Program Overview
The 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program is an exciting early literacy initiative created to foster a lifelong love of reading in children from birth to age five. Shared reading is one of the best ways to help babies, toddlers and preschoolers develop important early literacy skills. This program encourages parents and caregivers to read aloud 1,000 books with their child. And for every milestone that you and your child meet, you’ll be rewarded with fun prizes!
How to Participate
- Register for the program at the Youth Services Desk to receive your reading journal.
- Mark your reading log whenever you read a book with your child.
- Collect prizes from the Youth Services Desk when you reach milestones:
Frequently Asked Questions
Any child from birth until they enter kindergarten can participate in the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program.
If you read just one book a night, you will read 365 books in a year. In two years, the number will grow to 730. In the third year, you will surpass the goal at 1,095 books. If you consider that most children start kindergarten at age five or six, you have more time than you think, and it’s never too late to start.
Rereads of your child’s favorite book always count! Rereading favorite books is not just enjoyable for children, but helpful, too. Children learn through repetition . A study on language acquisition found that children pick up new vocabulary quicker from repeated readings of the same book than when they encounter the same words in different new texts (Horst, Parsons & Bryan, 2011). So, go ahead and reread that story over and over (and over!) again.
All of them, provided they have not yet started kindergarten. Make it even more fun and read as a family!
