The Canastota Public Library is joining hundreds of other libraries who offer the “1000 Books Before Kindergarten” Challenge! As parents, we all want to see our children succeed. A great way to do that is to read to your child. Studies have shown that reading to children activates the parts of a preschooler’s brain that helps them with mental imagery and understanding narrative—both of which are key for the development of language and literacy.
The concept is simple and the rewards of this challenge are priceless! Read a book (any book) to your newborn, infant or toddler. The goal is to read 1,000 books together before your little one begins kindergarten. If you read just one book a night to your child, at the end of the year, you will have read 365 books. That is 730 books read in two years and 1,095 books read in three years. Since children generally begin kindergarten at age 5, there is plenty of time to meet this challenge. Since this challenge is self-paced, you decided how often you will read together and what books you will read.
Reading together with your child helps to develop important pre-reading skills that provide a solid reading foundation which is a key to school and learning success. By reading together, you can create great memories for both of you as well as facilitating a great opportunity to bond in another way with your child. If you have more than one child who hasn’t entered kindergarten, consider reading as a family to meet the challenge!
All those who attend the Canastota Library’s Baby & Me Lapsit program and Storytime sessions will be able to pick up registration/ enrollment kits during the first week of the Summer Reading Program. Anyone else who is interested in the program can pick up their registration/enrollment kits at the Circulation Desk of the Library. The kits offer instructions, a reading log, book suggestions as well as tips for reading to your child.