Eagles SOAR, Math & Muffins and more!
Creative titles and programs make up the Family Literacy and Outreach initiatives, which provide assistance to parents in their quest to support their children’s education. Schools create customized programs designed to best fit the needs of their families. Programs vary and include components such as literacy activities for families, curriculum nights, study habits preparation, and English lessons. Students become excited about reading which is apparent when you see their faces in the videos you will see by following this link.
Parents gain an understanding of how to best support their child’s academic success by being involved in school activities and in creating a home environment conducive to learning. In turn the school-age children have opportunities to improve and enhance their learning through activities that build on the school curriculum, and younger siblings are exposed to the activities that make them more prepared to enter school.
The Education Foundation supports several school-based programs with funding provided by Volunteer USA Foundation (funded by the Barbara Bush Foundation in Florida), The Scripps Howard Foundation and private donors.
Kimberly Lonergan, Principal of Golden Terrace Elementary stated, “Our parent participation in family literacy activities has increase dramatically throughout the 2010-2011 school year. We began the school year with approximately 75 families involved in Building Better Readers and ended the year in May with over 400 families involved in Science Family Night. Recently, Principal Lonergan slept on the roof of the school as a result of a challenge she gave her students to collectively read a million minutes of books this school year; this was covered in the Naples Daily News.
One of the programs at Manatee Elementary had families participate in an eight-week parenting class which concentrated on things parents can do to support and communicate with their children. Positive results of this program include improvement in their children’s behavior and grades! Wendy Borowski, principal of Manatee Elementary said, “Our families have been provided opportunities to build positive and engaging parent/child relationships. In addition, the grant helped promote literacy in the home, bringing reading to life for many of our children.”
Students and parents are enjoying the fact that some schools libraries have been open for their use on Saturday’s this year. At Golden Gate and Pinecrest Elementary students are invited to receive extra reading instruction while parents who would benefit receive English language assistance. All are encouraged to check out books to read as a family at home. Karey Stewart, Principal of Pinecrest Elementary said, “Through this program not only did our student readers increase their vocabulary, but our parents improved their own English skills. Some even learned to write their names for the first time!”
Golden Gate Elementary continues to greatly appreciate the support they receive to provide informative, engaging, and “memory making” opportunities for their families. Principal Marilou Andrews feels that parents play such an important role in their children’s life, so anything we can do as a school community to help them with this important job, is of high priority.
“It’s an incredible reward to watch our families grow and learn together,” said Liza McFadden, President of Volunteer USA Foundation. “In fact, the great majority of parents enrolled in Volunteer USA supported programs use the reading strategies they learn in class at home with their kids. For instance, 88% now ask their child to describe pictures in a book; 81% stop reading to have their child point out letters; and 71% have their child read to them. Now, that’s how we spell s-u-c-c-e-s-s!”
