National Family Literacy Day® is celebrated on Sat., Nov. 1, all over the country with special activities and events that showcase family literacy programs and the important relationship between parents and their children. LIFT, Missouri’s Literacy Resource Center, will provide activities and ideas for promoting family literacy at its website: www.lift-missouri.org.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
Find out how to advertise here - Email us! [email protected]
Family Literacy is about learning, growing, and changing. Some of the benefits families get from going to a family literacy program are:
*Parents gain new skills and get better jobs.
*Children do better in school.
*Parents learn to help their children in new ways – at school and at home.
Family literacy programs bring parents and children together to learn and to support each other’s academic and non-academic goals. As parents identify their strengths and develop their skills, essential messages about the importance of education are passed on to their children. These parents and children develop as a team in learning and become partners for success.
Family literacy encompasses a unique educational approach that includes four separate but integrated components. Parents receive adult education, often focusing on improving job skills or English language skills. Children receive individualized education that is appropriate for their age and developmental level. In addition, parents take part in classes that help them understand their children’s literacy development in order to learn ways to support that development at home. One of the most unique elements of a family literacy program is Parent and Child Together (PACT) Time, a regularly scheduled session when parents and children learn together through interactive literacy activities.
LIFT has led the state in introducing and implementing the model for family literacy programs in Missouri. LIFT improves the capacity of the state to implement and sustain quality family literacy programs by providing adult educators and family literacy practitioners with quality training; on-going technical assistance through site visits, e-mail, a website, a toll-free phone line, and two publications; tailored curricula; and improved evaluation techniques. For more information about family literacy programs in Missouri, contact LIFT at 800-729-4443 or visit www.lift-missouri.org.