This week is Family Literacy Week and the Castlegar & District Public Library is celebrating with Family Literacy Day on Saturday, Jan. 28.
The Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy (CBAL) will be on location with some fun family activities, and the event will also feature the 2017 Living Library, which has a slightly different format this year. Saturday will also be the last day to bid during the Friends of the Library’s silent auction, and their annual Winter Book Sale takes place this weekend as well.
CBAL will be at the library on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will offer a variety of family-friendly activities that support literacy, as well as face painting, giveaways, snacks, stories and songs.
“This year the theme for Family Literacy Week is ‘Tunning Into Music — Listen! Make! Move!’ so we’re going to be doing some activities around that,” explains Alana Murdoch from CBAL.
The organization emphasizes the role that family plays in developing a child’s literacy skills, and will be providing handouts with age-appropriate activities that can be done at home.
“Family literacy encompasses the way parents and children and members of the family use literacy in their home and in the community,” says Murdoch. “[It’s] about learning that happens everywhere, and families are learning when they’re cooking together, or making a grocery list, singing songs, even going for a nature walk and talking about what they see.”
For those unable to attend on Saturday, the handouts that will be provided can be found at decoda.ca/music. Families can also find information about Decoda Literacy Solutions’ Family Literacy Week Photo Contest at decoda.ca/support-us/events/family-literacy-week/contest.
New format for Living Library
This year the Living Library will take the form of small group talks rather than one-on-one conversations. Laura Zaytsoff, librarian, explains the change: “In the past we’ve done one-on-one sessions, where people could kind of have one-on-one Q&A sessions with people who are experts in the community. We put a survey out earlier in December and we got a response that people more want small group talks, so this year we’re moving into the small meeting room at the bottom of the stairs, and we’re going to have three half-hour talks.”
The talks will take place from 12 to 2 p.m. on Saturday, and this year’s guest speakers are Rick Johnson from the Castlegar Parks and Trails Society, Suzanne Lehbauer from the Castlegar Hospice Society, and Corinne Tamelin, who will give a humorous talk on how bathrooms around the world have changed her life.
Last day for silent auction
Saturday will also be the final day to bid on items in the Friends of the Library’s silent auction. Bidding will close at 4:30 p.m.
The Friends of the Library are also having their annual Winter Book Sale on Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Monday, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the library. There will also be a presale for Friends of the Library members on Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. Those who’d like to become a member can also sign up on Friday, before browsing the presale.
For more information on literacy programs in Castlegar, contact Alana Murdoch at 250-687-4983 or email amurodch@cbal.org.