Wokingham

Earlier this month libraries in the Wokingham district supported National Bookstart Day (October 6) to help ensure young children don’t miss out on the opportunity to experience a love of books from an early age.

And this year, National Bookstart Day focused on parents spending quality time with their babies, encouraging their involvement in stories, songs and rhymes as an excellent way to bond with their child from a very early age.

The highlight of the week was the visit of baby signer Samantha Tan to Wokingham Library. The signs and rhymes session was attended by 11 parents along with their babies and toddlers aged between six months and two years old. Samantha taught parents basic signs to use with their baby and also signs to use with favourite nursery rhymes such as Old Macdonald and Twinkle, Twinkle.

Bookstart is a national programme, funded from over 20 children’s publishers, Red House Books and central government funding from Sure Start. It encourages parents and carers to spend more time enjoying books with their babies. In April 2006, the Bookstart scheme was extended in the Wokingham district to include packs for toddlers and three year olds as well as for babies. Since then over 2,000 Bookstart packs have been gifted to children aged from birth to three years throughout the district.

Emma Minns, Wokingham District Council’s Bookstart coordinator, said: “I was delighted to invite Samantha Tan to give an introductory session to local parents on how to communicate with their babies and toddlers through using basic sign language. It was a fun session and everyone really enjoyed themselves.”

Wokingham District Council’s executive member for community development Cllr Dianne King said: “I hope events like these really encourage parents with babies and young children to make the most of the facilities on offer at their local libraries. Books help young children build language skills, giving them confidence and nurturing a lifelong love of reading.”

Wokingham District Council