Take a learning journey on Family Literacy Day
(NC)—Family Literacy Day takes place across Canada later this month on January 27. In an effort to show how learning is a part of daily life and can be easily embraced on a daily basis, ABC Life Literacy Canada is inviting families to 'Take the Learning Journey'.
As part of the initiative, families are encouraged to download the 'Journey to Learning Passport' and complete as many activities as possible leading up to this important day.
“Finding time to learn with your child can be hard to do in today's hectic world,” says Margaret Eaton, president of ABC Life Literacy Canada. “But once you realize that the things you do together on a daily basis already involve learning, it's so much easier to embrace it.”
Many parents send their kids off to school hoping they will learn solely in a classroom setting and develop into knowledgeable successful adults. But while parents are busy with work while raising a family, they sometimes forget to encourage learning at home, which is equally important in a child's educational development.
“Parents are a child's first teacher,” says Eaton. “Even after they've started school, there are still several opportunities for learning as a family. Spending just 15 minutes a day with them can go a long way to help children develop a love of learning and improve their literacy skills.”
Yet there are hundreds of thousands of parents who not only lead busy lifestyles, but also have low literacy skills. Approximately nine million Canadians are at a high school level or lower when it comes to their literacy skills, and unfortunately, many of their children end up falling behind in school because they are not given the same opportunity as their peers to read at home and engage in early learning activities.
According to Decoda Literacy Solutions, children raised in literate households are likely to enter grade one with several thousand hours of one to one pre-reading experience behind them.
The benefits of dedicating this time together on a daily basis, whether reading and writing, playing and exercising, or simply talking about your day, are far-reaching and beneficial for everyone. Increased literacy levels among parents mean more reading and literacy-building activities in the home, preparing their children for success in school and encouraging a lifelong love of reading and learning.
This is why it's critical that parents embrace the learning that is happening all around them.
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