Family literacy day is celebrated in Canada on January 27th every year! Reading together as a family, especially with your young ones, is proven to make a lasting different if your child's life.
Here are five facts we discovered through ABC Literacy Life Canada:
- Children whose parents are involved with them in family literacy activities score 10 points higher on standardized reading tests.
- A mother’s reading skill is the greatest factor to affect her children’s future academic success, outweighing other factors, like neighborhood and family income.
- Parents’ reading habits play a large role in determining how often kids read: 57% of kids who are frequent readers have parents who read books 5–7 days per week, compared to only 15% of kids who are infrequent readers .
- Children of low-literate parents are exposed to 30,000,000 fewer words and enter kindergarten with a much larger skills gap than their peers.
- Almost 40% of Canadian youth do not have suitable literacy skills.
These are all powerful statistics that showcase just how important being involved in your child's reading journey is. Whether it is improving your reading habits, reading a bedtime story to your child at night, or making reading fun for the family - there are many different ways to improve family literacy.
Check out our Kind Reads children's collection if you're looking for affordable books to add to the your family collection. Buying used books or visiting your local library are great ways to get access to books and not breaking the bank!
Happy Family Literacy day!