In collaboration with a number of local early childhood home visiting programs, the Parents as First Teachers program provides early literacy materials, training, and resources to public health staff to support conversations about the role parents play as their child’s first teacher, and the impact reading, singing, and playing has on child development.
Our youth services staff teamed up with Madison & Dane County Public Health’s Nurse/Family staff to promote early literacy practices and provide baby books during home visits. Library staff trained the nurses and clinicians making the visits and provided the materials (books and other info), while Public Health staff incorporated literacy strategies into their clients’ check-ups. The program is predominantly focused on kids 0-5 years of age, including some work with pregnant moms.
Parents as First Teachers facilitates a trusted connection between nurse and parent, where the parent (and later the child) learn about the importance of early literacy and become aware of library services. And the Library is proud to bring a signature service, early literacy development, directly into people’s homes.
Not only does this help eliminate barriers to early literacy services, it also works to empower parents by helping them connect bonding activities to child development milestones; spread awareness of literacy as an indicator of health and well-being; and develop a new community feedback mechanism through partnership with Public Health staff.
Parents as First Teachers is funded by the Roots & Wings Foundation, Madison Public Library and the Madison Public Library Foundation.
Recent Projects:
New Language Materials
Our partners requested more materials in languages other than English and Spanish, including Swahili, Hmong, Portuguese, and French. In order to ensure we were sharing high-quality, well-translated and culturally sensitive and relevant books with families who speak Swahili, we hired a Swahili speaker, who works at the NECZ, to evaluate books we had found in Swahili.
New Look for Literacy Packs
This year, we redesigned the Literacy Packs - which makes them even more engaging, easier to use and store, and more cost effective. A library staffer took the lead on the design work, and also made connections with a local graphic designer -- who created custom illustrations -- as well as a local poet, who crafted an affirmation for caregivers to personalize.
Roots4Change Family Education Support
Roots4Change has been growing their community-based wellness practices & education this year. This includes doula trainings, as well as family workshops that center the health & wellbeing of latinx and indigenous families. PAFT provided funds to support these workshops and trainings. Roots4Change used the funds to purchase workshop supplies, journals for parents, and artist-led activities for little ones attending the workshops alongside their caregivers.
Bilingual Resource Kits to Welcome Baby & Beyond
While we have created Resource Kits in the past, we had a special request this year for ten completely bilingual (Spanish & English) Resource Kits. We added books in both Spanish & English, as well as bilingual versions of books. We also included a variety of songs, rhymes, and bounces in both English & Spanish. These kits were given to the Welcome Baby & Beyond branch of RISE to use on home visits with families.
Lullaby Project Collaboration
Parents as First Teachers partnered with the Overture Center's Lullaby Project at the end of 2023 to expand our music-based early-literacy offerings. We're incorporating links to their parent-created lullabies, adding musical links to the Literacy Packs, and adding Lullaby Project CDs to our library collections. Plus, we're working together to host Lullaby Circles, where parents and kids can write their own songs. We hosted our first one at Pinney Library in November and it was a huge success, with lots of fun, music and creativity all around. Check out some of the pictures and read more about the collaboration.
In fact, one of the songs that was written by parents during the Lullaby Circle event at Pinney Library eventually ended up on the Overture Center's 2023-24 Lullaby Project Album! The song is called These Are The Things I Love About You, and copies of the CD are now available at all of our locations.
Book Giveaways
In 2023, Parents as First Teachers has given 1,684 free books away to partner organizations (up from 1,552 books in 2022). These books vary quite a bit, but they tend to be board books and picture books. While the majority are written in English, we also provided books in Spanish, Swahili, French, Portugese and Hmong in 2023. Library staff try to find beautiful, engaging books about a wide variety of topics that also represent and reflect the families served. High contrast, touch-and-feel and other interactive books, books about families, and supportive and affirming books for parents are frequently requested by the home-visitors.
Current Partners:
- Public Health of Madison & Dane County
- RISE
- Roots4Change
- KinderReady
- Northside Early Childhood Zone (NECZ),
- Birth to Three
- Overture Center's Lullaby Project
We provided books and Literacy Packs to several community partners, including Reach Dane, ARC Mom’s Group, Wee Start, and the Dreamfest.
Interested in working with us? Email tmoore@madisonpubliclibrary.org to inquire.
