Parent Information to Help Children Read

Parents are getting support from the province to help their children learn to read.

The Department of Education is sending a set of four brochures home to parents of Primary to Grade 2 students. The brochures answer frequent questions about how children learn to read and how parents can help.

"Children need the support of their parents to reach their full potential in school," said Education Minister Angus MacIsaac. "These brochures give parents simple and effective strategies for reinforcing at home what their children are learning in the classroom."

Mr. MacIsaac delivered the brochures to a Primary class at Antigonish Education Centre today, Jan. 27, in recognition of Family Literacy Day. The brochures are being shipped to all elementary schools in the province this week.

"This information gives me a better feel for what the teachers are actually doing in the classroom to teach my children to read," said Nicola Aquino, whose two children are in Primary and Grade 2 at the school. "The brochures also make it clear what the expectations should be for my children's progress with reading."

The brochure series, called Let's Talk About, covers four topics:
how a child develops as a reader, how a teacher helps a child learn to read, how a parent can help a child learn to read and how a parent can monitor a child's reading development.

One brochure advises parents to talk with their children so they can explore language and learn new words. It also suggests that parents read everything from books to food labels with their children every day and share reading time at places like the library.

The brochures were developed through the Atlantic Provinces Education Foundation. They are on the department's Web site at www.ednet.ns.ca .

The brochures support the department's Learning for Life commitment to give parents more information to help their children learn. The Learning for Life strategy also aims to give students more time to learn such basics as reading, writing and math.

The department has put about 700,000 books in Primary to Grade 7 classrooms in the past three years to help children develop a love of reading. It has also established a daily, uninterrupted active reading hour for Primary to Grade 3 students.