"The Best Start is an Early Start."

A love and an appreciation of literature is an essential foundation for young children especially in their preschool years. Here at Starting Early – Little Plains we look to inspire our students to become active participants in developing their literacy skills. We have established a student lending library that the children visit each week with their classrooms. This library is full of books that were donated by past and present families who have attended our Huntington campus of Starting Early.

The library was remodeled a few years ago when a parent volunteered to repaint and decorate it with a child friendly, literature enriched theme. The walls are covered with beautiful, colorful representations of familiar characters from a variety of picture books. Each time the children enter the library they point out new characters and objects on the walls that they did not notice the previous visit. They are so proud of themselves when they are able to recognize characters and tell you what books they are from.

The library is staffed by parent volunteers who read to the children every Tuesday. Every classroom has an opportunity to visit the library each week. The children learn who a librarian is and what his/her job entails. They begin to develop their appreciation for books and having a novel adult read to them helps to increase their attention span and ability to sit and listen to stories. The children also have the option to borrow books from the library. Each child is able to pick out a book of his/her choice and either bring it back to the classroom or bring it home for 1 week. They then return it to the library the following week. By having the children bring the books home it allows the parents to read with their children at home on a consistent basis. The children also begin to understand the concept of borrowing and returning objects.

This past spring we started a Parent Lending Library at Little Plains. These libraries are located in the hallways of A and B wings. Parents are invited to borrow books and bring them home to read with their children. There are books available in both English and Spanish.