Newsletter: Monday, 6th Jul 09

Clare Family Learning Project Newsletter

Date: Monday 6th July
www.clarefamilylearning.org

Summer Newsletter 2009

Weekend Action for Dads and Children
A successful 11 week pilot project included 'Cooking Together' each week and one other activity such as: Making music from recycled items, Digital photography, Making a frame, Making a movie/drama, Making puppets.
Evaluations showed children discovered new things about their dads, for example that they knew a lot and could cook! Four fathers and ten children attended.

Parent and child together programmes
8 programmes for parents and children were organised in 5 locations around the county this term. As some areas were very rural mothers wanted to attend the Dads and Kids sessions as well. In one very isolated area we had 24 parents/grandparents and 32 children from four very small rural schools and one town school. They found the Fun Science Experiments very exciting!

Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS)
33 courses were delivered in 7 locations in Ennis to parents of children in DEIS schools.
We worked closely with the Home School Community Liaison Teachers on their Tom Crean project. We developed South Pole Adventures for the fathers and children: activities included creating life size penguins and a 3D relief map of Antarctica. A group of Traveller Dads carved a model boat similar to the Discovery used on the expeditions. Cookery and Storybags were very popular with mothers and Traveller Dads took part in Stained Glass classes.

'Having Fun - Getting Active'
Clare Family Learning Project together with Clare Co. Childcare Committee, Clare Sports Partnership and the lead agency, the local Health Promotion Unit, developed a pilot project aimed at parents of children in the 0-6 age group. Training is required for the tutor to deliver the content. Parents attend two 1.5 hour sessions and receive a copy of two parent booklets for children 0-2 years and 2-6 years. These include lots of active rhymes, songs, ideas and activities for active play. 5 family learning groups have received this training to date.

Family Learning DVD
This is very nearly ready for anyone that would like a copy. Please email me your name and postal address and you should have a copy by mid September.

Family Learning Guide to Programmes in Ireland
The guide is almost ready and a copy will be sent to every Adult Literacy Organiser in Ireland. If anyone else would like a copy, please email me your name and postal address. The guide will be uploaded on our website and be updated regularly when we get new information.

Why fathers matter to their children's literacy
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/research/father_review_2009.pdf is the link to this June 2009 report.

Canteen Campaigns
Engaging adult learners in topics that are useful and relevant to daily life embeds literacy and numeracy skills in a natural way. Since January, Clare Family Learning has hosted:
- Borrow a Book to Read with your Child
Starting on World Book Day March 8th, children's books were available to adult
learners to borrow and read with their children. This was really successful
and brought together learners from different groupings VTOS, BTEI, Literacy and Youthreach as they discussed the various books before choosing one to bring home.
- Ideas to Beat the Recession
Over coffee breaks for two weeks, adult learners and staff were encouraged to write ideas on the topic and put them into a large sealed box. These ideas were then printed up and put in the canteen for people to take away and read. There were some super ideas including a really good recipe for brown bread. The topics naturally divided into three areas: government, money saving and personal. I can email people a copy if they would like one.
- Knowing your electoral area
The county council provided us with wonderfully detailed maps of the electoral areas of Co. Clare and the Ennis area, with every town land included. It was a very attractive display for learners and people could see which electoral area they were now in as boundaries had changed since the last elections.
- Free fun family things to do over the summer
Ideas were put together that families can do in specific local areas of Clare, for example visiting the museum in Ennis to check the local history. Looking at the rock formation at Loop Head and linking it to geology section of geography. There are also general ideas and using your imagination. I can email a copy to anyone interested.
- A smile is the same in any language
Using digital photography learners took photos of each other laughing or smiling. These were printed and learners came up with captions. These are on display now in the canteen. Some learners brought in photos from home (we get written permission to use these) and these were included.

Family Learning in Action
Work has started on this publication which will be a follow-on to the Family Learning Resource Guide produced by the Clare Family Learning Project in 2000. It will include a wide range of programmes that have been developed since the Resource Guide, with accompanying outlines and sample session plans. This should be ready by the end of the year and will be uploaded onto our website.

Reminder: Family Learning Tutor Training
3 day Family Learning Tutor Training 13th 15th October in Ennis Fee: 300
This event will have an international flavour as we will have people from Belfast and Australia delivering inputs about their work. There will be a number of participants attending from Europe under a Grundtvig Project.

Mary Flanagan, Family Learning Co-ordinator
065. 6897645
www.clarefamilylearning.org

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