LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Becker family was the happy winner of a customized children's library of books, compliments of the Hero Project.

At the conclusion of the Hero Project's “Read Together and Educate” challenge in November, the Becker family was randomly chosen to receive the grand prize in recognition for completing the challenge.

The challenge urged parents to read to their children at least five times per week for a minimum of 15 minutes each time.

Parents Kira and Chris Becker are both avid readers who have been reading to their two young children since birth.

Their son, Edward, is 4 years old and started preschool this year, while their daughter, Arissa, is only one and a half and already points to pictures in books and identifies the images.

At a recent parent-teacher conference at the pre-school, Mrs. Becker learned that Edward was tested as advanced in reading and math for his age.

This came as no surprise to Kira Becker. She explained that she is carrying on the family tradition of reading to her children daily, a tradition she recalls of her mother reading to her as a child.

Reading to young children helps them learn more about their world, improves their social skills and helps them become strong readers.

The National Institute for Literacy reports that one out of every five children in the U.S. will experience a reading problem in school.

But children who are read to on a regular basis, starting in infancy, are better prepared to learn in school and beyond.

The Hero Project is a program of the Lake County Office of Education that supports parents of young children, ages birth to 8, by presenting parents with activities and parenting tips to improve parent-child relationships and to increase early childhood development.

The program is free and accessed virtually through its Web site, www.lakecountyheroproject.com , through Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram, and through the Hero Project app, which can be downloaded onto mobile devices from iTunes and GooglePlay.

Christine Hutt is communications coordinator for the Lake County Office of Education.