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Imagine … babies, toddlers, caregivers, books, games and a bison all together! Playing, singing, telling stories, reading books, doing crafts and laughing. That’s what you’ll see when our Bison Bus Mobile Family Centre goes on the road. What is the Bison Bus? It's a mobile family centre that will tour northern communities that are accessible by road.  We will offer free family literacy programs… Read more.

Early childhood education and care has so many benefits it’s little wonder it’s an election issue both federally and territorially. The Feasibility Study of Universal, Affordable Day Care in the Northwest Territories outlines those benefits in the graphic copied here. This week’s CBC headline focused on the yearly costs to the government of making early childhood education and care (ECEC)… Read more.

NWT Literacy Week is a good time to consider what role literacy skills play in your life, and what you can do to support literacy.  We’re all impacted by literacy  – as individuals, family and community members, employees, employers and taxpayers. The adage “use it or lose it” is as true about our literacy skills as anything else.  If we don’t exercise them, literacy skills get rusty.  For me,… Read more.

With just three weeks under my belt as the new Family Literacy Coordinator Trainee, I’ve already had so many opportunities and learning experiences with the Council. I enjoyed presenting our Science Fun and Little Chefs Family Literacy resources at the Early Childhood Symposium organized by the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Education, Culture and Employment.  It gave me a… Read more.

Over the past few months I had the pleasure of working with the Literacy Council as this year's summer student.  I helped design and create resources, test science experiments and art recipes, and paint the brand new bookmobile my own choice of bright blue. As much fun as those things were, what had the most impact was getting out into the community. Part of my job included going to the… Read more.

Mini.  Micro. Short.  What do you think of when you see these terms?  I bet it wasn’t learning!  Micro courses, or short courses are gaining in popularity throughout the adult literacy world and beyond.  This trend is alive and well in the north.  We partnered with Aurora College to create short courses offered in Community Learning Centres throughout the NWT in the past few years.  Start your… Read more.

First a confession:  during my first year with the NWT Literacy Council I worked in Family Literacy, talking about the need to start early with child language and literacy development.  As a 21-year-old with no kids, I felt like a bit of a fraud talking about this, even with research and experienced people to back me up. In November, when I found out that I was pregnant I thought, “Great, now I… Read more.

This week’s guest blogger, Emma Welsh, is a student working at the Yellowknife Public Library this summer. With school out, it’s easy to leave the idea of schoolwork and reading behind, distracted with thoughts of lazy beach days or long car trips. That’s why summer holidays are the home of the ‘summer slide’. The term describes the loss of reading and comprehension skills experienced when kids… Read more.

Our guest blogger, Kyle Napier, is the Cree Language Manager with the Northwest Territory Métis Nation.  June is National Aboriginal History Month in Canada.  Kyle suggests we celebrate it by learning to speak one of the NWT’s official Aboriginal languages. opāskāhopīsim e nēhiyawēwin kayāsitotamowin pīsim — miyawātamowin asici pīkiskwewinahk Several Elders have told me that it takes about a… Read more.

Our guest blogger this week is Christine Barker.  Christine does family literacy programming in Yellowknife and strives to be a better parent. A few weeks ago I selected the Literacy and Parenting Skills workshop when I participated in family literacy training in Edmonton.  I thought it would be a great fit given that the people I work with are constantly questioning their abilities as parents… Read more.