Journey to 1,000 books: Journey complete!
Editor’s note: This is the sixth and final part in a series documenting one parent’s approach to 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten.
Part 1 can be found here
Part 2 can be found here
Part 3 can be found here
Part 4 can be found here
Part 5 can be found here
Holly’s 1,000th book was, coincidently, “Little Owl’s Night,” a book she received in her initial 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten kit at Elkhart General Hospital.
We also wrapped up our 1,000 books journey roughly a year after we started.
The perfectly circular nature of this journey may seem too convenient, but I assure you, reader, that this is how it happened.
Also, I should concede that it isn’t literally 1,000 books. It was 1,000 reading sessions.
We’re now up over 1,100 reading sessions with 215 books. That roughly calculates to reading each book about five times.
If you remember though, we only logged a book once per day, so I confidently say that many books we have read way, way more than five times.
Currently, Holly’s most-read book is “Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?” by Bill Martin. It’s been logged 35 times.
As for the time, I think anyone could do it in about the same time, a year. Holly loves books though, so reading three books before bed is our norm.
She’s at a point now where she wants to pick at least one or two of the books we read. When we started she was still too little to have strong opinions. Those were the days.
Documenting her journey, or at least being aware that I would be, made me pay closer attention to the development I saw.
Holly’s vocabulary is strong, she recognizes letters and numbers, can count to 10 and a little beyond and even tries reading herself. That mostly consists of her looking at a book she’s familiar with and trying to mimic the cadence and voices that my wife and I read the book in.
Again, I don’t chalk it all up to reading alone, but it no doubt plays a part. The best way to improve reading skills is by doing it.
If that part of the brain isn’t developed yet, the next best thing is to be read to.
The most difficult part of completing 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten was remembering to log the books.
Actually, the most difficult part was getting Holly to cooperate with having her picture taken along the way…
As for the book logging though, once I started, I couldn’t stop. I continue to log them, which works well with EPL’s Summer Reading Challenge going on. My kid may not be eligible for the prizes, but yours is.
Another aspect of Beanstack that I like is helping me track where we left off in longer books that couldn’t be finished in one sitting. I can log the last page read and then the next time I log it, it will show me where I left off. It’s great for story anthologies or, as Holly gets older, chapter books.
The journey to 1,000 books is another milestone crossed, but it’s one that I am confident has set Holly up for a lifelong journey of literacy, and hopefully, books and knowledge and curiosity. That’s all we want for our kids, right?
If you would like to start your 1,000 books journey, click here.