Literacy Begins at Home

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Literacy is a lifelong skill set that begins being developed at birth.

The Muskingum County Library System is encouraging adults to take part in a seminar that teaches them how to provide the children in their lives a jump on learning literacy.

“We are putting on a program called The Early Literacy At Home program. This is designed for caregivers, parents, grandparents, teachers. It is not for children. They are welcome to bring their children. We will have things for them to do but the program itself will be pretty boring for a child,” MCLS Youth Literacy Specialist Nick Eling said.

The program will explain the lifelong impact of reading achievement and academic success to the mentors so that they can have a better understanding of the importance of developing early literacy skills, such as: talking, singing, reading, playing and writing. 

“So we’re having it on Thursdays,” Eling said. “The next one is this Thursday at 11a.m. It’s going to be at our Duncan Falls and Philo branch. And then beyond that, we have one on the 30th, 11:30 a.m. at our New Concord Branch. And then we have one on November 13th 11 a.m. at our Roseville Branch and then the last one is on November 20th 11 a.m. at the Welcome Center, across the street from the library.”

Eling stressed that homes should be learning zones and how the program will teach parents how to proactively engage in teaching literacy to their children.