Family Literacy Day Carnival

Family Literacy Day Carnival

Rosanne Fortier News Correspondent

There were plenty of expressions of joy and excitement as children engaged in many early childhood learning experiences at the Family Literacy Day Carnival at the Vegreville Centennial Library on January 27.

The theme for this year’s Family Literacy Day was Let’s Read Together. The local event focused on engaging families in literacy and child development activities. These activities ranged from language and speech development to fine and gross motor skills. The activities centered around the five domains of early childhood development which are: physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, communication skills and general knowledge.

The activities that children could participate in were the shape scavenger hunt and sensory bin, shape spin and find, duck matching, ring toss, speech plinko, language bingo, parachute games, literacy fishing game, songs, and stories.

Children listen while Library Programmer Calina Sokalski reads them a story.

(Rosanne Fortier/photo)

Erika Trufyn, Family Literacy Coordinator for the Community Association for Lasting Success (CALS) said, “It is important for children and families to engage in activities together. When a caregiver shows interest in learning a child is more likely to be engaged. There are many learning experiences that happen by playing together.”

CALS spearheaded this event in partnership with First Years Parent Link Centre-Vegreville, Vegreville and District Child Development Coalition, Vegreville Centennial Library, VegMin Learning Society and Alberta Health Services.

According to ABC Life Literacy, the objective of Family Literacy Day is to raise awareness about the importance of reading and engaging in other literacy-related activities as a family. Taking time every day to read or do a learning activity with children is considered crucial to a child’s development, and will dramatically improve a child’s literacy skills and can help a parent improve their literacy skills.

ABC Life Literacy Canada says literacy is something that has an impact on all of us. It’s website states that 48% of adult Canadians have low literacy skills that fall below high school equivalency, and affects their ability to function at work and in life, and 17% function at the lowest level where they even have trouble to read the dosage instruction on a medicine bottle.

Spending 20 minutes a day doing a fun learning activity as a family has many positive benefits; parents and children will have better relationships, improve children’s academic performance, reduce stress, increase the family’s happiness, improve vocabulary, increase earning potential, improve memory, improve health, and most of all, it’s a free activity to do.

According to the World Literacy Foundation, the consequences of illiteracy are unemployment. The unemployment rate is two to four times higher for people with little schooling compared with those with a bachelor’s degree. Individuals who are illiterate have a limited ability to understand and obtain information that could be necessary for their lives. They also have lower income, lower-quality jobs, less financial resources, and sometimes have not as good health as people with better literacy skills.