Category: News

Published: 26 April 2023

Read Time: 1 min

Our April Success Story (also featured in our e-mail newsletter) is about the return of Midcoast Literacy's Read With Me program to Head Start and Early Head Start classrooms this school year.

After two years of remote and limited-contact services, Midcoast Literacy was able to get back to full in-person Read With Me visits this fall, and that means welcoming the parents back into the classroom sessions. “Engaging parents in their children’s literacy development has always been an essential part of Read With Me,” said Program Director Katie Clark. "Because of pandemic restrictions, we missed seeing and connecting with parents for the past two years of the program. It's so valuable to able to include them again."

Even though Read With Me is back in-person, the schoolyear has not been without challenges. Some area Head Start centers have still not re-opened due to a variety of factors, and there were staffing changes during the year at others which made communication with the teachers difficult at times: but we made the best of it. Throughout the year the number of parents attending the story and activity time increased steadily. Many parents attended multiple sessions, much to the delight of their children. When asked what they liked about Read With Me, parents agreed that getting a new book each month is special. Some of those books became favorites at home, too. “You can see the parents enjoying doing the activities with their children, and they tell me that the activities gave them ideas of things to do at home,” said Read With Me Coordinator Robin Buczkowski. “It’s great to interact with parents again and hear how they are building early literacy at home.” 

Congratulations to all of the kids, parents, and Head Start teachers who participated in Read With Me in the 2022-23 school year, and keep following us for more success stories from our tutors throughout the year!