At a class in the Experimental Kindergarten of the China National Children's Center [ccc.org.cn]

Children in the Experimental Kindergarten of the China National Children's Center (CNCC) in Beijing have been enjoying the reading activities held by the kindergarten.

The preschool education department of the CNCC launched a family action plan to help children develop good thinking, behaviors and habits in March 2019. The department implemented the project of reading 1,000 books in September 2019, to call on every child to read a book per day and read a total of 1,000 books in the three years of kindergarten.

As the program developed, children in the kindergarten are keen to share the new knowledge they gain from the books and the stories they read with peers. The teachers established the Happy Readers' Club, which serves as a platform for children to share their thinking and feelings with others.

"We have set different reading goals for children of different ages to help them cultivate good learning habits. Children aged 3-4 enjoy listening to stories and reading picture books; children aged 4-5 prefer reading their favorite books repeatedly and are willing to tell the stories to others; and children aged 5-6 will choose the books they are interested in independently and read an amount of time every day," said Yang Caixia, head of the Preschool Education Department of the CNCC.

Children in the kindergarten participates in an activity of the Happy Readers' Club.  [ccc.org.cn]

According to Yang, the effective interaction between parents and teachers helps energize parents to educate their children, and it helps children broaden their horizon. "It also guides parents to develop their children's good reading habits in a scientific way," Yang added.

Considering children's interests and their characteristics of learning, teachers recommended picture books, revolutionary story books, popular science books, children's literature books, and cartoons and comic books to parents. The teachers also use several methods to encourage the kids to cultivate good habits of reading books.

A good family culture and family traditions are formed thanks to the advocacy of reading in the kindergarten.

"Children spend most of their time at home and creating a good reading atmosphere at home is very important for them. Children are influenced by words and actions of our parents unconsciously," said a parent.

"We found parent-child reading at home not only improves the effect of reading, but also contributes to the good communication between parents and children. Talking to children with the words in the books makes it easier for them to accept and understand us," another parent said.

Two kids read books at the kindergarten. [ccc.org.cn]

(Women of China)