I’m sure you spend a lot of time reading books with your littles- perhaps the same book several times more than you would like to. Have you ever thought about how many books you will read to your child between birth and the time they go to kindergarten? 100? 500? 1,000? One thousand may seem like a big number, but its completely feasible for you to read that many books with your little (and probably more!) before they start kindergarten. Want to log those books for fun prizes, extra storytimes, and incentives for parents? Well you’ve come to the right place! Its time to join our 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten reading challenge!
Lets talk about what being in 1KB4K (1000 Books Before Kindergarten) looks like for you at home. You will need to download the Beanstack app, and get an account set up for you and your little(s). You will be able to link multiple children to one adult account. Once your account is set up, and you have picked the Handley Library as your library, you will see the option to joining 1KB4K. The great news is that we use this app to log for all our reading challenges, so you will be ready for Summer reading early!
Once you are in the app, its fairly easy to use: you will click the green plus sign at the bottom of your screen, and choose “reading” to log books. You will have 3 choices for logging books: 1. Type in the title or author of the book 2. Scan the ISBN (which is a barcode on the back of the book, but NOT the library bar code!) 3. Log with out a title- which will allow you to select both the date, and the number of books read. As a busy parent to a 2 year old, I highly recommend choice number 3! Here is a screenshot of what the app looks like for this step.
But enough data logging- what do you GET for joining this program? Your little will receive prizes for signing up, reaching milestones every 50 books, reaching the halfway point, and finishing the challenge! During other reading programs, they will continue to receive 1KB4K prizes, in addition to prizes for any other challenges they may be in at the time. When you begin the program, your reader will get a frog, which will go on “the pond” at the back of the picture books shelves on our floor. As they read, they get to hop their frog along the windows for each milestone. Every month on the second Saturday of the month, we host our Frog Hoppers Party, which is a special storytime to celebrate our readers. We do a story, songs, and there is a frog themed prize for the littles! They get to “hop” their frog to the next milestone with the help of staff. And don’t worry grownups- we know you did most of the reading. We have prizes for you too- ice cream, pizza, and sandwich coupons- to thank you for supporting your readers and encouraging early literacy at home!
When your little frog finally reaches 1,000 books, they deserve a big celebration! Twice a year we host graduation- in April at Bowman Library and in September here at Handley. You are able to graduate from either location, we will send you an invite when you have finished the program, and you can join us for snacks, stories, and prizes to celebrate your reading journey- which we know has only just begun!
So “hoppy” reading little frogs, we can’t wait to see your progress soon!
For all the information on past, present, and future reading challenges, check this page often!