A new project launched Jan. 1 is aimed at giving babies born in the Sarnia area this year an early start at building literacy and language skills.
Baby Bookworms, a program led by Literacy Lambton, will see handmade bags holding a board books for babies, a reading log and information about local programs and resources, given to families of each baby born this year at Bluewater Health.
“The response has been awesome already,” said Tracy Pound, executive director of Literacy Lambton, a Sarnia-based charity that creates and provides literacy learning opportunities for residents of Lambton County.
“When you want to impact the literacy level in a community it’s so much easier when you start at the beginning,” she said.
A literacy organization Pound worked for previously in Western Canada ran a similar project.
“When I came back to Sarnia I was surprised that there wasn’t something similar” here, Pound said.
She asked around and discovered there had been initiatives in the past but they weren’t active.
Baby Bookworms was created to bring together resources and deliver them, along with a baby board book, in a “beautiful, hand-sewn bag, lovingly made by someone in our community,” Pound said.
Between 1,100 and 1,200 babies are born each year at Bluewater Health, according to Literacy Lambton.
Baby Bookworms partners, along with the hospital, include St. Clair Child and Youth Services, Pathways Health Center for Children, the Family Counseling Centre, EarlyON Child and Family Centers and Lambton Learns.
The project is sponsored by Shell, Bluewater Power, the Rotary Club of Sarnia Bluewaterland, Lambton Public Health, the Lambton County Library and Sarnia Charitable Gaming – Jackpot City.
“What’s lovely about it is that it’s a literacy welcome,” Pound said.
“It really focuses heavily on the message that parents are their child’s first and most important teacher” and reading to children should begin when they are born, she said.
The bags include a reading log that sets a goal of families reading 1,000 books to their child before kindergarten. Families can also use a Beanstalk app available online through the Lambton County Library.
While 1,000 books seems like a lot, “chances are you’re going to read more than one book per day to your child” in the years before they reach kindergarten age, Pound said.
“They end up with a richer vocabulary, as a result. And when they reach school age they are better able to be successful.”
Regular reading also “carves out special time” for bounding between parents and children, Pound said.
The project also provides families with information about the “great wraparound” services, agencies and programs available in the community, she said.
“It’s bringing it all together in one nice little package.”
Pound said bags have been “lovingly made” by Stephanie Abercombie and Monica Kennedy. She also looking for more volunteers and sewing circles that may be interested in donating cloth bags.
Information about Literacy Lambton can be found online at www.literacylambton.org.