LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS - For Kathleen Roberts, learning doesn't begin on the first day of school, it begins on the first day of life.

Kathleen Roberts is a Norman Wells adult educator dedicated to improving the overall quality of literacy among families and young children. Roberts has organized a series of weekend literacy events at the community learning centre to help promote family literacy. - photo courtesy of Kathleen Roberts

The adult educator in Norman Wells, who moved to the community in January this year from Yellowknife, said the opportunity to put together a family literacy program in the Sahtu community was a chance for her to give back to her new community.

Roberts is running a 13-week family literacy program every Sunday at the community literacy centre. She said the program is a chance for parents and guardians to connect with their little ones on the importance of literacy.

"We try to address the many ways that families can learn together and parents and caregivers are the children's first and most important teachers," she said. "We try to focus on things you can do at home that are literacy activities, anything from writing to a grocery list together or writing a thank you note or going out on the land and learning about culture and traditional and cooking together."

Roberts said they focus on activities that help promote literacy, like singing songs and reading books - but also to provide parents with tools to help with reading and writing in the home.

"It's a chance to help prepare children for school, too," she said.

Through funding from the NWT Literacy Council, Roberts said a big focus of the program is to help make reading fun and "both parents and children learn to develop a love for reading rather than it being a threat.

"Part of it is to enrich relationships in families through spending time with each other and parents become more interested in their own reading," she said.

The program's first session was on April 9 with 13 participants - five adults and eight children - coming out to take advantage of the event.

Roberts said parents get to take home books they read together with their children during the day's programming. She said she includes a list of tips on how to bring literacy into every day activities at home.

"For instance, the book was called on Mother's Lap and I included some sleep tips for every child," she said, adding they do songs and rhymes that relate to the theme. "I also encourage parents to bring books from home that they read to their children to share with everyone."

Roberts said it's been a while since there has been a literacy program in the community. Having done a program similar to this a year ago, she said it was a good opportunity to give back.

"It benefited the community and gave mothers and children a chance to socialize because sometimes you can feel very isolated as a caregiver," she said, adding parents can compare notes on caregiving and grow from that. "They have a chance to meet new friends and what I really like is when dads can come.

"I see this as a chance to do something to help the community and it's a need that I kind of picked up on here."

For Roberts, she feels strongly that learning is a lifelong skill.

"It begins from day one," she said. "It's why I'm doing this."

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