LAFAYETTE -- Will your child be ready for kindergarten in 2011? In this new "Kindergarten Readiness" program, you will receive ideas and activities to use with your child over the next year to prepare for kindergarten.

Parents and their children are invited to the Downtown library on Monday, Aug. 23 at 6:30 p.m.

Children are now required to accomplish much more. By the end of the kindergarten year, children need to be able to write a complete sentence.

Does your child know the alphabet?
Can he or she write their name correctly?
Does your child recognize numbers and simple shapes?

Help your child keep pace by developing these building blocks of pre-literacy skills. During this library session, you and your child will participate in hands-on activities.

Registration is encouraged. Please call 429-0119 starting Monday, Aug. 16.

"Investing in the early years provides our best chance of propelling children toward success in school and in life. Kindergarteners who are ready to succeed when they begin school are less likely to need targeted support or special education services, less likely to be involved in the juvenile justice system, to drop out of school and less likely to perform poorly in their adult jobs," according to Louise J. Corwin, the executive director of Maryland's early literacy readiness program.  ( http://www.readyatfive.org/about/ed.aspx )

For more information, contact the Youth Services Department, Tippecanoe County Public Library, 627 South Street, call 429-0119, or visit our Web site at www.tcpl.lib.in.us/kids .