1000 Books Before Kindergarten helps young kids build school-readiness skills

By Mary Ellen Braks, librarian Spokane County Library District

Reading to and with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers is beneficial for children and for their parents and caregivers.

During the early years in a child’s development, the brain develops most rapidly. Reading together builds vocabulary skills, reading comprehension, narrative skills, letter knowledge, and an enjoyment of books.

In addition, reading together encourages and establishes bonding between a child and adult, which also promotes healthy brain development. And yes, you can start reading to your newborn!

Spokane County Library District offers the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program to help you keep track of your reading and see your progress over time.

This reading program is for children from birth to five years old. And while reading 1000 books may seem daunting, when you read one book a day together, you’ll have met

Explore a world of cinema with Kanopy and your library card

By Erin Dodge

Current Guest Correspondent

Spokane County Library District has added the online resource Kanopy to its Digital Library. With Kanopy, you can view hundreds of movies, documentaries, foreign films, classic cinema, independent films, and short films.

Kanopy is a digital streaming service that provides an ad-free experience on your TV, mobile devices, and tablets as well as online in your browser. Viewing with Kanopy is instantaneous with no rental or borrowing time limit imposed.

Kanopy is available for no charge this reading goal in less than 3 years. You’ll also have helped your child and the children in your care build skills that will help them get ready for kindergarten and beyond. to in-district library card holders— those with library cards that have numbers starting with 209.

What’s great about this program is that you can read any book. And each time you re-read a favorite book, it counts toward your total. It also counts if a sibling, grandparent, or teacher reads to your child.

To get started, sign up for the Beanstack reading tracker at http:// scld.beanstack.org, and then select the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten challenge.

In Beanstack, you’ll earn badges as you make your way toward 1000 books. You’ll also find badges available for other activities to try that encourage language development. Once you’ve completed the reading challenge, you’ll get a certificate that celebrates your achievement of reading 1000 books.

To start viewing films and movies, you create an account with Kanopy using your library card information. You can get started in your browser at https://scld.kanopy.com, or you can download one of the apps for TVs and devices at www.scld.org/ apps.

Kanopy is easy to use, much like other movie streaming services. Once you create an account, you can save titles to your watchlist so you can view movies later and easily find movies you’ve started watching to continue at a later time.

You can browse different categories and genres that include documentaries and films based on true stories; world cinema; comedies, dramas, romance, thrillers, and horror; Oscar winners and nominees; family friendly movies and much more!

If finding 1000 books to read seems overwhelming, the library has you covered.

Stop by your library to browse our shelves of picture books in the children’s section, or stop by the service desk to ask for recommendations. You can also browse online, and place holds on titles in our sizeable collection of picture books at www.scld.org/ catalog-picture-books.

Another option for finding pictures books is to have our staff choose books for you using our Book Butler service at www.scld.org/ book-butler. When you submit the Book Butler form, you can include information about the types of topics and stories your child prefers (and those that have not been enjoyed) to get selections tailored to your child.

I wish you joyful adventures as you head on this reading journey with your little ones.

Titles are continuously being added. For example, in the “Newly Added Documentaries” category, you can watch “Daring Women Doctors: Physicians in the 19th Century” and “Lady You Shot Me: Life And Death Of Sam Cooke.”

The “Oscar Winners and Nominees” category includes classics such as “Howard’s End” and “On Golden Pond” as well as more recent films such as “A Man Called Ove” and “Corpus Christi” and short films including “Skin” and “The Crush.”

With Kanopy you can throw a watch party with friends, plan a date night at home, schedule a regular family film viewing, and access free movies over Wi-Fi and internet while on the go.

The library invites you to discover great cinema wherever you are!

Kanopy

Stream Popular Movies & Acclaimed Films to Explore a World of Cinema

Oscar winners & nominees

Documentaries & foreign films

Comedies & romance

Drama & thrillers www.scld.org/kanopy www.scld.org

Family friendly movies & much more!

Free with your library card.