Nearly half of all Canadians are semi-literate with four in ten working age adults scoring below the literacy level experts recommend. Determined to not let her child wind up as just another statistic, Jenine Lafayette set an ambitious goal for herself and her young daughter Amie – to read 500 books together in one year.
Lafayette and Amie told CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday, how they accomplished the impressive feat. It was difficult at first because Amie was still in kindergarten and learning to read according to her mother.
“A lot of it was me reading to her at night,” Lafayette said. “I think through that year it started to turn into that she was more excited about our time together reading. She also started to read more.”
Amie said that she was “mad” when her mother first introduced her to the plan, but she warmed up to the idea eventually.
“It’s basically like I get to learn a bunch of stuff,” Amie said.
Lafayette admitted that it was tricky for her as well, at first, but sharing the experience with her daughter made it easier.
“Part of it was making a commitment to my daughter,” Lafayette said. “Setting a goal with her that we would do this together made it more likely that I was going to stay on the bandwagon and not miss a couple bedtime stories.”
The determined mother wants everyone to know how easy accomplishing something like this is if you’re willing to attempt it.
“It’s easy,” Lafayette explained. “We had a library card and motivation.”
Because Amie was exposed to so many different books this year, it was hard to narrow down her favourite one. For now, it’s “Ada Twist Scientist” by Andrea Beaty. Lafayette said that her daughter enjoys books about science the most.
When asked if she was going to set any new goals and if she could read 1,000 books in a year when she’s 10 years old, Amie responded simply “Yeah, probably.”
