Piles of Books

1,000 Books Before Kindergarten

My children are participating the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program through the Ossining Public Library, in which they will aim to read 1,000 books bore kindergarten.

What Is the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Project?

According to OPL:

The 1,000 Books Project is a fun and easy way to establish strong early literacy skills. Early literacy is what children know about reading and writing before they actually learn to read and write. Reading with your little ones every day and teaching them about the world around them are practices that help prepare children to learn to read later on. You can start at birth! If you read just one book a night, you will have read about 365 books in a year. That is 730 books in two years and 1,095 books in three years.

I wouldn’t be surprised if my children have that many books already in their personal libraries! Instead of a baby shower registry before they were born, I did a “Build Baby’s First Library” registry, and we further expanded it through library book sales, tag sales, and eBay bundles. While my infant doesn’t quite get it yet, we make sure to read out loud to him. My toddler always has her nose stuck in books. Her favorites include Richard Scarry, Little Golden Books, Ladybird Books, the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, and Mo Willems’ Pigeon series.

Luckily, the program is still running despite the COVID-19 lockdown. When both of them read the requisite 1,000 books, they’ll receive a certificate and their photo on OPL’s Wall of Fame in the Children’s Room.

Our additional goal: Read 1,000 unique books, even if the rules allow you to read them over.

Books We’ve Read

25%

  • Books 501-550
  • Books 551-600
  • Books 601-650
  • Books 651-700
  • Books 701-750
  • Books 751-800
  • Books 801-850
  • Books 851-900
  • Books 901-950
  • Books 951-1,000