Celebrating 15 Years

The arrival of the New Year marks the beginning of the program's

Celebrating 15 Years: 2000-2015

15th year. In that time, the Libra Foundation's financial commitment, combined with the dedicated healthcare providers who distribute the books, has enabled the program to provide a library of 12 books to more than 228,000 individual children. Parents and caregivers like you have read those books to children, giving them a head start on learning to read and building the nurturing relationships that help them learn.

The impact of the 2.2 million books given out by the program has been felt across the state and has touched virtually every child birth to age five for each of the last 15 years. A very special thanks to all who have made it possible.

Meeting People Where They Are:
Mobile, Social Media, Web

An ever increasing number of people are accessing information  about their child's health and development online, especially on mobile devices. While the cost of printing and mailing traditional materials such as brochures has become prohibitive. Accordingly, we will not be producing our Early Literacy Calendar in 2015.

Early Literacy Calendar Transitioning to Web. The early literacy information from the calendar pages that made it such a valuable tool for families, early childhood educators, childcare providers, home visitors, and others will be posted as downloadable handouts on our website. We invite you to print one of the 12 pages monthly and share them with the families with whom you work as a reminder throughout the year of the different ways they can support their child's emergent literacy.

Check out these resources for additional information on early literacy:

• www.raisingreaders.org
• follow the program on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest)
• material printed in the back of our 2, 3, 4 and 5 year old books
• American Academy of Pediatrics' website section on Early Literacy

Supporting Literacy Development: Two Year Olds

Your little one is so much more aware of the world around us! You may notice your child pointing to things and asking "What's that?" over and over. This is because two year olds are on the very edge of a language explosion. Over the next year, you'll find your little one learns new words at a surprising rate. Even when your child isn't using new words, their "word bank" of words they understand is growing.

 

Books with rich vocabulary and engaging illustrations help your child to both connect to the book and learn new language. You might try some of the books we've given to two year olds in the program. 

Support your child's literacy development by using these simple strategies:

 

• Connect to Text: When reading with your child, help him/her  make connections to the text by talking about things they know about that are like what is in the book.
• Learn how Books Work: Point to the words as you read so your child starts to make the connection between what you say and the text on the page. Say, "I'm reading the words on this page."
• Word Play: Play with the words in the book and try to use them in other settings as well.