Welcome to the Growing Strong Readers: 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program!
This free program encourages you to read 1,000 books with your child before he or she enters school. One of the best ways to encourage learning is to spend time sharing books every day. Reading together helps develop important pre-reading skills providing a solid foundation for school and learning success. Plus, sharing stories together is fun! It is easy to participate!
How “Growing Strong Readers: 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten” program works:
The program is designed for children through age 5 or before entering Kindergarten.
Sign up in the Children’s Room or in ReadSquared online. Once you have registered, stop by the Children's Desk to pick up a welcome bag.
Keep track online with ReadSquared. You can also print out a journal page with symbols that your child can color to keep track too. Journal pages can be downloaded from the guide. ReadSquared is available as an app or in your web browser.
Repetition is good, so you may record a favorite book more than once. A bag of books can be checked out at the library to get you started.
Each time you have finished reading 100 books, have your child come to the library to receive a prize.
After finishing 1000 Books, your child is finished with the program.
You may read books from anywhere: the library, from home, preschool, etc. You may also count books read at Storytime programs at the library.
Don’t be daunted! Just 3 books a day amounts to 1,095 books in 1 year, and this program is designed to give you time over a few years to meet your goal.
Please continue to read together. Visit the library often and discover the wonderful variety of books to check out and read together.
Our goal is to introduce a fun method for families and caregivers to read aloud to their children, promote pre-literacy so children enter school ready to learn, encourage regular library use and instill a love of reading!
