Altrusa of Hamilton County is pleased to announce that it has initiated Phase II of its annual literacy project: The Three L’s: Literacy, Learning, and Leaders.
During the past two weeks, Altrusa members have delivered 1,000 Pre-K activity calendars and reading books to the Carmel, Cicero, Sheridan and Westfield libraries and Head Start of Hamilton County. These items will be distributed to patrons and Head Start students free of charge.
For the past two years, Altrusa International of Hamilton County has distributed The Countdown to Kindergarten Calendar to local communities. It contains a year’s worth of readiness activities designed to prepare a child for success in kindergarten.
President Joanne Kemp (left) and Altrusa member Cole Alexis (right) read to Noblesville Head Start Children. (Photos provided)
While the calendars have been a great success, Altrusa members discovered that many of the recipient families cannot afford to purchase the books necessary to incorporate the at-home exercises. The members decided to provide primary books to foster reading for pleasure, assist in learning the alphabet, help establish a love for learning, and ultimately foster leadership qualities. Members will also participate in reading sessions with the children enrolled in Head Start throughout the year.
Altrusa members believe the preschool years are crucial ones for a child’s development of language and literacy. What happens during those years has a lasting effect on all learning. Reading with one’s child impacts their language development, vocabulary growth and familiarity with the written word. Reading to children and talking about books stimulates a child’s imagination, curiosity and thinking ability. It also improves children’s ability to concentrate and stay focused.
Last year one of the Altrusa members met with a group of school teachers and learned that many children don’t read at home because there are no books, as parents with limited funds must purchase “necessities, not luxuries.” Often these limited funds also impact the ability to make frequent library trips secondary to the need to conserve gasoline funds. These same teachers pointed out that most children from middle class and higher socio-economic households have cherished books they read and re-read every evening, thereby honing their reading skills.
Research has shown that when children read for pleasure, they get “hooked on books.” They develop, without conscious effort, nearly all of the so-called “language skills.” They will become adequate readers, who acquire the following:
- Expanded vocabulary
- Established understanding and use of complex grammatical constructions
- A good writing style
- Good spelling skills
In a complex world, the ability to read is crucial. This generation of children will need to read and write more than at any other time in human history. As adults, they will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as good citizens, and conduct their personal lives.
Altrusa has a number of educators and medical field providers as members and they recognize that 21st century lives will need literacy to cope with the flood of information they will find everywhere they turn. Altrusa members realize these children need strong literacy skills to feed their imaginations and create the world of the future.