Family Literacy Day

Family Literacy Day is a national awareness initiative created by ABC Life Literacy Canada in 1999 and held annually on January 27 to raise awareness of the importance of reading and engaging in other literacy-related activities as a family. Its aim is to highlight the importance of family literacy to individuals, communities and societies. The Moose Jaw Literacy Network is very excited about our community celebrating Family Literacy Day Monday, January 27.

Around the world, some 775 million adults lack minimum literacy skills; one in five adults is still not literate and two-thirds of them are women; 60.7 million children are out-of-school and many more attend irregularly or drop out. There is a clear connection between illiteracy and countries in severe poverty.

Family literacy programs focus on parents as the means to improve the reading, writing and communication skills of all family members. By reading to children and engaging in fun literacy activities, parents are actively keeping their own skills sharp while at the same time strengthening the relationship between the families and their children which, in turn, encourages lifelong learning. Taking time every day to read or do a learning activity with children is crucial to a child’s development. Even just 15 minutes a day can improve a child’s literacy skills dramatically and can help a parent improve their skills as well.

The Moose Jaw and District  Literacy Network is a partnership between Prairie South School Division, Holy Trinity Catholic School Division, the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the Early Childhood Coalition, the Moose Jaw Public Library, Moose Jaw Multicultural Society and the Chamber of Commerce, with the support of the Saskatchewan Literacy Network and Saskatchewan Education.

In keeping with the 2020 theme, 20 communities applied for and received a bag of 20 board games thanks to funding by the Ministry and the Moose Jaw Literacy Network.

The Literacy Network provided funds for snacks for the Games Night or for another event if there were not enough bags to meet all requests.

*In keeping with the 2020 theme, 20 communities applied for and received a bag of 20 games thanks to funding by the Ministry and the Moose Jaw Literacy Network. We are very grateful for the Ministry funding. The Literacy Network provided funds for snacks for the Games Night or for another event if there were not enough bags to meet all requests. Family Games Nights will allow these communities to continue to have various nights with very little preparation.