From Beaufort-Hyde Partnership for Children

Care-O-World and Washington Pediatrics are teaming up with Beaufort-Hyde Partnership for Children to encourage parents to share the joy of reading with their children by reading aloud every day. Families have recently participated in the award-winning national MothereadÒ programs at each location to help their children be successful in school with stronger reading, thinking and problem solving skills. Seventeen parents and caregivers recently completed the first set of sessions offered in Beaufort County at the two sites with plans to offer additional sessions in 2016.

Motheread/FathereadÒ sessions were held at Care-O-World for caregivers while their children were engaged in literacy-rich experiences through the Motheread Story ExploringÒ curriculum for young children. Just a few blocks away, new and expecting parents and grandparents participated in Motheread Birth and Beginning YearsÒ sessions at Washington Pediatrics as they learned the importance of reading, talking and singing to their infants every day.

“Motheread is an evidence-based program that allows children and families to build literacy skills while spending time together,” said Kris Bowen, literacy coordinator with Beaufort-Hyde Partnership for Children. “After each session parents take home free books so they can practice reading aloud with their children to expand their vocabularies.”

During the sessions, parents meet in small groups led by trained Motheread facilitators to read children’s books and discuss the themes found in them. Parents then take the books home where they share them with their children while also using the read-aloud techniques they learned in the sessions.

Bowen said the parents could also review the pictures and subject matter of the book with their children to help them with skills such as retelling the story, making predictions and comprehending.

Care-O-World administrators and teachers are already planning the next round of Motheread/Fatheread sessions for parents of children attending the child care center’s branches in Washington and Chocowinity. Staff members at Washington Pediatrics are also making plans for Motheread Birth and Beginning Years sessions for new and expecting parents in 2016.

“Parents and caregivers should read aloud to their children every day especially in those developmental years from birth to age five,” according to Bowen. “Care-O-World (of Washington and Chocowinity) and Washington Pediatrics are strong supporters of reading aloud every day and we appreciate their leadership and collaboration in offering the Motheread story sharing experiences for families.”

The Motheread sessions are part of the Partnership’s Plant the Seed to Read Early Literacy Campaign. Look for book bins in businesses and organizations throughout Beaufort and Hyde counties where families can take a book home to read aloud together.

Both Care-O-World and Washington Pediatrics collaborate with the Partnership on other early literacy strategies to help children to be successful in school. Washington Pediatrics participates in Reach Out and Read, a program in which children receive a free book at each well child visit between the ages of six months to five years. In addition, Care-O-World has several teachers trained in Motheread Story Exploring and incorporates the curriculum into weekly lesson plans to engage children in early literacy strategies.

The story sharing experiences through Motheread are made possible through the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant federally funded through the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Education.

For more information about Motheread and other family programs supported by Beaufort-Hyde Partnership for Children, call 252-975-4647, visit www.bhckids.org or follow the organization on Facebook.