1000 Books by Kindergarten

I see pictures online every once in awhile of kids proudly displaying a "1000 books before kindergarten" certificate, so I finally decided to look up what exactly it was (a benefit of having Facebook and Instagram off my phone for Lent, is that I'm finally looking up things I've been meaning to look up for years!!)

Our local library offers the program, so I can contact them and get officially signed up with the program (which I plan to do this week). But you can also essentially do it yourself. Everything needed is provided on the 1,000 books before Kindergarten website. They provide worksheets to write down every book, a handy dandy app that also has you track your books, a reading list of books everyone should read before kindergarten, and even a downloadable certificate for those who successfully complete the program.

I was a initially daunted by this - 1000 books before Kindergarten? We've read a lot of books through the years, but I had no idea how many - 100? 500? 1,000? I had no clue.

So I started a Goodreads account just for Natalie. I have now successfully inputted all 250 books both in our house, her grandparent's house that she's read, and those that we have taken out of the library as of late into her account. This way, I can keep track of all she's read, and she can too - she can scroll through, look at all the books she's read throughout her lifetime, and remember "Oh! I liked that book, can I read that again?" or "Can we take that out of the library again?" I'm really, really excited about this account for her, and I think this is something that she can maintain and keep up even as she enters adulthood. A record of every book she's ever read in her lifetime - pretty cool huh?

So 250 - that's where we were at. A lot, but a long way from 1,000!

But then I realized that according to the rules, it's just "read 1000 books" not "1000 different books" You can read the same book 500 times if you want to, as long as at the end of the day, you've read 1,000 times. We read Natalie 3 books a night (which had to be pared down to 3 at one point because we were reading so many a night to her, that it was getting out of hand). So for argument's sake, let's say we've read her 3 books a night for the past 3 years (though there were MANY nights and days that we read more) that's at LEAST 1,000 books a YEAR. Natalie has FAR surpassed what is required of this certificate. But how do I go back and remember what she's read every day prior to now?? Also, I don't want to just print this off, write her name on it, take a picture and say "WOW! look at this big accomplishment! Natalie has read 1000 times, yay! What a great achievement" because we really didn't do anything in particular to work toward that.

So then I thought - could I make the challenge for us be "1000 different books by kindergarten"? I wish I had thought of this sooner, because it might be a bit of a stretch at this point. Right now we are at about 250 different books that she's read (this does not include all the books she reads at school every day that I have no record of, mind you. That would easily be another 100-200 at least) So with 6 months left before Natalie starts kindergarten - that's 31 NEW books a week, or 4.46 NEW books a DAY.

This will be a commitment for sure - I will have to tactfully and carefully utilize our library to its fullest potential in the next 6 months, and I miiiight be insane, but I think I'm up for the challenge (this week anyway). Natalie is a sponge with new books lately. I remember how much I LOVED reading growing up, and I just want her to love books as much as I did/do. I think this could be a really fun project for me and her to work on from now until the summer. We may have to just take some days and read 50 books at a clip to stay on track, but I think I'm up for it! Maybe the program will create a new certificate just for us:

"1,000 DIFFERENT books before kindergarten, certificate of completion"

stay tuned...

also, am I insane?