Helping Parents Thrive to Promote Family Literacy
A 2024 recipient of the Let’s Get Children Reading Grant, Reading Connections has made strides in their efforts to foster a love of reading for children and their families – learn about their extraordinary impact.
Reading Connections’s mission focuses on equity in education and literacy, striving to help adults in their educational journey to tackle illiteracy in communities. In Guilford County, North Carolina, Reading Connections’ Family Literacy Program serves over 100 families, many of which are immigrants and refugees, from 21 countries and encompassing 12 languages. The program equips parents with the foundational English literacy skills they need to help their children reach their academic potential both inside and outside of the classroom. But, while the program helps children fall in love with reading, parents also open new doors for their personal and educational journey as they navigate learning and reading through a new language.
Reading Connections is a recipient of Worldreader’s 2024 Let’s Get Children Reading grant, which recognizes organizations, schools, and educational programs that prioritize the importance of children’s reading and encourage children and their families to read at least 25 books per year on BookSmart.
Wazhma
Family Literacy Program participant from Afghanistan
Reading as a family can establish a routine that allows quality time between children and their parents. For Wazmah, reading brings her family closer together as they explore the English language and learn with one another.
Wazhma is the mother of 3 boys ages 8, 6, and 1.5 years, and loves using BookSmart to read with her children every morning and night. While practicing her own English literacy skills, Wazmah does the same for her children as they enjoy the abundance of stories available on BookSmart.
I want to tell others that BookSmart is a very good app for children and parents. I can read with my kids every night or every morning, and I can read just by myself when they are at school. It’s a very good app to help me practice English by reading children’s books.
Wazhma, mother of three
Yuki
Family Literacy Program participant from Japan
Language helps connect people. Learning to read and communicate in new languages bridges a gap in communication and understanding between communities. Yuki participates in the Family Literacy Program to make new friends and build her community. A mother of 2 children ages 7 and 3, Yuki reads with her kids both at home and school, as she notes that reading is a basic skill for learning. Using BookSmart’s library and accompanying activities, Yuki and her family loved reading African Lion and completing the Growing Positive Emotions and Play-Based activities.
I want to recommend BookSmart to people because it’s very easy to use and they can read anytime, anywhere with their phones or tablet.
Yuki, mother of two
Israa
Family Literacy Program participant from Sudan
Teaching children the language and literacy skills they need to flourish often needs reinforcement both inside and outside of the classroom. However, barriers in language and literacy skills between parents and their children’s educators can slow the learning process. As a mother of three children ages 6, 4, and 2, Israa attends the Family Literacy Program hoping to better communicate with her children’s teachers and assist her children with their homework, allowing herself to be fully involved in her children’s progress in their education.
“BookSmart is a very good app for the whole family,” says Israa.
Raquel
Family Literacy Program participant from Mexico
The Family Literacy Program brings people together through the power of reading. Raquel has a 4-year-old daughter and a teenage son. Like Yuki, Raquel participates in the Family Literacy Program to meet new people and form new friendships. She emphasizes the importance of reading, noting that it opens children’s minds, and this is why she loves reading with her children and completing BookSmart’s fun learning activities.
Mu
Family Literacy Program participant from Burma
Mu sees her English education as a fantastic way to help her children reach their potential. With BookSmart, she can spend quality time with her children reading before bedtime. She loves using the books to assist in her language development, saying “I tell other people to read these books because they can really help us improve our English.” By improving her English language skills, she also fosters her children’s language development.
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