Family Literacy Day is a national awareness initiative created by ABC Life Literacy Canada in 1999 and held annually on January 27 to raise awareness of the importance of reading and engaging in other literacy-related activities as a family.
Reading together is great! But there’s so much more you can do to promote literacy and learning at home. So we decided to ask a few of our authors for some of the things they do with their families. Here are five suggestions that we loved:
1) Sing Together in the Car
I sing with my kids in the car, read in front of a good, roaring fire and live with fact-guys who are constantly looking things up on the Internet (capital of Uzbekistan: Tashkent).
2) Encourage Kids of All Ages to Keep a Journal
I believe everyone should keep a journal. When my daughter was little, we did a two-word a day journal together. I’d ask her to give me one word to describe her day–and one word to describe how she’d like her tomorrow to be.
3) Talk About Words
We talk about words a lot. Just today, my son noticed that “melancholy” doesn’t sound at all like what it means. He suggested “apple-chihuahua” as a comparative word.
4) Play Board Games
“Ticket to Ride” is big in our house right now. Be a rail-baron and take over the U.S. with your locomotive empire!
5) Enjoy Shared Time Together (with books!)
My daughter and I write together. We also love to shop for books.
For more information about Family Literacy Day, or to get more ideas about how to inspire your family to learn together, visit the ABC Life Literacy Canada website.