Photo provided A story time event at the Bartholomew County Library.
The Bartholomew County Public Library and Viewpoint Books are partnering to encourage local families to read 1,000 books to their kids before they start elementary school.
Families can sign up for the Growing Readers program and receive their first reading log at the library’s Columbus branch, the Hope branch, Viewpoint Books, Bookmobile stops or Book Express stops. As of Oct. 24, 20 children were signed up, said Children’s Services Manager Lindsey Bailey.
According to Bailey, “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten” programs are popular in libraries across the country.
“The idea is we want children to read or hear 1,000 books before they start kindergarten because research has shown the more books they have read, the more vocabulary they’ll pick up, the more concepts they have background knowledge for,” she said. “It’s really just a huge, huge way to prepare them for kindergarten. And it’s also a wonderful way for them to build early literacy skills in general, to build that habit of reading together for the whole family.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics says, “Reading regularly with young children stimulates optimal patterns of brain development and strengthens parent-child relationships at a critical time in child development, which, in turn, builds language, literacy, and social-emotional skills that last a lifetime.”
Beth Stroh, owner of Viewpoint Books, noted that while 1,000 books before kindergarten sounds like a “pretty ambitious” goal, there are a number of ways to get there. For instance, a flier for the Growing Readers program notes that families can get to 1,095 by reading 1 book every day for 3 years or 3 books per day for 1 year. Another possibility is to read 10 books every week for 2 years, which would be a total of 1,040. However, these are just suggestions; families can set whatever pace they want.
“Every book counts, so include books your child hears at storytime, at preschool, recorded books, books you own at home, and storywalks,” organizers said. “If you read a book more than once, fill in a new circle for each time your child hears it.”
Stroh said that it also counts if a child looks at a book on their own.
“Even if they can’t use the words, they’re looking through the pictures, they’re mimicking reading the book,” she said. “So anything that they’re exposed to either by hearing or seeing it themselves will count. And there are easy ways to track that — because, like I said, it sounds really ambitious, but I know in my experience as a grandmother who is fortunate enough to have my granddaughters for sleepovers quite often, we can easily read five to 10 books in an evening.”
Participating families use reading logs to track their progress, with each log displaying 100 leaves to mark 100 books. Every time a log is finished, the family turns it in to one of the Growing Reader locations and receives a sticker and new log. Once a child has finished the program, they are given a voucher for a free book of their choice at Viewpoint.
“We are hoping, when we have more families and children signed up, to be able to do parties at certain milestones through the program,” Bailey said. “So maybe once a year doing a program that’s a party for all of the children who have completed 500 books by that point or that sort of thing.”
She added that the program is still new and “finding its shape.”
The idea for the Growing Readers program came from Children’s Programming Librarian Kate Grafelman, whose son participated in a similar initiative in Virginia.
“He definitely has a love of reading,” she said. “He just came home today to tell me he gets to do the ice cream party for meeting his AR goals, so he’s definitely a reading lover.”
However, she felt that the program had been presented in an “overwhelming” way, with parents receiving all of their logs at once. As a result, she sought to make the local version seem more manageable.
Bailey noted that Grafelman also ensured that “early literacy tips” are included on each reading log page to provide support for parents.
“It’s not just a log where you track everything you read,” said Bailey. “It’s also about support, built right in, which I think is wonderful. Because that’s something a lot of parents, especially newer parents — I don’t know that they always feel very empowered to play a role in their children’s early literacy development. … I guess people don’t always feel like it’s their expertise, right? But we want parents to know there is so much they can do to help their children become better readers.”
The library created the Growing Readers program and materials that go with it, and the Friends of Bartholomew County Public Library will help the library purchase books from Viewpoint for those who finish the program. Stroh, in turn, is able to offer discounts and a good selection of titles.
“Growing Readers is what we’re all about,” said Stroh. “So the name of the program says what we want to do. We want kids to be able to read and to read well — and to enjoy it, most of all.”
