while the adults play with them, get to know each other and learn about opportunities in the community.

Preschool Story Time is on Wednesday mornings at 10 a.m. for children 3-5 years with their parent or caregiver. These children hear up to three stories and participate in an activity related to the stories. The activity could be a song, a craft or a game.

We are planning on being downtown for the annual downtown Trick or Treat event. Hope to see you there. We will be outside the Select Theater.

We are still accepting cash and check donations, but we are not yet able to accept physical items such as books or audio books. We are still working on the storage situation. When physical items are donated to the library, we check to see if we already have the item and which is in better condition. Then we check to see what will hold up to usage in the library and this is very different from usage in your own home. We check non-fiction items for relevance and current information because investment information changes overtime as does health information.

The Mineola Memorial Library is a 501(c)3, non-profit and your donation may be tax-deductible. We thank our anonymous donor and Lady Bug Jungle for their donation to the library from their tea and style show.