Tom Henihan
Express Staff
@SmokyRiverExprs
As it is never too early to read to a child, McLennan Library will offer the “1000 Books before Kindergarten” program beginning Wednesday December 7 at 1.30pm.
The 1000 Books before Kindergarten program is provided by the Nevada based 1000 Books Foundation, a public charity offering services exclusively for literary and educational purposes.
The objectives of this organization is to promote reading to very young children from infants up to five years of age and to establish a bond between parent and child through the practice of reading together.
Other Alberta municipal libraries to offer the 1000 Books program are Carstairs, Olds, Rockyford, Three Hills, Sylvan Lake and 3 public libraries in Red Deer. McLennan Municipal Library is the first library in the north to provide the program.
While a thousand books may sound daunting, the concept is simple and not particularly demanding. If one reads or re-reads a book a night with their child, it is easy to exceed the 1000 books objective in three years. That allows plenty of latitude considering that most children begin kindergarten around the age of five.
The 1000 Books program recommends using incentives to motivate the child, such as rewards to mark particular milestones. The program is not confined to print format; TumbleBooks, audiobooks and other formats also count.
The foundation also recommends keeping a journal of the process using a regular notebook, online or any method one might choose. The journal helps keep track of the books read and can also function as a souvenir of the time parent and child spent reading together.
For more information, call McLennan Municipal Library at (780) 324–3767.