by Morinville News Staff
The Morinville Community Library is encouraging parents to read to their children at a young age with their 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program.
The program is an association with the 100 Books Before Kindergarten Foundation, an American organization that encourages parent/child bonding through reading.
“Anytime you read a book with your child, you are helping their education in the future,” said Morinville Library employee Ginger Blanchette, adding she began reading to her own children when they were still in the womb. “It’s really, really important. Children get book language. They get the patterns of how our language works. They’re able to predict better because they read or are read to at a young age. And for parents and kids together, there is nothing better than that warm time with a book.”
The program works 100 books at a time. It is as simple as colouring in a circle on the program sheet every time a book is read together. Once the sheet is full, the child gets a prize, and their photo goes on the 1000 Books reading tree with the number of books they have achieved.
Once 1000 books have been hit, the child gets to participate in a program graduation ceremony called The Big Read, which takes place North America wide in October.
See the video above for more details.
An ecxellent plan. I hope that the staff will take the time to extend the list to include Canadian authors.