New Haven Reads Kicks Off a New School Year!

New Haven Reads has just kicked off another year of tutoring, and our School Aged Youth program is growing by leaps and bounds!

This year, we have expanded our program by scheduling our youngest children at both our main site, and our Science Park site. The kindergarten and pre-k program now run from 3-7, Monday to Thursday. By doing this, we are able to reach over 40 children!

We are very excited to have last year’s first group of Pre-school students now a part of the Kindergarten program. Because of this, we have the amazing opportunity to observe the differences that our influence makes in our student’s developmental and literacy growth.  And the difference is already apparent! Children who attended our Pre-K program last year have done very well on our initial testing, and seem to be picking up on Kindergarten literacy skills rapidly.

One major goal that we are striving towards this year is to actively engage parents in their student’s learning, and create a stronger partnership between educator and family. The more parents learn about their children’s education, the more parents will be able to teach them at home, creating the full, wrap-around support that is critically important for early literacy.  We have encouraged all of our parents to stay with their child through class, an opportunity that many parents are excited about.  One mother, who loves to join our class for sight-word bingo, explained that “The small groups make me feel like you really know my child, and can answer the questions I have about his learning”.  Our hope is that, by making ourselves accessible, we can provide the information necessary for parents to educate their child at home.

One parent told me that their child is having a hard time keeping up with his Kindergarten class, but the additional 2 hours of support per week is allowing him to make huge improvements. He loves to come so much that, “he doesn’t even realize he is learning. As soon as we leave, he asks when he can come back!”

So it seems that we are off to an auspicious start this school year! Our children are learning and, even better, having fun while doing so!

Kaitlynn Seipold

New Haven Reads

School Aged Children Teacher, Science Park Site Director