Abbeville, La. - For many, the road to better reading starts at their local library. For two-year-old Blakley Edwards, reading is her passion.
Turning the page to a brighter future, Blakely has read 900 books and she’s not stopping anytime soon.
At an early age, Lauren Edwards, Blakely’s mother enrolled her in the Vermilion Parish Library 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Program.
“It’s fun to see her be excited to pick out a book or to pick books that she has come to prefer and read over and over again,” Lauren said.
The initiative is aimed at making reading fun at an early age.
“Children who are read to at an early age turn out much better education wise, their educational outcomes are much better. Reading to a child, talking to them, playing with them, helps them form neural pathways so that when they do start to learn to read they can figure out the code,” Vermilion Parish Library Director Charlotte Bourg said.
Lauren tells KATC she’s noticed how beneficial early literacy can be for little ones like Blakely.
“I’ve noticed she knows more about how to orient the book, like which way to hold it, and where to start from the beginning instead of maybe in the middle. She also remembers a lot about the stories that we read over and over again and can sometimes even fill in the blanks about words that are missing or what happens on the page just by looking at the picture and remembering the books that we read over and over again,” she said.
The concept is simple. If you read one book a night for three years, your child would have read about 1,095 books. For every 100 books, children will receive a certificate. Parents can enroll children in the free program at their local Vermilion Parish Library.
“It teaches them language goals, it teaches them about the world around them and gets them ready to become lifelong learners which is what we’re aiming for,”Director Charlotte said.
The program ends when the child reaches 1,000 books or starts kindergarten, but the gift of reading lasts a lifetime.
For more information on the different resources the Vermilion Parish Library offers, click here.
