It is Saturday afternoon, and Tania Webb and her three-year-old daughter Anna are at the North Bay Public Library. Anna is sitting on her mother's lap, intently listening to her read a book they have selected. As a teacher, Webb sees the value of introducing the love of reading at an early age.
"They develop confidence in every subject area and even beyond the classroom, in their relationships with other people, how they see themselves, and just being able to appreciate the world around them," said Webb.
"Our kids are just starting to be able to read, and seeing how much more the world suddenly is opening up for them. Every road trip we take now, suddenly Felix is noticing all these things he hasn't seen before, and it adds layers to their world. I find the bigger the vocabulary, and the stronger the literacy, no matter what the age, people always take away so much more from their world. Beyond that too, their imagination gets stretched, they look at the world around them and they see possibilities."
Felix is the oldest of Webb's three children, aged three, five and seven. Felix enjoys books about travel, taking him to places around the world. However, his interests go beyond travel.
"I like Chose Your Own Adventure books.There's one where we go underwater, There's another one where you go on a ghost train," said Felix.
"I like finding books, and I like playing with different things."
As luck would have it, Saturday was Family Literacy Day. The theme, 'Learn Through Play.'
The head of Children's Services, Nora Elliott-Coutts explains.
"Family Literacy Day gives us an opportunity to invite the world into the library, and show them the kinds of things we have available. We have a number of activities that we have put out to encourage parents to play with their children, talk with their children, and read to their children, all of the components that make up literacy."
Three-year-old MacKenzie Clark and mom Amanda Pile enjoy the different activities available at the library. Pile pointed out that not only does it get them out of the house, especially in the winter, but it is another fun way for them to bond.
"I have a six-month-old, so it gives us time alone, and she enjoys it. Every night we read. She picks two books, and then we read a couple stories to Amelia, our baby. MacKenzie loves books. We're bilingual so I try to do one English and one French," said Pile.
"Today we tried the dice game, and the computers for the first time.We had a lot of fun."
Based on the day's theme, several games were spread out on the floor of the children's department, games that focused on the alphabet, counting, and simple words.
"You have things like magic word wands. They have to find the letter that is on their wand, and that gets them to recognize letters of the alphabet," said Elliott-Coutts.
"There is another game that is on the floor where the children roll the dice and that gives them the number of steps to take. Each step is a letter of the alphabet. When they land on a letter, they say the sound of the letter. So you get a couple of different skills involved with that."
Children also gravitate toward the Lego corner.
"They're talking, they're learning about shapes of things, colours, and how things go together, It is through the talk and interaction between parent and child, that learning is taking place. This is not necessarily formal learning, but it is learning, and it is very important to promote," said Elliott-Coutts.
Saturday's are often one of the busiest days of the week in the children's department. People are no longer just selecting a book and checking it out. They stay to have a turn at some of the educational activities.
"We're finding a lot more families stay, so the children will play with Lego or Duplo blocks. We have the early learning stations which are computers that are pre-loaded with a number of games and programs featuring their favourite characters such as Dora, or Franklin. There are educational activities that are on those learning stations."
Every visit is a whole new adventure.
