Library Program Helps Parents Prepare Children for Kindergarten

The Lexington Public Library’s new program, “Now It’s Your Turn,” kicks off in February and is designed to help parents prepare their children at home for kindergarten.

“Now It’s Your Turn” will take place after regularly scheduled story times and will consist of a brief talk and craft for parents to help them do story times at home.

These story times will concentrate on the five activities that best prepare preschool children to be reading-ready when they enter school – talking, singing, reading, writing and playing.

Each installment of “Now It’s Your Turn” will focus on a particular activity and will include a craft to make the activity fun for children at home.

The first installment will focus on singing and will include a collection of craft sticks with fun pictures on the tips so children can pick a song to sing from a dozen titles.

“We want to help parents make story time fun at home so their children can engage more and more with the sorts of activities that will have them ready for kindergarten,” said Kelli Parmley, the library’s Outreach Services manager.

The first installment will take place after the following story times:

11 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14, Northside Branch

11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15, Eastside Branch

11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 17, Beaumont Branch

11 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, Tates Creek Branch

Subsequent months will feature the remaining reading-readiness activities. The five reading-readiness activities were identified as part of the Every Child Ready to Read project by the Association for Library Services to Children and the Public Library Association.