 Hello! My name is Patricia Leshku and I'm the Acting Head of Youth Services here at the West Vancouver Memorial Library. Congratulations to you and your soon-to-be kindergartner. This is a joyful, special time, and I want you to know that the library is here to help and support and celebrate what is a really big milestone, and that is starting kindergarten. Today I'm going to take just a few minutes with you to tell you three things that you can do to foster a love of story and books and language with your child. Now, you're probably already doing most or all of these things, so this will just affirm the fantastic work that you're doing with your child. And I'm also going to share with you three great summer programs that you can participate in at the library with your soon-to-be kindergartner. Now, research shows that reading comprehension and enjoyment is much higher when we let kids choose their own books. And so I'm here to tell you that there are no bad books and there is no bad reading. So whether your child enjoys listening to picture books or every information book under the sun about sharks or comics or board books or pop-up books or books in a certain language, it's all okay. All of these are going to help your child develop language and literacy skills. Now, you are supporting language development even when you don't know that you are, even when you're not reading. Research shows that all of these five practices together, playing, talking, singing, writing, and reading, help children develop language. A quick note on writing, though. This isn't suggesting that you have to get your pre-kindergartener to start doing printing drills or formal exercises or anything like that. It's something that you're likely already doing with them, which is to give your child a crayon or marker or thick pencil, give them some unlined paper, and plenty of opportunity to draw and write. This experience should feel fun and playful, and you can ask your child questions as they draw and help them label their drawings. If your child is learning English, you may worry that reading or speaking to them in a language other than English will be confusing or bad for them, and that is not the case at all. Studies show that a huge part of learning English is making connections between English and a child's first language or the language they speak at home. A positive association with books transcends any language barrier. Now, three programs that you can participate in this summer. The first is joining the Summer Reading Club. We typically have around 2,000 kids in West Vancouver join, and it is a really big part of the school experience. The Summer Reading Club is a self-directed program where kids are challenged to read or be read to for at least 15 minutes a day for 50 days over the summer. In the case of your little ones, you would probably be reading to them. And if you reach that goal as a family, your child wins a reading medal in September. Registration for Summer Reading Club is on now at wvml.ca slash src. We are very excited to offer in-person storytimes once again. For Summer, we're doing storytimes at John Lawson Park on Tuesdays at 2 p.m. Outdoor family storytimes on our readers' rooftop pictured here on Fridays at 10.30 a.m. Family storytimes in the library on Saturdays at 11 a.m. And fun in French in the library on Tuesdays at 10.30 a.m. Registration for all our July storytimes opens on June the 15th and registration is required for each session of our in-person storytimes. You can register through our events calendar on our website. We also run a virtual Instagram storytime Tuesdays at 10 a.m. and you can watch recordings on our IGTV if you can't tune in live. You'll also find Farsi storytime recordings on our library YouTube channel. So to wrap up, I just want to reiterate that me and my team in the Youth Department are here for you. We're here for your family, whether it's recommending a book or a program or helping you set up with using digital picture books or sign up for the Summer Reading Club. Please reach out to us anytime. I hope that you have a relaxing, rejuvenating, fun and book filled summer and I really hope that we'll see you soon in the library. Bye for now.