Starting kindergarten ready matters. Studies show that kids who begin school with basic literacy skills are more likely to read and succeed into adulthood, going further in school and securing steady jobs. Thanks to you, we’re making sure children in southern Arizona have that opportunity!

Our Make Way for Kindergarten program is one of our favorite ways to do this. Each week, our Family Literacy Specialists provide programming the helps children and parents prepare for the transition to school. Children learn the skills kindergarten teachers want their students to have on day one! This is especially important for children who don’t attend preschool, as it could be their first experience with the school environment.

Of course, it’s also lots of fun! During our last Make Way for Kindergarten session, we divided up the classroom into four sections and used ‘mystery boxes’ full of items to give kids a way to interact with the new classroom environment they will experience in kindergarten. Crafts, snacks, and of course a Pete the Cat story about his first day of school all played a part!

One parent told us after Make Way for Kindergarten, “This program has definitely helped our family bond more over books. The free books have allowed my child’s love for books to grow with all the different stories she has to read. We definitely love it here.”

Our most important partner is you!  Every time you support Make Way for Books, whether with time, in-kind donations or monetary gifts, these are the stories you’re telling. We couldn’t be more grateful to share them with you!

 

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This guest article was written by Make Way for Books Intern Jack Martin.

Jack Martin is completing an internship at Make Way for Books this summer. A Tucson native, he currently attends the University of Oklahoma, where he’s working on a degree in Nonprofit Enterprise. When not pursuing his nonprofit passions, you can find Jack spending time with his Shiba Inu and Corgi mix Sake or playing board games with friends.

 

We are so proud to share that Rotary Club of Tucson Sunrise honored Make Way for Books CEO Jenny Volpe with its 2016-2017 Service to Humanity Award!

Jenny believes in the power of literacy to change lives. Believing in education as a means to achieve social change, Jenny started her educational career as a Teach For America teacher and taught for five years before entering the educational publishing, curriculum development, and nonprofit sectors. For seven years at Make Way for Books, she has dedicated her time working to ensure that children in our community are prepared to read and succeed and are given access to the opportunities they need to realize their full potential.

Jenny received the Service to Humanity Award “in recognition of her ongoing commitment to improve children’s literacy in Southern Arizona.” Rotary Club of Tucson Sunrise noted, “[Jenny] is passionate about helping children gain access to quality educational opportunities. She believes in the power of literacy to change lives. She has touched so many live’s in making a difference in our community.”

We are so excited to be back at Tanque Verde Swap Meet to provide Cover to Cover for children and families this summer! Cover to Cover is an “early literacy school without walls” that travels via book bus to meet families in places they already visit throughout their day. The program transforms community locations into early literacy classrooms where children experience the joy of books while developing early literacy skills. Parents learn how they can make reading a fun and meaningful part of their children’s lives, everyday, everywhere.

Check out our Family Program Calendar to find Cover to Cover and our other family literacy programs around the community.

Make Way for Books was honored to be a part of the Cradle to Career 2017 What Works Symposium hosted by United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona. Our Raising A Reader program was one of 10 programs selected and recognized for using data to drive real impact for children in southern Arizona!

Make Way for Books impacts more than 30,000 children and families as well as 700 educators each year. We provide quality books and proven programs that give our youngest children the chance to reach their full potential.

It wouldn’t be possible without you– our community.

This year, we are filled with gratitude for your support on Arizona Gives Day. Because 196 of our incredible friends and families gave, we had our biggest Arizona Gives Day yet! You helped us earn $2,500 in matching dollars from Comcast. And thanks to you, we won the Power Hour and will receive an additional $5,000 from Arizona Gives Campaign!

Altogether, you beat our goal and raised more than $25,000 in less than 24 hours!! Thank you for making our community a place where young children can thrive!

Arizona Gives Day is coming up on Tuesday, April 4^th and we need you! 

Arizona Gives Day is a statewide online giving day when our community comes together to support causes close to our hearts. Make Way for Books has a goal to raise $25,000 in one day and because you have shown us so much support in the past, we know we can do it!

 

Visit https://www.azgives.org/makewayforbooks to make your gift on April 4th!

 

+ Your gift matters! If we reach $10,000 in gifts, Comcast will donate another $2,500!

 

+  If you are able to give $100 or more, we would love for you to participate in the 3 pm Power Hour on April 4^th. If Make Way for Books has the most unique donations over $100 during this Power Hour, we can win an additional $5,000 from the Arizona Gives Day Campaign.  This would be incredible and we’ve done it the past two years thanks to you!

 

+ You can come celebrate with us at La Cocina Restaurant the evening of April 4^th from 5-9pm.  We will have live music provided by Kristen and Michael Chandler and a portion of all food and drink sales will be donated to Make Way for Books.  It is always a really fun and relaxing evening!

 

Our mission is to give all children the chance to read and succeed. We work to ensure children thrive in the classroom and beyond it! Children are the future of our community, our country, and our world. And we know that if books build brains, then books build leaders!

With your help, we are committed to sharing books that reflect the incredible diversity and strengths of children and families in our community. A book is a mirror into understanding ourselves and a window to understanding each other. And we believe that every child should see themselves in the stories we share.

All children and all families are welcome at Make Way for Books. Ultimately, we know that the more stories we share, the more support we provide in times of struggle, and the more strengths we celebrate, the stronger we will become as a community.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, we shared stories about peace, compassion, diversity, and girl power with a wonderful group of young girls, boys, and families! Children created their own super person capes following the storytime!

 

 

Each year, Rotary Club of Tucson members dedicate their time, passion, and energy into helping our next generation of readers and learners thrive. Rotary Club of Tucson raised a record amount of funding this year through their annual Tucson Classics Car Show with proceeds going directly back into the community through grants and scholarships.

Make Way for Books is exceedingly thankful to be the primary beneficiary of the Tucson Classics Car Show. And this year, we are thrilled to announce that Rotary Club of Tucson has awarded a generous grant of $83,723 to support Cover to Cover, our innovative early literacy program that will impact more than 1,000 children each year.

“The members of the Rotary Club of Tucson never cease to amaze me. Their energy, dedication, service, and generosity to make our community a better place for children is remarkable. With this incredible giving power and hard work, these Rotarians can accomplish anything. They are truly helping to change the landscape of literacy in Tucson,” shared Jenny Volpe, Chief Executive Officer of Make Way for Books.

 

In our community, 4 out of 5 young children do not have access to high-quality early education. As the major sponsor of Cover to Cover, Rotary Club of Tucson provides funding that allows us to travel out into the community to meet families in community locations like food banks, social services offices, mobile home communities, and more. We transform these locations into early literacy classrooms without walls where children and parents learn together.

 

 

Cover to Cover gives young children the chance to develop emergent literacy and language skills outside of the preschool classroom. Week after week, parents gain resources and skills to be their child’s first best teacher.

In fact, one participating mother shared, “You inspired me to improve myself to be a better mom to my kids. To see your impact on my kids – to make them want to read and hear stories – it made me want to try harder. I never knew that most of my child’s brain grew by age 5. I finally realized how important it was!”

Rotary Club of Tucson is a tremendous partner to Make Way for Books and goes above and beyond to support our youngest children. Learn more about Rotary Club of Tucson and their amazing support in our partner highlight! 

We are beyond grateful for the generous support and partnership of Rotary Club of Tucson!

 

Make Way for Books supports literacy in multiple languages through all of our programs because of the important effects of a bilingual education. At Make Way for Books, we like to tell parents to read to their children in the same language they use to say, “I love you.”

 

The latest research suggests that learning in two languages gives a child many advantages. From a young age a bilingual education can improve executive function, social and emotional skills, and reading and math skills.

 

Improved Executive Function

For bilingual children to successfully speak two languages they must be able to switch between those languages. This ability to switch which language is being spoken and to speak the right language at the right time is one way that bilingualism is thought to improve executive function in children.

Executive function encompasses many skills including attention, inhibition, and switching between tasks. People who speak two languages tend to do better than those who speak only one language when tested on tasks that rely on these skills. These differences in executive function abilities have been found in children as young as toddlers. Even your child’s first years are an important time to introduce them to a second language! Check out our recent blog post on executive function to learn more about these important skills!

 

Setting a Foundation for Social and Emotional Skills

Being able to speak a second language has also been found to improve a child’s social and emotional skills. Researchers think that this is because someone who speaks two languages may require an increased sensitivity to social cues.

Bilingual preschoolers perform better in Theory of Mind tasks specifically. These tasks indicate a child’s ability to recognize that someone else may hold thoughts and beliefs different than their own – a necessary foundation for many social and emotional skills.

 

Improving Reading and Math Skills in English

It is a common misconception that speaking a second language at home can harm a child’s ability to learn English at school. Current research shows that even during preschool, knowing another language can improve reading and math skills in English – without negative consequences.

A study conducted on Spanish-speaking preschoolers in English-dominant classrooms found that students with high-level Spanish reading and math ability showed improved skills in English as well. It is beneficial for children to learn these concepts in any language because basic literacy and math skills can be applied across languages.

 

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* Sources

Farhadian et al. 2010. “Theory of Mind in Bilingual and Monolingual Preschool Children.” Journal of Psychology. 1(1): 39-46.

Kamenetz, Anya. “6 Potential Brain Benefits of Bilingual Education.” nprED. November 29, 2016.

Poulin-Dubois, D et al. 2011. “The effects of bilingualism on toddlers’ executive functioning.” Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 108(3): 567-579.

Tankard Carnock, Janie. “Why You Shouldn’t Stop Speaking Spanish at Home”. Education Post. September 14, 2016.

 

At Make Way for Books, we love books and reading and we would like you and your child to fall in love with them too. Our mission is to give all children the chance to read and succeed, but not just in school. Ultimately, we are focused on the bigger picture. We know that you and your child are the future of this community, this country, and the world. If books build brains, then books build leaders.

And this means that together, our work is to build the future.

As you know, when you talk, sing, read, and play with your child, you are building literacy and language skills. But you are also doing so much more! You’re building compassionate, open-minded, decisive, patient, inspiring, passionate, honest, and culturally-sensitive leaders. How? The answer may lie in something called executive function.

Executive function is the brain’s “air traffic control” system. It allows us to plan, monitor our emotions, control our behavior (known as self-regulation), and manage our attention. Babies aren’t born with these skills, but they are born with the potential to develop them, and you, as your child’s first and best teacher, help develop those skills.

Scientists have found that early executive function skills begin developing in infants as young as 6 or 7 months. These early skills help children control their attention and regulate their behavior later in life. They are related to children’s ability to resolve conflict. And self-regulation skills can even predict children’s empathy skills as they mature. So the skills that you nurture when your children are infants will ultimately affect their ability to control their behavior and emotions, to solve conflicts with patience and compassion, and even to be more understanding of people in different situations! And all of these abilities are the makings of a good leader.

If we want our children to grow to be the types of leaders that will make this world better for everyone, we need to support children’s language, literacy, and executive function skills from birth. Together, we can do this!

 

Here are some fun, easy ways to help your child develop executive function and self-regulation skills:

For babies up to 18 months

— Lap games, like peekaboo, help exercise working memory and self-control skills.

— Fingerplays with simple hand motions, like the Itsy Bitsy Spider or Open, Shut Them develop self-control and language skills.

— Hiding games, such as putting a toy under a cloth or cup, are great for older infants gaining the ability to track the movement of the toy.

For toddlers up to 3 years

— Active games, like Follow the Leader, require toddlers to exercise their working memory and attention skills.-Games that require children to stop or slow down, like the Freeze Dance or Red Light, Green Light, build self-control and inhibition skills.

— Games that require children to stop or slow down, like the Freeze Dance or Red Light, Green Light, build self-control and inhibition skills.

— Remember that children this age are still barely learning these skills, so don’t expect them to be able to follow the rules of the game perfectly!

For children up to 5 years

— Imaginary play is very important at this age, and children create their own rules for their games, take turns, and develop ideas in their minds that shape their play. When they play with other children, they are also beginning to regulate each other’s behavior, which is an important step towards developing cooperation skills.

— Reading books, while important from birth, gives children this age the “experience” they need to be able to develop their own scenarios and stories for imaginary play.

— Join in your child’s imaginary play and follow the rules and roles they set for you!

 

Click here for more ideas for activities on the Make Way for Books Early Literacy App!

 

For more resources about developing your child’s executive function skills all the way up to adolescence, visit Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child.

 

*Sources: Rothbart, Ellis, Rueda and Posner, 2003; Eisenberg, Michalik, et al., 2007; Gardner et al., 2005