1,000 Books Before Kindergarten

Research shows that the more children are read to, the more prepared they are to read. The challenge of this program is to read 1,000 books to your child before they start kindergarten. While there is no magic number of books that guarantees school success, the more books read before children enter kindergarten, the more prepared they are to learn to read. Any child from birth to age 5 who has not yet started Kindergarten is eligible to participate.

This program has several goals.

Ensure children enter Kindergarten ready to read
Encourage quality time spent reading as a family
Instill a lifelong love of reading in children

It may sound daunting, but this challenge is very doable! If you read 3 books to your child every day for one year that’s 1,095 books! Or if you read 1 book a night for 3 years you’ll still hit that 1,095. It’s not just the books you read aloud either. Attending story time, reading an e-book, listening to an audio book or Wonderbook counts as long as the whole story is read. And yes, multiple readings of the same book count multiple times!

Keep track of how many books you read on the log included in the registration folder. Your child earns prizes at milestones along the way too:

250- book
500- stamper (try using this to keep track of the books read!)
750- bubbles
1000- backpack with book, goodies and certificate

While this program does not require you to keep track of the names and authors of the books, some families may enjoy doing so to keep track of favorites.

Older siblings already in school can participate by reading to their younger siblings. To keep track, have them initial the circle on the log when they read a book aloud. Once they read 25 books, siblings get their own prize!

Stop by the library to register and get started toward you 1,000 books! This is a multi-year program, and registration is ongoing. If you have any questions or need a book recommendation, please don’t hesitate to ask
Ms. Jessica or Ms. Bella.

You can call the library at (860) 582-3121 or email at tplchild@biblio.org