Willimantic, CT – – Eastern Connecticut State University’s School of Continuing Education hosted the workshop “Supporting Your Child’s Literacy Skills Through Daily Routines” in the Child and Family Development Resource Center on April 10, to inform busy parents how to support their children’s development by engaging them in meaningful discussions daily.
Children were watched as parents met separately with Theresa Surprenant, instructor of education at Eastern. In a discussion setting, parents learned that even with busy schedules, daily routines such as car rides, cooking dinner or getting dressed in the morning can be taken advantage of to help children learn, by sparking conversation about what they are seeing and doing.
“The workshop gave us a lot of really practical ideas to do with our kids,” says Joanna Auriantal, a Willimantic resident who attended the workshop with her husband and three children. “Some of our favorites were talking to our kids about our childhood, practicing rhyming and making word puzzles to learn spelling. My husband is a teacher and I work in education, so we try to incorporate ideas from work into our family. You always try to do what’s best for your kids, but it’s nice to come to something like this to give you more ideas and learn from others.”
After the discussion, parents were reunited with their children to practice the conversational skills they learned while the children played. Parents also completed an assessment about what they learned and received a badge of completion for the course.
A final children’s workshop, “Exploring Abstract Wood Sculpture,” taught by Visual Arts Professor Claudia Widdis, will be held in the Child and Family Development Resource Center from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on May 7. During the class, families will work together with their children to make fun creations out of wood and other materials.
Persons interested should contact Indira Petoskey, assistant dean of the School of Continuing Education, to register. She can be reached at (860) 465-5066 or petoskeyi@easternct.edu. The fee for the workshop is $10 per adult. Dinner will be served from 5:30-6 p.m.
CAPTION (Photo 1): Parents talk to their children as they create educational arts and crafts
Eastern Connecticut State University is the state’s public liberal arts university. Eastern serves more than 5,400 students each year on its Willimantic campus and satellite locations.
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