Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy (CCPL) is encouraging parents and caregivers to find fun ways to learn with their children as we approach Family Literacy Week, Jan. 25-31. Even 15 minutes a day can drastically benefit the literacy skills of both parent and child.
During Family Literacy Week, CCPL is reaching out to families across the province to encourage them to take part in informal family learning activities to improve their literacy and learning skills.
“Literacy is not just about reading and writing, and it is not only learned in the classroom,” says Carla Bullinger of CCPL. “Families can build literacy skills by playing games together, making a shopping list, storytelling, searching the Internet, or going for a nature walk.”
Recent studies show that engaging in informal family learning in the home and the community has a direct impact on children, parents, and society as a whole.
“Parents and caregivers who participate in informal family learning directly and positively affect the language and literacy development of their children,” says Bullinger. “When families practice literacy together, we all benefit because literacy development of the family impacts every area of our lives: healthcare, crime rates, employment, economic status, civic engagement and overall life chances.”
The findings are overwhelming. When children get an early start with literacy in the home, they are better prepared to enter school; they do better on reading achievement tests; they are more likely to pursue higher education; they find higher-paying jobs; they lead healthier lives; and they are more likely to vote, volunteer and give back to their community.
Family activities you can do in the home and community to practice and promote literacy:
•Read together
• Make a shopping list
• Search the internet
• Play Games
• Build Puzzles
• Sing Songs
• Paint together
• Nature Walk
• Write cards
• Look for signs
• Draw together
• Dance together
“The benefits of practicing family literacy go beyond the child,” says Bullinger. “When parents take an active role in their child’s literacy development, they build stronger bonds and they are more likely to take an active role in their children’s learning - even 15 minutes of reading a day can dramatically improve both child and parent’s literacy skills.”
Family Literacy Week in Williams Lake is culminating in the annual Family Fest. This free and fun family event takes place on Sunday, Feb. 1 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Gibraltar Room.
For more information contact Carla Bullinger at carla@caribooliteracy.com.
See next week’s Tribune for our annual Reach a Reader edition, for more information on literacy programs in our community .
Celebrating all things literacy
Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy loves to welcome in the new year with the things we love best – family literacy, financial literacy, workplace literacy, health literacy, numeracy, plain old literacy – you get the picture. January is the time when we focus on raising awareness of the importance of literacy: at home; at work; at school; at play. For the next couple of weeks you can look forward to interesting articles and fun activities as we celebrate all things literacy. And the community has some special events planned for Family Literacy Week, January 25-31. So stay tuned. We’ll keep you posted.
Carla Bullinger is the Community Literacy Co-ordinator with the CCPL.