One of the many ways we honor our abolitionist history is through our commitment to literacy in our community. Since 2015, our school partnerships have been growing and we now operate 4 school libraries, hire parents as literacy assistants across 2 schools, provide a volunteer reading buddies program, host family workshops & author visits, and give away lots and lots of books! Over the past few years, we have been working to integrate this commitment into our outdoor programming and this summer we launched a series called Wondrous Wednesdays.
This new weekly initiative led to lots of fun exploring stories and the gardens together. Led by Martina Barbour, our Literacy Director, families were invited to enjoy interactive story times, songs, and art under the trees at our historic site and arboretum. Each week explored a different nature based theme, such as bugs, trees, and the water cycle in order to grow curiosity about the natural world.
Martina led two sessions of story time each Wednesday, followed by various arts activities to deepen the children’s appreciation of the story and theme. They also got get to know the grounds and gardens and were excited to see tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, squash, and berries growing, some for the very first time. Families received literacy resources from Read by 4th and book giveaways to further encourage reading together at home. Representatives from the Office of Early Childhood also visited to share valuable preschool registration information.
We know that parents are their child’s first teachers and we have been so excited to be able to partner together throughout the summer. Looking ahead to the school year, we’ll continue to host family literacy workshops in our partner schools and incorporate storytimes into our Family Fun Days.
