Caledon Public Library preparing to celebrate Family Literacy Day

January 19, 2023 · 0 Comments

Family Literacy Day is observed on January 27

By Zachary Roman

The Caledon Public Library is inviting Caledon families to have fun celebrating Family Literacy Day this month.

Family Literacy Day takes place each year on January 27 with the goal of raising awareness of the importance of reading, and other literacy-based activities, as a family.

According to a study completed by Monique Sénéchal for the National Center for Family Literacy, children whose parents are involved with them in family literacy activities score 10 points higher on standardized reading tests.

The Caledon Public Library (CPL) has a variety of activities planned for the big day, the largest of which is happening at the Southfields Village branch and Southfields Community Centre.

In conjunction with the Southfields EarlyON Centre and Town of Caledon’s aquatics team, CPL is hosting an event called “Stories, Crafts and a Swim.” The event begins with a storytime at 10:30 a.m. and the swimming will take place from 11 to 11:55 a.m. The CPL will have crafts available and will be showcasing some of the best new children’s books available to be taken out from the library.

Laurie Groe, the CPL’s Manager of Youth Services, said Family Literacy Day is a time to acknowledge the importance of literacy and a time to celebrate being able to read and having access to materials to read. She said the CPL supports parents and caregivers reading with their kids as early as possible and that it leads to a child’s lifelong love of reading.

“Family Literacy Day is another great day for the family to read together,” said Groe. “We promote that you do it every day, but this is a special day.”

The CPL is also creating a Family Literacy Day art exhibit with the help of Caledon community members. Families can drop into their local CPL branch to design their very own book cover, or download a template from the CPL’s website. They can then submit photos of their masterpieces to [email protected] to be featured in the CPL’s gallery.

At the CPL’s Albion Bolton branch, there’s space on the wall in the kids section for displaying book covers created by the community. Already, over 40 book covers have been submitted to that branch alone.

“We have a new art display in the children’s area… (the covers) will be slipped into frames and go on the wall,” said Groe. “It makes it more formal than taping something to the wall or pinning it to a cork board.”

Groe said some of the CPL’s core values include lifelong learning and early literacy, both of which Family Literacy Day promotes.