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Articles
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| FACE program makes books for children |
admin writes, "By Joe Morey: In order to better prepare children for school, the F.A.C.E. program at LCO Ojibwe School is making their own REALE books for their students, and setting out on a new goal to get books into the hands of needy children on other reservations.
REALE books are picture and word books made for small children by their parents in the F.A.C.E. program, or they are made by the children themselves. The parents in the program make the books at www.realebooks.com at a cost of about $1 a book for the cost of ink and paper.
The picture books are created with RealeWriter (“Really Writer”) software. RealeBooks offer the parents a unique way to get their students writing by making them the authors of their own books. They are a particularly promising tool for Family Literacy programs, allowing parents to create books to read to their children in English, their native language, or both languages. Children too can make RealeBooks, even adding their own artwork as illustrations by using a scanner to make digital copies of their drawings and paintings."
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Currently, the LCO parents are making four books per month for nine months of the year and handing them out to their children enrolled in the F.A.C.E. program.
“Our goal now is to get donations so that we can make the books in large amounts and distribute them to other reservations where kids are in need,” said Nichole Nalewaja, a parent. “We feel that making books that the kids can read will better prepare them for school.”
They will ask company’s to make donations to their efforts, for example, Hewlett-Packard makes the ink they use to print the books, “So we will ask them to donate the ink.”
The books are made with pictures that the parents take of their children and download into the software, then publish to the book pages along with any other content that they find appropriate. Nalewaja explained that the books are made based on what interests the kids have so they will be more interested in them, that as well as seeing photos they can relate to. She attended a conference where she was able to interview kids to see what they were interested in, “to see what the kids catch on to so we can use their ideas.”
“Our goal is to make 10,000 books and get them out there to communities like Pine Ridge, one of the poorest tribes in the country,” Nalewaja said. “Our reward is knowing that kids will be able to read and it gets them ready for school, it expands their vocabulary.”
“Last year we made books with the alphabet,” explained Tonia Cody, the F.A.C.E. coordinator. The books the parents are currently making are aimed at three to five year olds that are enrolled in the program. She said the parents come up with their own ideas and that they also plan to make illustrated books in addition to the digital books they currently make.
F.A.C.E. (Family and Child Education) is a program offered for pre-school age children where the parents actually come to the school with them. It is coordinated in three components. The first being home-based where two parent educators will visit homes directly where the child is pre-3 years old.
The two parent educators at LCO are Danielle Scott and Dawn Kagigebi. Danielle visits 12 families on a weekly basis while Dawn visits 24 families on a bi-weekly basis.
“Our visits last about an hour and we talk about child development,” Scott said. “We’ll bring along an activity that’s age appropriate for the parents to do with their child between each visit. The child will get the concept of the activity and we help point out things for the parents to become better observers.”
“Parents are their child’s first best teacher,” she repeated a theme of the program.
Tonia Cody, the coordinator of the program, said they take 3-5 year olds in the second component of the program which is the center-based program.
“Parents are required to come in each day with their kids,” Cody said. She explained that parents are required to have an educational goal as well, which could be anything from wanting to achieve their GED, graduate college, gain computer skills, parenting skills or anything they could be working on, for example, say a regalia outfit for their child.
“Everyday we have parent time for the parents where we talk about parenting issues,” she added. “Sometimes we have speakers come in, and we also have PACT time which stands for parent and children together.” This is a time when the parents can go over and play with their children for usually about 45 minutes.
The second component actually has the third component as well, one classroom is where the parents are and the other is for the children. Two other staff members are Shannon Duffy-Hofer and Debbie White, who are both teachers of the classroom children.
Cody explained how the program differs from headstart, where headstart the parents can drop off their children but at the F.A.C.E. program, the child can only come to school when the parent comes with. The parents are in their room learning about parenting and other goals, as well as making realebooks.
“The parents are doing their laundry or taking phone calls, they expand on their child’s learning,” Cody said.
Every school day the parent and child comes in at 8:00 am for breakfast. The classes run from 8:30 until 2:00 pm.
The program is funded by the Bureau of Indian Education.
Tonia notes that all their staff have been there for quite some time. The F.A.C.E. program began at LCO in 1993 and Dawn Kagigebi has been with it since 1994. Debbie White for 12 years, Tonia Cody for 12 years, the last five years as coordinator, Shannon Duffy-Hofer for the past 6 years and Danielle Scott for 4 years.
In the pictures to the right, the top picture is a group picture of the parents: From L-R sitting) Delana White, Lisa Wade, Tiffany Billyboy, and standing L-R) Mindy Wolfe, Mary Sullivan, Angel Quaderer, Nichole Nalewaja, DaeShelle Sharlwo, center-base coordinator Tonia Cody and Rich Scharp. Parents not pictured include Stephanie Quaderer, Ashley Kagigebi, Sarah Butler and Violet Alwes.
The second and third pictures down are the children with their classroom teachers Shannon Duffy-Hofer in the top and both her and Debbie White in the bottom. The students include Caden Grover, Elissa Chloe Doney, Gianna Tainter, Haley Cooper, Jayleigh Baker, Mahto Wade, Nevaeh Kagigebi, Prairie Martin, Quincy Billyboy, Savanah Larson, Thomas Quadere, Christian Alwes and Joshua Coon.
The bottom picture is L) Dawn Kagigebi and Danielle Scott, home-based parent educators.
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Posted on Nov 07, 2008 19:03pm.
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