Colleen Nelson
Special to The Record
Do you have a young reader at home, or a reader-to-be?
Do you make literacy and learning part of your everyday?
Family Literacy Week takes place Jan. 21-27, and aims to celebrate and support literacy in the family.
This year, the Vancouver Island Regional Library and Comox Valley Learning Centre are teaming up to celebrate, with a series of free events for families taking place throughout the week.
Their feature event takes place at the Courtenay Library on Jan. 24, from 10 a.m.-noon.
This event takes over the whole library, and features a puppet show by the local librarians, rhyme time by StrongStart leaders, fun interactive stations, snacks, prizes and more.
Every child will get to take home a book to keep. Like all library events, this event is free and open to everyone.
Scaled-back versions of this event will take place at the Comox branch on Jan. 23 at 10:30 a.m., and at the Cumberland branch on Jan. 25 at 10:15 a.m. with puppet shows, songs and rhymes, and books to give away.
Filling out the week, on Wednesday, Jan. 23, the Courtenay branch is hosting ValleyDads with a Captain Underpants program.
Discover your Professor Poopypants name, take on the turbo toilet 2000 challenge, and create an incredibly naughty craft. ValleyDads is a free weekly program for kids and their male caregivers, hosted by a different community organization each week.
Family Literacy Day is a national awareness initiative created by ABC Life Literacy Canada in 1999 and held annually on Jan. 27.
This special day promotes the importance of reading and engaging in other literacy-related activities as a family.
Colleen Nelson is the library manager for the Comox Valley branches of the Vancouver Island Regional Library.