Janice

Line graph displaying scores applicable to job and home in prose, document, numeracy and problem solving areas

Janice has a 10 month old.

Although Janice’s parents did not push for college, they encouraged it “because of my high school marks.” Janice’s mother completed high school and her father finished one year of college. Her mother read a lot, including novels and the newspaper daily. Her father also read the newspaper every day. Janice’s mother paid bills and Janice recalled her modeling writing in a journal once a month. Her father did the family’s taxes. Janice remembered her mother “sang constantly” and both parents sang at church once a week. She also saw her parents reading hymnals at church. Janice “went to mom with problems with homework but more often to siblings.” Her parents read to them but not nightly. They went to the museum and TELUS World of Science once a year. Janice had a library card and went occasionally with her parents.

Janice is a wedding singer and music minister. She completed one year at university and has a college diploma from a Therapist Assistant Program. Her on the job training was singing and she took voice lessons. She watches television for two hours a day, mostly news and reality television. She spends five minutes a day on the internet to do email.

Janice expects her daughter to get a college degree. Her daughter sees her reading parenting books and she models writing by journaling once a week. Janice models singing and rhyming a lot. She goes to church once a week, reading hymns and singing. Janice reads “at least one book a day to her” and they have lots of books at home.

Janice’s daughter watches television for half an hour a day, primarily preschool programs. She does not access the internet. They have not gone on any cultural outings yet although they have attended the “Books for Babies” program. The program’s activities include singing rhymes and playing with books while discussing the pros and cons of each book; they get to keep one book a week.

Janice knows she and her husband are not good readers and she wants her daughter to be different.