This program recognizes that parents are their child’s first teacher. In order to help a child improve his or her literacy skills, the parent must be comfortable with his or her own literacy skills. Using dialogue and applying learning to concrete situations are two strategies used to provide an interactive, nurturing and welcoming learning environment for all participants. The participant’s prior knowledge is not discounted but rather is built upon in order to enhance each of the learning opportunities.

Get Set Learn is able to include the best of both worlds by combining two different methods of running a family literacy program. It has both parent and child together time (PACT) and separate parent and child time. This provides opportunities for parents to learn the strategies and tools to enhance their children’s learning and then they are given “guided practice” with their children in order to experience these strategies.

Family literacy is about the many ways families use literacy and language to do everyday tasks (OLC, 2005). Research stresses that by improving the literacy skills of the parent, the child is more likely to have higher literacy skills. GSL builds upon the strengths already present in the families by affirming what they already do and by helping the families extend their repertoire of strategies. GSL recognizes and celebrates that families are unique.

GSL is designed to provide a safe, nurturing, learning environment so that families from different backgrounds, with their varying levels of literacy and math skills, are respected and can contribute to the class (prior knowledge). The activities and exploration of the books and toys are developed to enhance children and parents’ natural curiosity of language and math relationships in their every day world. Parents are encouraged to play in literacy and math-rich ways in order to increase their children’s understanding of math and language concepts. Then, connections to early school experiences and real world activities are made.

For Whom is the Program Designed?

Because parents are a child’s first teacher, family literacy programs focus not only on the child, but primarily on the parent. The main reason for focusing on both the parent and the child is because education programs that utilize parent participation increase the child’s chances of success (Nickse, 1990). Research shows that children develop vital thinking skills, attitudes, and knowledge between birth and the time they start school that lays the foundation for their school success and future lifelong learning (Mustard and McCain, 1999). Get Set Learn targets parents with low literacy and math skills and those who face multiple barriers. These parents would be the least likely to have access to resources such as adequate food supply, safe and secure housing, stable family support systems, monetary resources, literacy tools, etc