Monday, April 16, 2007

Have you heard about the 1000 book project?

The 1000 Book Project is offered through many elementary schools. Families participating in the Project borrow from a series of 100 tote bags each filled with 10 childrens' books. The goal of the Project is for each child to have listened to 1000 books by the start of first grade.

The idea behind this is simple. Imagine that you read one book to your child almost every day from birth on. To make it simple, if you read 300 books a year to your child for 5 years, that will be a total of 1500 books. Many parents do much more than that. I remember that my husband and I each read to our daughters on most days, and on some days it was several books. Just think of the advantage many children bring with them when they start school: they have been read to 1000 or more times, they have favorite books and authors, they know how to sit and turn the pages in a book...And think of the DISadvantage so many other children bring with them to school: What if a child who has never been read to, and has no books in his home, is sitting in a kindergarten classroom next to another child who has been read to daily at home. It is frightening to think of how far behind that child is already, and whether and how he might "catch up".

If you have children in elementary school or preschool or work in a school, it is worth thinking about how such a project could be started very inexpensively. It's my understanding that it does not involve 1000 different books, but only 1000 books. Repetition is valuable, even essential, for children, and even a small number of quality books would be fine. Books and bags could be donated or found inexpensively at yard sales, library sales, and other book sales.

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