Summer Learning Program
Imagine Your Story with Huntingdon Valley Library this summer!
Summer Learning Program
June 22-August 9, 2020
Sponsored by the Friends of Huntingdon Valley Library
Read books, participate in learning activities, win prizes, and share adventures as we imagine a new community story together.
How do I sign up and participate?
Register online using our new Beanstack site or the Beanstack app (search for Huntingdon Valley Library). Beanstack will allow you to:
- Register all readers under one family account (easiest if one main person or device will be logging the family’s reading)
OR adults can register children and teens for their own accounts (easiest if the child/teen has their own device and will be logging for themselves)
- Log reading time (you can even time your reading sessions through the app!)
- Log learning activities
- Earn badges & raffle tickets
- Submit raffle tickets for prizes
- Write book reviews & read reviews from your fellow HVL patrons
- Access book lists
- Share readers between accounts (good for multiple caregivers watching one child)
Watch our Beanstack sneak preview video to find out how to register and use the website (teen-specific video in the teen events paragraph below). To find out how to do things in the app, watch Beanstack’s general videos on how to view/participate in challenges, use the reading timer, log past reading, log activities, and log a book as completed.
Who can participate?
Anyone! This year, we have challenges for four different age groups.
- Emerging Readers – For babies-preschoolers
- Elementary – For youth entering grades K-5 in the fall
- Teens – For youth entering grades 6-12 in the fall
- Adults – For all those older than high school age
What counts toward your reading time?
Fiction, non-fiction, audiobooks, ebooks, graphic novels, magazines, . . . EVERYTHING! If you’re reading, it counts! For emerging readers not yet reading on their own, log the time that others are reading to them (listening to audiobooks also counts).
Are there still prizes?
Yes! Depending on the age group, prizes may include gift cards to local restaurants & businesses, individual STEAM prizes, and book prize packs. Pay attention to end dates for prize drawings. Smaller prizes will be drawn and swapped for other prizes throughout the summer. Larger prize raffles will be open all summer long and drawn at the end. Spread your tickets wisely!
What is the Million Minute Challenge? 
We have set a community goal of reading one million minutes during the 7-week program. This challenge also includes a healthy reading competition between age groups. Who will read the most—children, teens, or adults? Watch our social media all summer long to see how we’re doing on our goal and which team is in the lead!
Week 5: 185,300 minutes read
Are you still having events?
Yes! We have a full calendar of virtual events for this summer.
Children can participate in the Cardboard Kingdom Costume Contest and enjoy a virtual visit with the author; send their stories in to be read during our “Imagine Your Story Read by Your Librarians” podcasts; learn how to draw from our resident artist Kathleen; be a guest at a Mad Hatter Tea Party; test their children’s book knowledge at Family Trivia Night; engage with videos from ScienceTellers and Community Bollywood Dance Project; get artsy at our Crafternoons; Escape from Huntingdon Valley Library in an online escape room; be a detective with an At-Home Scavenger Hunt; and enjoy Storytimes for preschoolers/toddlers and babies. For a list of events with dates, visit our Youth Services-Children page.
Teens can virtually meet Jon McGoran, author of Sci-fi trilogy Spliced, Splintered, and new release, 
Spiked; create new art projects with our Grab-N-Go Kits and share their progress with peers at our DIY Teens virtual meet-ups; celebrate their fandom at a Hamilton release party, complete with Hamilton trivia, music, and a costume contest; solve the REDRUM in the Library online escape room; learn new games and play some favorites during regular virtual Game Knights meet-ups; follow the clues to crack the code of our Outdoor Scavenger Hunt on the HVL grounds; and contribute to the HVL Teen QuaranZine and attend the end-of-summer ‘Zine Publishing Party. For a list of events with dates, visit our Youth Services-Teen page. And if you’d like a sneak peak of Beanstack, some activity badges, and the teen prizes, check out this preview video.
We are so excited to begin this new chapter of Summer Learning with you, as we Imagine Our (Virtual) Story together!
The Summer Learning Program is sponsored by the Friends of Huntingdon Valley Library, Lee’s Hoagie House of Southampton, The Men & Boys Store, and Sushiman.