KAI offered six Family Literacy Workshops per school year since 2013 and plans to continue to offer this valuable program annually. These events offer families the opportunity to learn from teaching artists who demonstrate creative techniques that make literacy fun while supporting the Common Core State Standards. Participating families have gained access to the arts in ways that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. They also see first-hand the impact of integrating the arts into the process of developing their children’s literacy skills.
Parents have enthusiastically participated in these workshops, taking activities back into their homes and building literacy-rich environments for their families. Some of the parent comments that were captured following the workshops include:
- My daughter has always asked me to read with her, and now that she knows we can have fun together reading, there’s no way out for me!
- I learned that having my child on my lap while I read will encourage her learning.
- I never thought of the concept of acting out the book character, and that made it so much more fun!
- The way that the teaching artist read the story gave me an idea of how I can read to my child.
- I learned to ask my child questions more, rather than just reading the book and going through it quickly
- I realized how much fun we can have reading together as a family by acting out scenes together
- We will begin to have a word of the day on our refrigerator
- Interacting with my child through programs like this makes my child feel closer to me and more excited to read and learn.
- It’s important to shut off my cell phone and spend time reading with my child.
- Keep books in different places where kids are likely to get bored such as the bathroom, the car, the living room… books should be everywhere for them.