KIPLING - READ Saskatoon has a long history as a local literacy organization that offers literacy services to adults and families at no cost to participants.
For more than 40 years, the organization has provided adult tutoring services with the help of trained volunteers and community partners. READ Saskatoon offers adult, family and children’s tutoring, and financial literacy programs, as well as literacy facilitator trainings and resources.
“READ Saskatoon has a proven track record and comprehensive literacy programs that deliver tangible results. With more than one-third of children not ready to start kindergarten when they arrive at school, our province needs increased family literacy programming more than ever,” READ Saskatoon executive director Sheryl Harrow-Yurach said.
“We are excited to partner with a like-minded organization, the Southeast Regional Library, to deliver our family literacy programming at its branches throughout southeast Saskatchewan, including Kipling Library,” Harrow-Yurach said.
“Southeast Regional Library’s vision is an informed and literate community. READ Saskatoon’s vision is a community that values, promotes, and supports literacy. We are very much aligned in our core values and we recognize that the more literacy skills young children develop before kindergarten, the better equipped they are for academic and general success in all areas of life later on,” SRL library director Kate-Lee Nolin said.
The benefits of early literacy programming for families and children are substantial including improvements in readiness for school, early school performance, graduation rates and employment prospects; alongside a reduction in incidences of delinquency, contact with the justice system, and the need for remedial education services.
SRL will be delivering READ Saskatoon’s 1, 2 Buckle My Shoe family numeracy six-week program in March at the Kipling Library. 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe is READ Saskatoon’s newest program for parents, caregivers, and their preschoolers ages three to five. The program focuses on numbers, counting, estimating, measuring and shapes through activities, rhymes, and stories. Families will learn fun new activities, games and tips about numbers, math, and problem solving for use every day.
“It’s geared towards setting the kids up to have those basic counting skills so they’re set for kindergarten,” said Charla Smyth, librarian at the Kipling Library, who will be the facilitator of this program.
Smyth is looking forward to hosting this program.
“It’ll be really good. I really, really enjoy putting story times on so I’m excited to build on that.”
Smyth is hoping to have a full class as there are already families looking forward to it.
Parents can find more information and register for the program with Smyth by calling 306-736-2911.
