Reading. It’s just one of those things we are expected to know how to do. When I was young it was more the Kindergarten teacher’s job than the parents (at least where I grew up). My mom read to us all of the time which lead us memorizing books and essentially learning to read over time. I remember how excited Mrs. Walter (my kindergarten teacher) was when I showed up to class knowing how to read. Hey, one less kid for her to have to teach.
Fast forward to 2003. My daughter was a year away from kindergarten and we got the packet containing the information they wanted the kids to know before they arrived. Reading sight words, count to 30, know their letters and numbers. PERFECT! We were ahead of the game. She could definitely read a lot of words but wasn’t reading books by any means. Fast forward 14 years and I got a hold of the requirements for my son (who’s beginning Kindergarten in 2019). I thought they had given me the wrong list. Surely the list was for kids going into the 1st or 2nd grade. Nope. (^#$%^^!!!) Enter any expletive here.
The goals were lofty and involved counting to 100, simple addition, and beginning reading. They weren’t even listed as suggestions. I immediately called my mom and my grandmother (who taught elementary education for 30 years). My grandma reminded me of how quickly I picked up reading by being read to. We were definitely reading books every day, but some days it was 1 and some days it was 10. Most involved more lifting flaps than words.
At this point in time, we were already going to the library every Monday for a musical program called Wiggle Worms. I saw posters scattered throughout the children’s area for 1000 books before kindergarten. At first, the number seemed outrageous. Then I did the math and realized how many days there were until the first day of school and I realized how simple and great this program was. Sign me up!
The library offered a beautiful bag filled with fun things to excite the kids into participating. Each time a book was read by mom or dad they got a stamp for the book. Once they earned so many stamps they got a prize. This wonderful little program was teaching my son to love reading and how to set goals. I instantly fell in love with a wonderful series from Lisa Patricelli. I believe the first we read was Yummy, Yucky, then Quiet Loud, and of course Toot. They were adorable and simple and my son loved them. The chart mapped out how many books we needed to read daily, but we surpassed it often due to the re-reading of my son’s favorites. I would find him on the toilet “reading” them out loud as he had quickly memorized them.
One day we were headed to Target (duh) and he was recognizing words on the street signs. We have a store nearby named Cost Less and he pointed out how the first word had almost the same letters as Costco. I was floored and excited. Maybe this kindergarten check-list wasn’t going to be so bad after all.
We have another 14 months until Kindergarten starts and we will hit out 1000 books before Kindergarten goal early. It wasn’t nearly as daunting as I anticipated and it became so much fun searching the library racks for new books for the week. At first, I thought this program was something our library had come up with, but after researching I found these programs are everywhere. It’s just a simple and rewarding thing to do for these young minds. It teaches them more than just listening to mom or dad and looking at pictures. My son still gets excited to show up with his “map” of goals and get his weekly prize from the library and can’t wait to get the “big prize” at the end of this little journey.
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