A Library card is the start of a lifelong adventure!
Lilian Jackson Braun
September is Library card sign-up month. This is a national campaign to emphasize the importance of library cards to a child’s education and to combat illiteracy. Research proves that regular access to booksmakes you a better reader. Where better to go to access books than your local Library? Research also proves that children who attend the library regularly, read better than their peers. Children who attend preschool story hour at libraries enter school with greater pre-reading skills needed to succeed in school than their peers that didn’t visit the library regularly. Through early interactions with books, children begin to develop interest, motivation, and appreciation of reading. The South Dakota State Libraryhas created theFirst Library Card brochure to encourage families to sign their child up for a library card. Black Hills Reads has included these brochures in Baby's First Book bags that are distributed throughout the Black Hills area. The brochures are also being distributed to families by the South Dakota Department of Healthand South Dakota Head Start Collaboration Office.
The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.
– Albert Einstein
Discover the many books and programs at your local library and share the joy of reading with your children from the time they are babies. Young children don't need to know how to read to enjoy going to the library- especially if it's a children's library, which is designed to engage their growing minds. The following article gives great tips to make visiting the library with a young child a joyful experience.
South Dakota State Library has acquired READsquared a software program that allows South Dakota public libraries to manage their reading programs online. The program makes it easy and fun for you to sign up from home, track reading goals and collect incentives. READsquared is available year-round and can be used to register for book clubs, fall/winter reading programs and 1000 Books before Kindergarten. Check to see if your local library is using READsquared and how you can sign up today.
For lesson plan ideas around books that families receive from the Imagination Library go toBlack Hills Reads Resources. Each Book Stop features information about the book, discussion ideas and activities.
