1000 Books Before Kindergarten

1000 Books

Families are invited to join the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program, a nationwide challenge that encourages parents and caregivers to regularly read aloud to their children. By reading just one book a night, families can reach the 1,000-book goal in three years and provide their children essential early literacy skills. Reading to children from an early age can help close the vocabulary gap and prepare children to enter kindergarten with the skills they need to succeed. Most importantly, sharing books with children promotes a lifelong love of books and reading.

How to Get Started 
The 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program is available to all families with children between the ages of birth and five years. You can sign up at any time.

1. Sign up with Beanstack:
To participate, download the Beanstack app or visit bellinghamma.beanstack.org and create an account. (If you participated in summer reading on Beanstack, you already have an account and do not need to make a new one. Just log in to the one you already have.) Once you create/log into your account, choose the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten challenge. 

2. Log your Reading: 
Keep track of all the books you and your child read together. This can be as simple as hash marks on a post it note or as sentimental as a list of titles in a keepsake notebook!  In the Beanstack app, you will have the opportunity to earn badges for milestones reached, from 1 book to 10 books to 50 books, and so on, all the way up to 1000 books!  Remember that even if your child wants to read the same book over and over again, you can count the book each time. You can also count books read at story time, daycare and preschool. 

That's all you have to do, so get reading! Please email Miss Melissa if you have any questions.