Parents with kids under five are welcome to sign up
Gilmer County’s Ferst Readers chapter has an unusual problem.
Not enough parents with young kids are signing up to get free books.
“Our biggest need right now is we want to register more kids,” said Josh Chancey, the Gilmer County chapter of Ferst Readers president.
Ferst Readers provides an age-appropriate book every month to kids from birth to five years old.
Even at very young ages, getting a start on learning to read is important.
Even before a child can understand words, introducing them to the idea that books are interesting and worth looking at together is important.
“Can they understand what you’re saying? No,” he said. “But there are studies that show reading to them as early as possible increases not only their ability to read, but it increases their grades in school.
This year, Ferst Readers has plenty of donations. However, out of an estimated 1,500 children under 5 years old, only 900 have signed up to receive free books each month.
“We just want to make sure that we get books in these kids’ hands,” Chancey said.
Since 2007, the Gilmer chapter of Ferst Readers has sent out more than 230,000 books.
According to the Ferst Readers website, consistent reading can make a huge difference for your children.
The single biggest factor for a child’s early success in school is the child being read to at home.
In some counties with a successful Ferst Readers program, kindergarten readiness programs have doubled.
This fact is important for kids beyond kindergarten too. The more kids succeed early, the better they do in school later.
If kids aren’t ready to read when they get into kindergarten, they are three to four times more likely to drop out later.
“We’ve heard personal testimony that it is very clear when teachers get kids who have been read to in the home. There is an astonishing difference,” Chancey said.
Anyone can sign up for Ferst Readers by going to ferstreaders.org and clicking on “Register a Child.”
After filling out a brief form, the group will send your family an age-appropriate book every month for free.
It usually takes three months before you receive the first book.
“There’s so many benefits to reading early and often,” Chancey said. “We need the public’s help to find those 500 to 800 kids that are in this community that are eligible that are not getting books and encourage them to enroll.”