Vegas Summer Reading Program, With Focus On Bilingual Literacy

Family Vegas Blog

With the persistence of one of our favorite librarians, Alina completed her first Summer Reading program (read about it on this Vegas blog post from last year) at a mere 1.5 years old. I’ll be honest: she didn’t really have a clue what it was all about. But going through the motions was exciting for me, nonetheless. My baby was growing so fast, was learning to love literature, and by coloring each silly duck, I began to feel validated in my efforts to instill a love of learning in my daughter. Alina thrives at the library in ways that far exceed my expectations, but getting there on a weekly basis isn’t always easy. For so many reasons, but mostly because I love to also, we surround ourselves with books because I want Alina to love reading. When you read, you can go anywhere and be anyone…

As the summer months approached, and the impending swells in temperature, I looked forward to participating in our local library’s Summer Reading Program yet again. This time, however, my baby was no longer so. She is such a big girl now! After picking up her reading log, we spent a week or so completing the twelve activities. And although the log didn’t say you had to, we colored one duck for every book we read. Alina had a blast coloring those ducks! We discussed the book we read together as we colored each duck, in addition to working on color recognition.

Alina was beside herself with pride {okay, maybe I was too} when she turned in her reading log. She was so excited to show her favorite librarians, Miss Leah and Miss Susan, the ducks she had painstaking colored {we were working on fine motor skills, in addition to everything else, so it really was work for her}. They smother this kid with too much love and attention, and their warmness has definitely made an impact on Alina’s self esteem. She feels at home in her library, and that makes me happy.

Upon completing your log, you get a prize and that was what Alina was MOST excited about. A new book! {And a little rudder ducky that she immediately hoarded in her purse}. Since this summer my focus has been to achieve an improved level of bilingual literacy, I was excited to see one of the ever popular David Shannon books in Spanish. Momma gently steered Alina towards this great find and we’ve enjoyed it many times since.

As a regular contributor to SpanglishBaby, a site dedicated to the struggles and victories of raising bilingual kids, I’ve documented much of our efforts to achieve bilingualism. I don’t talk much about that here, although maybe I should, but just so you know: we are a long way off from being bilingual. Unfortunately. I kind of feel like I’ve failed Alina, and Sebastian, in this area. But, we try. That’s why many of the books we read for Alina’s Summer Reading Program were Spanish or bilingual in order to improve her literacy. Participating in the program was a great jump start to that focus.

I read this great post from one of my favorite bloggers and educators, Geri from The Kimble Krew entitled Summer Reading Rocks. In it she lists some amazing reasons why parents should partake in summer reading programs, even at a young age. I was especially shocked at the concept of “summer reading loss” and how some kids will not pick up a single book while away on summer vacation. In that post, she has also compiled a comprehensive list of National vendors {like Pottery Barn} that do summer reading programs.

We’ll be attending a new storytime program on Saturdays so that Daddy can experience this fun with Alina {and because, seriously, it is too darn hot outside to do much of anything else with two babies in tow!}. Thank you, Geri, for the recommendation!

Cheers to continued learning, in any language, and especially a love of literature…

Happy Friday!