5 Reasons for Storytime Breaks

I am currently almost a week into a two week break from storytime (and other children's programming), which has made me consider some of the reasons why Children's Librarians build breaks into their storytime schedules. I've come up with five, but would love to hear any other suggestions you may have. As wonderful and important as storytime is, here is why breaks in the schedule are necessary. These are just some of the answers to the question:

1. Weeks without storytime allow staff time to work on other projects: As the only Children's Librarian at my library, I think this is a big one. During storytime breaks I have time to plan programming for other age groups. I can go through areas of my collection to see what is out of date, or write a proposal for a grant I've been meaning to write.
2. Breaks in the schedule provide time to plan additional storytimes: Right now I am planning my summer storytimes.The storytime break is allowing me to stay on top of plans for future storytimes.
3. Storytime breaks give families that attend storytimes an opportunity to participate in other activities. There are so many activities out there for kids that some are bound to conflict with storytime. Breaks give families a chance to do something different during that time frame.
   
4. Provides an opportunity to offer non-storytime programming. During storytime breaks you can offer other programs for preschoolers. I've used these breaks to have outside presenters come in or do other special programming.
   
5. Storytime breaks accommodate for weeks of predictable low storytime attendance. Most librarians build storytime breaks around weeks where there would be very few children attending storytime anyways. For instance, the last few weeks in August where everyone is fitting in that one last vacation before summer ends.

I'd love to hear any great ideas you may have for storytime scheduling or the importance of including programming breaks.