A new reading program from the Fort Frances Public Library and Technology Centre.
The ‘Thousand Books Before Kindergarten’ program encourages parents to read with their children at an early age.
The goal is to read 1,000 books to your newborns, infants, and toddlers before they reach kindergarten.
“It’s an innovative, yet fun approach to establishing strong early literacy skills,” says Samantha Manty, the Library’s Children’s Services Clerk. “It’s meant to help parents and caregivers give their young children the confidence necessary to become strong readers and successful in school and life.
Manty adds the library will reward those who reach certain milestones.
“It’s going to be a little bit more simplistic prizes from the books 1 to 500. Once you reached that 500 milestone, you’ll start getting a little bit bigger prizes,” says Manty.
Those reaching the 1,000 mark will be honoured with a final reward, a diploma and a place on the Readers’ Wall-of-Fame.
“The books don’t have to come from the library, although we love having people come in. And again, I love helping people pick out books. There is no rule that it has to be a book from the library can be books from your collection at home as well.”
Manty says if you read the same book to your child multiple times, each time counts as one toward the eventual goal.
“When you break it down, if you read one book a day to your child for three years, that’s 1,095 books. If you read three books a day for one year, that’s the same number.”
You need to register at no cost with the library first. That is so staff can identify the number of prizes needed.
Log sheets to track your progress are available at the library or through its website www.ffpltc.ca/1000-books.
If you would like more information about the program, contact Miss Sam at 274-9879 or e-mail smanty@ffpltc.ca.
