Have you ever heard the widespread recommendation that children should read 1,000 books before kindergarten for them to develop their reading and literacy skills? Teaching your children to read as early as possible is great advice, but the recommended number of books is totally unrealistic. A thousand books is a lot! Most people don't read that many books in their entire lives. Moreover, there is the question of the "length" of the books. Are we talking about 10-page or 100-page books?
Around the world, children enter kindergarten around the age of 5. Assuming that we can "show" or "read" them books from the age of one, we would have to introduce them to a new book daily, or every other day, to have a collection of a thousand four years later. You would first have to find enough interesting books adapted to their level, and you would also need the money to afford them. Not all families have a public library near their homes.
In any case, it's not the "number" of books that counts but their quality. More important, however, is how parents or early childhood educators use them with their kids. The quantity of books is not very important, especially since children generally like to hear the same stories over and over again until they know them almost by heart.
It is, therefore, better to discover one new good book per month - which means at least about 50 books before entering kindergarten - and make sure your child really reads, understands, and enjoys them. This is a much more reasonable and achievable objective.
Picture: Scarlett, two-month-old, reading (ChildUp.com)
