Baby’s Got Mail: Free Books Boost Early Literacy #MakerEducation
NPR recently highlighted the D.C. Public Library system and the fantastic work they are doing to promote literacy in very young children.
“A busybody.” That’s how Raven Judd describes her 10-month-old daughter Bailey.
“She loves tummy time. She likes to roll over. She’d dive if you let her,” says the 27-year-old mother from Washington, D.C.
There is one thing, though, that will get her baby girl to stop what she’s doing: when her mother reads her favorite book, the aptly named My Busy Book.
“Her eyes get really, really big,” Judd says. “She gets excited and will start hitting on (the book). When I start reading out the numbers and alphabet, I turn it into a little tune, and then she starts laughing,” Judd says.
That book — and the others stacked in her favorite drawer — are from Books From Birth, a D.C. Public Library program that mails a book a month, every month, to enrolled children from birth to age 5. All children in the district are eligible.
“A lot of parents think, ‘Oh, my child is too young to read,’ or, ‘He can’t read yet,’ ” says Michael Linder of the D.C. Public Library. “You have those parents who aren’t aware of the importance of early literacy.”
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Each Tuesday is EducationTuesday here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts about educators and all things STEM. Adafruit supports our educators and loves to spread the good word about educational STEM innovations!