Reading up

Families, schools, libraries and various groups throughout the Bay St. George area and across the country celebrated Family Literacy Day last week. The event was founded 11 years ago by ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation to encourage families to learn and read together.

And while it was a good way to promote literacy skills across the generations, let's not forget that learning is a life-long adventure. We can never gain enough knowledge or completely refine our personal skills.

With that in mind, let's make the extra effort this year to practice our literacy skills a little more. And it needn't be difficult. Here are some suggestions from ABC Canada on how families can develop and improve their literacy talents together on an ongoing basis:

Make board games a regular part of the family schedule. Have each person in the family take a turn in taking score or reading instructions;

To help stress the importance of everyday math skills, have your children count out the change required to make a purchase;

When the family is planning their next road trip, hand your children a map so they can follow along with road signs and billboards - or have them create a travel journal;

Have the family pitch in when making something to eat. Reading instructions and recipes, and measuring ingredients can involve the whole family (even have a look for the Table Talk recipe column in this paper);

Get out the dictionary (or find one online) and then choose a word and write it out on a piece of paper with the correct definition and then two or more made-up definitions. Then the family has to guess which definition is correct;

During a break, pick up a pen and do a crossword puzzle, word search, Sudoko or other game (check out the Georgian's puzzle page at the back of the paper);

Write a family member or friend a letter or send them an email and write about something you want to share.

There are plenty more ideas, tips and suggestions at www.abc-canada.org. You can visit the local library. And, of course, you can always pick up a copy of the Georgian and have and enjoy getting yourself and your family updated with what's happening in the Bay St. George area.