Received: from mail.clark.net (mail.clark.net [168.143.0.10]) by literacy (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id HAA14665 for <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov>; Mon, 9 Dec 1996 07:55:05 -0500 (EST) Received: from 168.143.7.42 (wpitcher.clark.net [168.143.7.42]) by mail.clark.net (8.8.4/8.6.5) with SMTP id HAA05070 for <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov>; Mon, 9 Dec 1996 07:55:23 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <32AC1C9A.7657@umd5.umd.edu> Date: Mon, 09 Dec 1996 09:05:14 -0500 From: Sharon Pitcher <spitcher@umd5.umd.edu> Reply-To: spitcher@umd5.umd.edu Organization: Baltimore County Maryland X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.02 (Macintosh; I; 68K) To: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Subject: Re: Interact: holidays References: <961205084203_1487448335@emout16.mail.aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit 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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