Mayor Joseph U. Meyer, City Of Covington | City Of Covington website
Mayor Joseph U. Meyer, City Of Covington | City Of Covington website
Starting Friday, children in Covington have the opportunity to participate in a reading challenge that offers weekly prize raffles. The initiative, known as the Mayor’s Reading Challenge, invites students from Pre-K through Grade 3 to engage with stories and educational games for 75 minutes each week.
The program, now in its fifth year, will run from November 1 to December 13. It is open to all Covington students who are enrolled in the free bilingual apps provided by the City’s Read Ready Covington early childhood initiative. These apps include CleverKidsUniversity for ages 3 to 5 and Footsteps2Brilliance for ages 5 to 8.
The challenge was introduced during Mayor Joe Meyer's first term amidst the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. This year's event marks the last one under Meyer’s tenure as mayor. "Since beginning Read Ready Covington in late 2019, Covington children have been exposed to 187,355,033 words and read more than 286,100 books found on the Foosteps2Brilliance and Clever Kids University apps," said Mary Kay Connolly, Director of Read Ready Covington. She expressed gratitude towards Mayor Meyer for his leadership.
Children participating in the challenge can enter a weekly raffle for prizes by completing their reading activities using the designated apps. Prizes include a $75 Stoney’s Village Toy Shoppe gift card, t-shirts, storybooks, treats, arts and craft materials, and school supplies.
Connolly shared some advice from Read Ready Covington to help foster lifelong learning habits among children:
- Set aside time to read.
- Set reading goals.
- Read every day.
- Track your reading progress.
"All of these habits are easy to accomplish using Footsteps2Brilliance and Clever Kids University apps," said Connolly. She recommended that children spend short sessions of about 15 to 20 minutes on the apps multiple times a day rather than longer binge sessions.
"We encourage moderation so that children also play outside, do projects, help their families, and read print books as well," Connolly added.
Read Ready Covington is not limited to app usage; it also organizes literacy events within housing communities around Covington and supports initiatives like Little Free Libraries. Additionally, they promote playful learning landscapes throughout the city with murals and signs featuring words starting with each letter of the alphabet as part of a literacy scavenger hunt designed to inspire curiosity and problem-solving skills among children.
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