News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Putnam County Library has launched a new program encouraging parents to regularly read aloud to their children.
The initiative is called “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten.” Putnam County Library Children’s Services Director Carol Teeters said the program provides reading logs to parents with kids aged 5 years or younger.
“We know that reading aloud to your child is one of the biggest key predictors in children’s success in school,” Teeters said. “And so we certainly wanted to set children up for success and we want them to have those early literacy experiences that we think are so valuable.”
The average length of a children’s book is 32 pages. Teeters said 1,000 books is a reasonable goal before a child begins kindergarten.
“Children gain a lot from listening vocabulary,” Teeters said. “Studies show that if you regularly read out loud to your children that when they go to school their vocabulary can be anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 words larger than a child who has not been read to.”
Teeters said that reading to children should be part of a daily routine.
“People should be reading to their children every single day,” Teeters said. “At least one book per day, and so with this 1,000 books before kindergarten, if you read one book per night to your child you can finish in about 3 years. If you read three books a night to your child you can finish within a year, so the more you read though the better off they are and it is never ever too early to start reading out loud to your children.”
The reading log program will begin on August 1st. If interested in participating in the program, contact the Putnam County Library. Once the parent and child read 100 books they can exchange the reading log for a prize.
