Good habits focus for Reading Hour

CHILDREN of all ages, and those young at heart, descended on the Eureka Centre last Thursday for Australian Reading Hour.

Coordinated by Ballarat Libraries, the event included early ages book readings and interactive storytelling from City of Ballarat Councilor Amy Johnson, City of Ballarat Children’s and Youth Librarian Julie Bull and Daylesford storyteller Anne E Stewart.

“The Reading Hour is a national program run across public libraries and it’s about getting people together and making connections,” City of Ballarat Libraries spokesperson Mark MacNamara said.

“It’s an opportunity for us to put some of our services outside our normal static library spaces.

“The issue for families is probably getting to some of the branches, especially the main one, so it’s an opportunity for us to get out into the community at sites like this.”

While the centre’s theatre was filled with the chatter of excited kids eagerly taking part in the storytelling, the main aim of the day was to help set habits for active listening and pre-school literacy.

It’s something that Mr MacNamara sees as important to early childhood development.

“What we know from lots of research and experience is that children that have good literacy levels, once they get to school, they’re prepared for school,” he said.

“What we’re providing is that opportunity to prepare your children for school.” Ms Stewart agrees.

“It’s getting them reading ready with all those different words and ideas,” she said. “It’ll go into their heads and be brought out when they start to read.”

Ms Stewart, who trained at Ballarat Library before heading to the Northern Territory to practice her craft, said she enjoyed the challenge of engaging young children in positive reading and listening habits.

“This is a hard age group but I love little kids,” she said. “A famous doyen of Australian literature Maurice Saxby wrote a book called Give Them Wings and he said if you teach kids to read you give them wings to soar.

“So I always thought my job was to develop listeners and to get them to develop and love of language and literature.”

The Australian Reading Hour event was the first time the activity had been held at the Eureka Centre, however, Ballarat Libraries regularly hosts similar events across its branches.

“This happens at all of our branches – Ballarat, Wendouree, Sebastopol – we present programs at those branches throughout the week,” Mr MacNamara said.

“We also provide them at a number of outreach sites, at the Lucas Community Hub and a number of other sites around Ballarat.”