Travel the World Together for Family Literacy Day

Pack your suitcases, choose your destinations, and bring snacks for your adventure - it’s a literacy staycation! 

Every year, ABC Life Literacy Canada holds Family Literacy Day on January 27th, to raise awareness of family literacy and strengthen ongoing activities and behaviours that will promote whole family literacy.  

What is family literacy? Family literacy is what all members of the family do individually and together to engage in communication, language, and literacy. It’s how families (parents, grandparents, children, etc), use language and literacy together at home and in their communities. From engaging in their own reading and writing and modelling literacy, to reading together, to encouraging literacy skills in their children, adults play a daily role in developing children’s literacy skills.  

This year, the theme for Family Literacy Day is Travel the World Together. Of course, our actual travel options are limited at the moment, but ABC Life Literacy Canada is inviting your family to delve into your imaginations and conversation, to explore the world through books and media, and to engage in experiences like planning trips, cooking, and dancing together.  

Here are some of our ideas for participating in this Family Literacy Day, with family members of all ages: 

• Engage in your kids in conversation. Talk about places you’ve been, or want to go. Where you’d go if you only had a weekend or where you’d like to spend more time. Have you been to different provinces or territories?

• Use our This or That? or “If you could...” question sheets - and make up your own questions, too. Don’t forget time and space travel!

• Read stories about families around the world and other countries, told by authors and illustrators that reflect their communities.

  • Here’s a list of stories about food and cooking

  • Here’s a list of books by Indigenous authors across Canada

  • Here’s a list of travel-themed stories by Black authors

  • Here’s a list of books about the environment

  • And a list about books about families

• Get everyone’s bicycle legs going for a shared line at a time story about a family cycling trip.

• Look at different kinds of maps and talk about those - what can you understand about the world from them? Can you learn anything about people through maps?

• For younger children, Know Your Globe by SciShow Kids

• For older children and teens, Can You Make and Accurate Map? By SciShow

• How to Make a Map

• If you have loved ones in other places, use a blank map to pin where you are and where your family and friends are in the world.

• Make up your own family game using our blank template. You could use a fidget spinner with a tape arrow, dice from another game, an app, or make paper dice to determine turns, or come up with your own system.

• Think about your own community, city, and province - what’s being offered virtually right now? And are there nearby outings you’ve always thought about taking but never taken? You could make a Local Bucket List with your family to keep for future day trips and family travel.

 You can also check out more ideas on the ABC Life Literacy website here.

Written by Lara Vlach, RECE, Parent Support Coach & Community Connector