November is National Family Literacy Month, and the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) is contributing with events and resources to help create a strong support system for children learning to read across the country.

NCFL is partnering with ten organizations this month to create community events that bring parents and children together to tackle challenges in the familial environment that can be barriers to literacy.

The events focus on “ a four part approach to two-generation learning” through bringing parents and children together, allowing parents to spend time learning on their own, creating mentor opportunities through family-to-family social networks and sponsoring family service learning projects to “solve community problems and encourage civic engagement.”

Such events include ones held through the initiative Toyota Family Learning, which evaluators said last year helped 96 percent of participating parents to be better teachers to their children as well as increase 90 percent of parents’ engagement in their child’s education.

In addition to on-site events throughout U.S. cities, NCFL also provides free online resources available to families for use at anytime.

Some example resources include Healthy Family Habits, an interactive program to help parents and children bond through healthy habits and Renegade Buddies, an app for iOS and Android that helps parents teach their kids another kind of important literacy- the financial kind.

To read more about NCFL’s family literacy initiatives and to find events in your area, see here.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

11/02/2015