Beginning with a special Winter Walkway, which will lead families down Willow Lane toward the centre, participants in this special Family’s Day Out activity will be encouraged to talk to each other and enjoy a moment of calm on this busy night.

At the bottom of the lane, the TFRC office will be open for warm drinks and a family activity – working together to make a reusable calendar that will help keep everyone organized during the busiest time of the year.

“The holidays can be a hectic time,” explains Raeghann Lister, vice-president of the TFRC. “This is a chance to step back and take a breather while still enjoying some family time out in the community.”

This event is the first in a new slate of Family’s Day Out activities hosted by the Tantramar Family Resource Centre, and made possible through the Fall Community Building Grant from the united Way of Greater Moncton and South East New Brunswick.

The centre, located at 9A Willow Lane, will be open from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. While taking part in the activities, families are also encouraged to check out the centre’s resources, including books, pamphlets and Active Kids Family Activity Packs, which can be borrowed free of charge.

For more information about this or any other program offered by the Tantramar Family Resource Centre, call 939-8372 or email tfrcoffice@eastlink.ca

tfrcoffice@eastlink.ca

SACKVILLE – Thanks to the United Way of Greater Moncton’s Fall Community Building Grant, the Tantramar Family Resource Centre has received funding to continue the popular Family’s Day Out program.

Family’s Day Out is a series of free events that encourage Family Literacy, and take place within the Tantramar region on a regular basis, often as part of other community celebrations or events.

“These events have become a foundational project of TFRC” says TFRC president Sharon Hachey. “Through partnering with a variety of groups and events in the region we can focus collectively on raising the awareness of Family Literacy.  Also, it’s often at the Family’s Day Out activities that we get the chance to pass on information about other programs, like prenatal or Parent-Child Mother Goose.”

The centre first received funding for the program four years ago, and through the continued support of the United Way, has been able to offer the program on a continual basis ever since.

Planning is already underway for our annual Family Literacy Day celebration which is held across Canada on January 27^th.  More details about Tantramar Celebrations will be available in the coming weeks; involvement from a variety of individuals and organizations is welcome. The theme of this year’s celebration is Take the Learning Journey. Visit the ABC Life Literacy website to access a passport for your family’s learning journey.

The next Family’s Day Out event will take place on Nov. 18, as part of Sackville’s Midnight Madness. From 6-9 p.m., families will be able to take part in Family Winter Walkway, which includes a special winter walkway and the opportunity to create a personalized, re-usable family calendar.

Willow Lane, which runs between The Royal Bank and Jean Coutu buildings, will be transformed into a winter walkway that will lead families to the TFRC office, at 9A Willow Lane.

Warm drinks and family literacy activities will be offered at the centre, and participants will have a chance to find out about all of the TFRC’s programming and view resources available for lending.

For more information on this or any other event, or to volunteer with the Tantramar Family Resource Centre, call 939-8372 (TFRC) or email us.

First, realize that literacy is more than just reading and writing. Numeracy,  drama, physical activity and social literacy are also important skills.

Social literacy is practiced every time you knock on a door or ring a bell. Kids learn that there is a prescribed greeting (“Trick or Treat”), and that they are expected to say thank you after they have been given a treat.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a neighbourhood with plenty of houses and sidewalks, Halloween is great physical activity, too. Motivated by candy and fuelled by the excitement of the night, kids love racing from house to house for an extended period of time.

Halloween even encourages play-acting, as children will often get into the spirit of their costume and “act” like whatever they have become for Halloween.

Finally, Halloween can be a great way to encourage numeracy skills. My sons’ favourite part of Halloween night is always returning home to sort and count the candy. (They really love math!) They spend time deciding which things go together, which things were most popular to give out this year, etc.

Do you have a Halloween tradition that encourages literacy in some way? Share it here for others to try out this year!

Also, check out these ideas from

Whether it’s Meet the teacher or the start of a new hockey season, parents often find themselves attending meetings almost every night of the week. That may not seem like it leaves a lot of time for literacy, but there are some tricks to help, especially if you have to take your children with you to these meetings.

Plan ahead, and bring an interesting book or a magazine for kids (like, Owl, Chickadee or Chirp). Add a notebook with some special markers or pens (my favourites are gel pens, because they’re fun to doodle with) and a nutritious snack in a little container (whole wheat penguin crackers anyone?), and you have an hour’s worth of distractions for your child.

And if your children aren’t quite to the reading/writing stage, a bag full of toys they haven’t seen in a while is a good bet – just avoid anything noisy or above your child’s level – you don’t want to be interrupted in the middle of your great idea with the Backyardigan theme song, or (maybe worse) a whining child.

Meetings will die down as everything starts to fall into a routine, but these ideas also work anyplace you have to take your child and wait – doctors office, DMV, or even while meeting a friend at a local cafe.

And if you get the chance, bring your kids and your goody bag to the Tantramar Family Resource Centre’s AG, on Sept. 29 at 6:30 p.m., in the upper level mezzanine of the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre.

For many families, this weekend represent a final grab at family time before the hectic schedule of after-school activities and work schedules get the way of the pace of life that summertime brings.

Take some time this weekend to get outside together and play. The forecast is great (up until Sunday, anyway), and the time is right.

Even if you don’t the chance to go away for the weekend, take the opportunity to teach your kids (or your parents) some outdoor games you loved as a child – Kick the Can and Hide and Seek are longtime favourites, but ask your kids if they know how to play Sticky Red Bean or make up an active game yourselves.

The Tantramar Family Resource Centre has four Active Kids Family Activity Packs that have all kinds of simple equipment and ideas for games to play together. The kits are free to borrow – just give a call or an email, or come by during out office hours (Mon-Thurs, 9-Noon).

Playing with the family-sized parachute included in the Active Kids Family Activity Pack during the 2011 Day of Caring

Now go outside and play!

Exciting, especially for those starting a new school, because the start of anything always holds promise for adventure, or at least a fresh new start.

Scary, again, especially for those starting a new school, because the unknown is one of the greatest sources of fear.

Sad, especially for parents, who love their children and feel the passage of time most at times like these, when you suddenly become acutely aware that your baby is growing up.

Back-to-school also means a return to structure, to formalized learning, to extra-curriculars and, for many families, to after-school child care.

This next week is a great time to start thinking about (and maybe even putting into practice) all of those routines you stowed in the closet last June.

Returning to an earlier bedtime is sometimes easier if you do it 15 minutes at a time, over a week. Making lunches at night means you won’t have to think about it the next day (and backyard or living room picnics are a fun way to say goodbye to summer).

One thing that won’t change, however, are the ways in which you share literacy as a family. Bedtime stories are a constant, as are trips to the grocery store and making supper.

You probably already include literacy-building activities in your day-to-day lives, but now is also a great time to consider something new, like letting your 6-year-old hold and read the grocery list, or your 10-year-old have a try at making supper.

Reading bedtime stories is a classic Family Literacy tool that everyone loves

What are the ways that you share literacy with your family in your everyday routines? Leave your comments below!

This weekend, at the Port Elgin Exhibition, we’ll be bringing the Family’s Day Out program to enhance the Exhibition experience for families who are visiting on Saturday. We’ll have an agricultural scavenger hunt, there will be a big sheet of paper for painting – with toy tractors instead of brushes – and some great board games that have animal themes.

How does this help anyone?

Well, the board games help develop reading (or pre-reading) skills, numeracy, spatial relations and social literacy skills. Using tractors to paint involves fine motor skills – the same one needed for writing – and also encourages creativity. And the scavenger hunt is a great way to practice reading from a list and adding a column of numbers (since each item is worth a different number of points).

Playing Animal Upon Animal at Family Games Day

But more than just hard skills, Family’s Day Out activities show off some really simple, fun ways to encourage Family Literacy. You don’t have to have an expensive tutor, or all the best toys, to practice literacy skills. And there’s also value to spending time together as a family – the confidence it can give to children translates into other aspects of learning.

If you get the chance, come out on Saturday and join us for some fun. But even if you aren’t in Port Elgin, take some time this weekend to do something together with your family – and you’ll be amazed at how much you learn in the process.

The aim of this weekly blog is to keep people informed about what’s going on within our organization, as well as to keep families informed of some fun ways to make literacy part of their everyday lives – that’s Family Literacy, and it’s easier than you think!

In fact, you probably already practice Family Literacy at home – when you cook or bake together, sing a song or read a story together, even playing I Spy enhances family Literacy.

Planting a sunflower house at the Sackville Community Garden during the 2011 Day of Caring event

This Sunday, at the Campbell Carriage Factory Museum, is a great opportunity for families to get out and have some fun, and maybe even learn something new! There will be all kinds of things to catch your curiousity, from quilts and knot-tying to games from yesteryear. The bulk of the activities will take place from 1-4 p.m.

Visit this link to read more about what’s offered on Sunday.

And, if you’ve got the itch to volunteer some time at our upcoming events, we’re looking for volunteers on Aug. 20, Sept. 17, and Sept. 18. Contact information can be found on our Home page.