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every child deserves a good start IN life A parent is a child’s very first teacher and most parents want to do what is best for their children. But sometimes a parent or caregiver lacks the skills and knowledge to provide what a child needs to be successful in school. Many children entering kindergarten are unprepared to read; they are already behind before they start school.

sometimes the way to teach children is to teach the grown-ups United Way of Central Ohio is preparing more children for success in school by collaborating with Action for Children and the Columbus Metropolitan Library. The Ready to Read program offers workshops for parents and caregivers, helping them develop the confidence and tools they need to promote pre-literacy skills with their children.

United Way and its partners present workshops at community sites serving lowincome parents and caregivers or those with critical needs – publicly-funded child care centers, clinics, Head Start programs, urban churches, library branches and others. Parents and caregivers learn new skills – ways to share books with their children, how to encourage their children to “read” a book using picture cues and how to identify sounds in words. They also take home a kit with books, an activity guide, magnetic letters, puppets and other tools supporting literacy-based activities at home.

The need in our community • The typical middle-class child enters first grade with 1,000 to 1,700 hours of oneon-one picture book reading, whereas a child from a low-income family averages just 25 hours.

• Research by Columbus Action for Children shows that economically disadvantaged children – nearly one quarter of all Ohio children – enter kindergarten one to two years behind in language and other skills important to school success.

Y TO READ what every parent needs to know The 90-minute Ready to Read workshops build six skills necessary for children to be ready for kindergarten and school success. They also show how these skills can be incorporated into the family’s everyday life.

• Print motivation – a child’s interest in and enjoyment of books • Phonological awareness – the ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words • Narrative skills – ability to describe things and events; tell stories • Vocabulary – knowing the names of things • Print awareness – noticing print, knowing how to handle a book, and how to follow written words on a page • Letter knowledge – learning to name letters, knowing they have sounds and recognizing them everywhere

The results of being ready Last year, Ready to Read workshops at 66 locations helped 1,200 parents/caregivers and 100 teachers increase the early literacy skills of preschoolers.

After participating in the workshops, most parents said they would read more with their children, use the literacy kit at home, do more “fun” literacy activities and visit the library more often with their children.

You can make a difference. we hope to raise $85,000 to benefit preschool children and their families. $65,000 to sponsor 60 workshops and take-home materials for 1,200 parents $20,000 to train Early Learning professionals and parents and provide materials

If you believe, as we do, that every child deserves a good start in life, then please invest in United Way’s Ready to Read initiative.

We know how to prepare children to learn to read and how to help them achieve success in school. We just have to make the commitment to provide that kind of preparation for all of our community’s children.

Your investment will give parents, caregivers and children the tools they need and the future they deserve.

Join us. Invest your money, use your voice, volunteer your time to give our children the best possible start in life.

360 South Third Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215-5485 • Tel 614.222.2700 Fax 614.224.5435 TTY 614.227.2710