1000 Books Before Kindergarten
I’ll level with you. The number ONE THOUSAND seemed daunting at first. But, I was surprised how easily we crushed this goal not with one kid, but with both kids.
We love our local library. It’s a great way to kill a rainy afternoon, find new books, practice our whispering skills, and so on. One day while visiting our library, I saw a poster about the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program, now being offered at our library.
The way it works is you get a reading log for books 1-250. You fill it out, bring it back to the library, and you get a sticker and the chance to add your name to the poster to flex your literacy skills.
This program is a non-profit here in the United States and you do not need to go through your library. The program can be done in your home or you can find a program.
We decided to give it a go and see if we could do it. We read every night to our children anyway, might as well keep count, right?
What are the benefits of attempting to complete this program?
Reading together isn’t just about learning to read. Listening to you read helps your child learn a language and ways of using language.
It helps build empathy and learn to express feelings. Books are an easy conversation starter. So, while reading Green Eggs and Ham, you could ask, “Would you try that? How would you feel if someone kept asking, begging for you to eat green eggs?”
Starting a routine now builds exponentially on their future success. Reading for 20 minutes a day at home = hearing 1.8 million words per year. Fast forward these readers to 6th grade, and the data shows that they are likely to score better than 90% of their peers on standardized tests in school.
Last but not least, this provides family bonding time! Put the electronics away, get on the couch together, and set a timer for 20 minutes to read and talk through books. 20 minutes of uninterrupted time together will yield a wonderful bond with your child.
So, did we do it?
Yes! With both kids! And now, years later, we still read together for at least 20 minutes at night together. The kids read on their own and we read alongside them. So, while we aren’t reading to them anymore, the bond is still present as we end the day together, side by side, reading.
