The goal of the program is to help children succeed in school after the summer is over.
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Public Library is celebrating a successful summer reading program this year.
More than 20,000 students participated. Together, they read for more than 16 million minutes over the summer. That’s the equivalent of over 28 years.
The goal is to help children succeed in school once the summer is over.
“Our summer reading program is based on the number of minutes read during the summer,” says Devery North, specialist in school-aged children and family programming. “It’s all based on lots of different studies that show kids benefit a lot from reading for 20 minutes every day. Not only does it help them read more, but it helps them in school to retain information during school. school year and just be better.” students in general. »
The library has also partnered with the Indianapolis Colts to donate more than 5,000 books to foster children.
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“It’s really exciting that the kids are reading this summer and spending so much time reading, but it’s also really wonderful that these same kids have given back to other kids in the community to help them read as well,” said said North.
Now that the program is over, parents may be wondering how to keep their children reading.
“If your kids are diving during the school year and not reading, that’s okay,” North says. “They read a lot at school.
But if you want them to continue reading outside of school, she says, “20 minutes is really what it takes. You can schedule this into your family time – everyone sits down and reads for 20 minutes. Or you encourage everyone to have some quiet time to read. something by themselves. Or reading a book together is wonderful too. Audiobooks are also a good thing. Audiobooks are just as important as sitting down and reading a book or two.
If you’re looking for programs to continue encouraging your child to read, the Indianapolis Public Library has two that also work: 1000 Books Before Kindergarten encourages families to read 1000 books to children before they reach kindergarten . 100 Books Before Graduation encourages high school students to read 100 books before the end of their senior year.
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