Received: (from news@localhost) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.7.6/8.7.3) id HAA14736 for nifl-family@novel.nifl.gov; Mon, 9 Dec 1996 07:58:17 -0500 (EST) Path: literacy.nifl.gov!nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov From: Sharon Pitcher <spitcher@umd5.umd.edu> Newsgroups: nifl.family Subject: Re: Interact: holidays Date: 9 Dec 1996 07:58:14 -0500 Organization: National Institute for Literacy Lines: 37 Sender: listproc@literacy.nifl.gov Distribution: nifl Message-ID: <32AC1C9A.7657@umd5.umd.edu> Reply-To: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov NNTP-Posting-Host: literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.02 (Macintosh; I; 68K) Status: O X-Status: I believe holiday time is one of the most important in the year for family literacy programs. Many of the Welfare mothers I worked with in the past went into real stress at this time. I had parents in the past who spent their rent money on elaborate gifts for their children and landed in homeless shelters in January. Holiday time is a very important time to teach critical thinking and reinforcing educational skills in the home. When I was doing family literacy programing, I always had a "Making Family Memory" program where parents came together to share family traditions (most of my parents did not value these experieinces until they shared them) and inexpensive places to buy toys. The moms made gifts for their children like puppets and bean bags. I got toys and we raffled them. I gave out a booklet which included easy to make recipies they could make with their children, gifts they could make such as play dough, how to make wrapping paper and cards. We also shared how important it is to give your children the "gift" of time and gave them a list of free actvities in the area they could take their children to. I will never forget the best of these workshops that we conducted. One of the parents shared how she took her children to the Hershey Park in Pa., which is free, and has over a million lights. My parents did not have cars and Hershey is a two hour drive from us. They decided to raise money to take their children. They raffled a ham and turkey they got donated. They had bake sales and sold lunches in one of our centers which was in community center. They raised $800 completely on their own and took two buses. We taught classes on how to save money by packing picnic lunches. They read holiday stories and played games on the bus. They sang Christmas carols. It was a fabulous experiences. I am now working in a school and have high school student volunteering with me whose family came on that trip. Her mother told me that they talk about it often, plan an activity every year now, and often get together now with the other families. The moms now are all working and many got their high school diplomas. This experience contributed in many ways to their success. Sharon Pitcher, Balto. Co., Md.
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