Parents entering most restaurants in Parsons may have noticed baskets of children’s books now available for them to take to their table to allow for family reading time while they wait for their meal to arrive.
The “Reading While You Wait” project is sponsored by Lincoln Elementary School and Sparkwheel.
Lincoln kindergarten teacher Michaela Anderson said she acquired the idea while she and her family were on vacation in Lake City, Colorado.
“We ate breakfast at this little, small town restaurant that had a whole bucket of books and learning toys for kids to go and take to tables,” she said. “As a mom of two littles, I loved the idea. It quickly reminded me of the old Pizza Hut in my small town of Phillipsburg, Kansas that would have a whole shelf of books to read while you were waiting. I used to love looking at the iSpy books with my grandpa, so I thought how awesome would it be to bring that tradition of reading in restaurants back to life. Less screen time, more conversations.”
She brought the idea back to her Lincoln School family. They jumped at the idea of promoting literacy and family time while they are waiting on their meals rather than being on screens.
Staff began collecting used books and got some baskets.
In a recent conversation, First grade teacher Tiffany Hicks happened to mention to Lincoln Spark Wheel coordinator Tanner Smith what they were planning..
“It’s something they had been wanting to do for awhile, but you know teachers are busy with all kinds of stuff. They’ve got 20 kids in their rooms and they are wearing many hats, and that is the kind of thing Sparkwheel can do,” Smith said. “It’s a somewhat easy thing for me to be able to do.
“That’s what is kind of what is cool about Sparkwheel. There are so many things that the teachers are doing that they don’t need to do, but they love what they do and they do it even though it’s not necessarily their job. My job is to kind of help them with that.”
He volunteered to help the teachers finally deploy their idea. He mentioned it to Lincoln Principal Shelley Gardner, who jumped in to help by making up signs to hang with the baskets. School secretary Meagan Genton made up labels for the books.
“I just stuck the labels on the books and ran around to all the restaurants in town,” Smith said. “The reception was amazing in the community. Most restaurants were excited and thought it was a great idea. They talked about how many families come in with kids and how many they do see on a tablet or phone, so they thought it would be nice to be able to give them that other option.”
Most Parsons restaurants now have the baskets of books available near their front counter or register.
“If kids grab them and read them, then that’s awesome,” Smith said. “I told the restaurants that if people take a book and baskets run low, that’s alright. These are extra books and I will get more. I don’t care if somebody takes a book home to read. That’s awesome. I can always bring more books out. I gave them my card so they can call me if they run low.”
Smith said if he went out to a restaurant with his three-year-old, she probably wouldn’t let him read a book to her, but she would be happy to flip through the pages and comment on what she was seeing.
“Just for a kid to be able to sit and hear their parent read to them, or to spend time talking about a book, it’s just a bonding thing,” Smith said. “That’s probably the only time I would have to sit down with my family some nights, because we are always running around with basketball, cheer, choir, all these different things. It might be the only time we have to sit down together, is at the restaurant for an hour between this game and this concert.
“We hope the community enjoys it.”