Today, I think we focus a lot on our children's literacy more than our own (as parents), and yet it's something that we should continue throughout of life. On the STELLAA website, we list 10 Ways to Celebrate Family Literacy Day, but you can definitely continue to do these daily. Literacy is not only about reading and writing. It's about growing your ability to learn, and we learn everyday. In everything we do, there is an aspect of learning. And thus, the importance of literacy.
It's never too late to start a new activity to build your literacy skills as a family. I have small children and so our literacy focused activities include visiting the library on a weekly basis (even on a busy day, I can't really avoid it as it's on my way to my son's school and I don't remember a day when he didn't ask to go to the library!) bedtime stories, read-a-longs at the library, and author events like the Children's Story Jam by Small Print Toronto. We've also started to play board games and do family puzzles. Some well-known board games that help children develop their literacy skills (while you refresh yours) include
- Monopoly Jr.--helps with development of social skills, colour recognition, reasoning, reading and math skills
- Scrabble Jr.--develops literacy and language skills
- Boogle Jr.--helps with letter recognition, words, spelling, printing, and matching skills
- Zingo--fosters matching and reading skills, quick thinking
- Junior Labyrinth--helps with the development of spacial relations
It's a great way to spend an afternoon with the family...not to mention quite nice on the wallet! Other than the above mentioned learning opportunities, board games help your child calm their erratic energy into a more mature and sociably accept personality.
This Family Literacy Day, do something as a family to encourage and foster literacy and continued learning. We'd love to hear what you've done! Please comment below with any additional ideas!
By Joanna Ferensowicz, President, STELLAA
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