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Cathy introduced Nancy Tovell as the program coordinator of Bookmates, a Manitoba-based not-for-profit organization established in 1984 Bookmates’programs are ideal for use in schools, childcare and family resource centres, libraries and other organizations that work to support families with young children. Nancy graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Commerce Honours degree. She then spent several years travelling five continents and collecting special memories like working with creative early childhood education programs in London, England and creating spontaneous language-sharing and literacy sessions from places in Turkey to CapeTown, South Africa. Prior to joining Bookmates, she worked for Scholastics Canada and owned a company called The Bookgirl that provided books to schools and childcare centres in Winnipeg. As part of Bookmates, she works to support their vision of supporting literacy for families with young children. In her spare time, she enjoys volunteering at her daughters’ schools and their extracurricular activities. Bookmates was formed on May 4, 1984 by Dr. Beverley Zakaluk, professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba. She recruited some University students to pair up with children in public libraries around town. Currently they spend time talking to parents about the importance of reading and writing for pre-school children. The brain grows faster in the first 1000 days (i.e 3 years) of a child’s life than at any other point in time, so talking to the child and reading to it right after birth is important. The parents, who are their child’s first teachers, are provided with literacy skills that help them experience the joy and benefits of literacy. The program depends on volunteers. Bookmates has evolved into a training-based organization, where time is spent emphasizing the importance of preschool reading and writing in parent-child programs. They also have professional development workshops, as well as direct programming and community outreach. One of the most important ways to help a child develop strong communication skills and eventually learn to read is to have fun talking to and sharing books with the child, starting from birth. Pre-schoolers who are read to more are better able to understand and empathize with other people, developing some very important cognitive, emotional, literacy, language and thinking skills. In the Q&A that followed the presentation and video, we also learned: Bookmates has focused on interactions with parents of newborns, but has not taken part in prenatal classes. Their funding comes from a myriad of sources – provincial government (for 17-20 years), Winnipeg Foundation, Kiwanas, private donors, and fundraiser events. A suggestion was made to have a Story Walk fundraiser. Resources that Bookmates currently requires include books (especially children’s books, even wordless books), literacy kits, parent handouts, play dough, papers, markers….) Nancy Hansen (online) thanked Nancy Tovell for her interesting presentation. |
