Kids

Vancouver Island Regional Library has board books, picture books, early reader books and books with read-along CDs.  You can pop into any of our branches to see what we have on the shelves.  Or search our online catalogue and place a request on any books you are interested in.  We’ll ship them to your local branch for pickup.

We also have eBooks available.  TumbleBookLibrary offers a large collection of animated picture books.  Listen or read along to some entertaining and amusing stories with your child.

Cultural Literacy Kits focus on specific cultures, including Coast Salish, Kwakwala, Korean and Arabic and many more languages.  Each kit comes in a backpack and contains books (many in the native language of the culture) and a combination of activities, CDs, DVDs and toys.  Cultural Literacy Kits can be borrowed for three weeks.  To view our entire selection of cultural literacy kits, take a look in our online catalogue.

Literacy Kits are theme-based and cover fun topics such as Wild Animals, Pirates, and Things That Go.  Each kit comes in a backpack or plastic tote and contains books, CDs, DVDs, and/or toys.  They can be borrowed from any of our branches for three weeks.  We have kits available for babies, toddlers, preschoolers and kindergarteners.   To view our entire selection of literacy kits, take a look in our online catalogue.

Vancouver Island Regional Library offers fun and educational storytimes for young children and their families.  To find out what’s happening in a branch near you, browse our online program calendar.

Children learn language and early literacy skills by talking to others.

• Make sure your child has opportunities to talk, not just listen.
• Respond to what your child says and try to extend the conversation by asking questions.
• Introduce your child to new words and explain them.

Play helps children understand that spoken and written words stand for real objects and experiences.  Children learn to express themselves and put thoughts into words.

• Give children plenty of playtime to develop their imaginations.
• Encourage dramatic play so children develop narrative skills and realize that stories have a beginning, middle and end.
• Have your child “read” a book you have read together many times, this develops vocabulary and language and narrative skills.

Songs are a fun and easy way to learn language.

• Sing alphabet songs to learn letters.
• Sing nursery rhymes to learn different sounds.
• Clap along to show rhythm and syllables in words.

Shared reading is the most important way to help young children learn to develop an interest in reading and read themselves.

• Read every day.
• Make reading interactive, talk about the pictures or ask what will happen next.
• Use books to teach new words in context.

Reading and writing go together.

• Writing begins by encouraging scribbling and other marks.
• Give many opportunities to draw and write to develop hand-eye coordination.
• Talk about what they draw and make captions or stories together to link spoken and printed drawings.