Melissa’s child is 10 years old.
Melissa's parents expected her to get a high school diploma. Her mother had
either Grade 11 or 12 and her dad completed Grade 4. Melissa remembered her
parents modeling reading. Her mother “always read novels”
and her
father “read the newspaper, probably every day.”
Her mother also
modeled writing by doing bills and writing letters. Melissa did not recall her
parents singing or rhyming. Her mother helped her with homework when she needed
help and read to her occasionally. She did not recall any cultural outings and
did not have a library card because there was no library in her hometown.
Melissa is an administrative assistant with a Medical Secretary Diploma. Her on the job training expanded on what she learned in college. She has not taken any courses or workshops since beginning her current position. She watches two hours of television a day, usually drama and goes on the internet for 20 minutes a day to do research and play games.
Melissa expects her son to get a university degree. She models reading for
her son, enjoying magazines and novels. She does not model writing and she no
longer sings around him although she “used to when he was younger.”
Melissa helps her son with his homework.
Sometimes she looks over his work to make sure he is doing it correctly and
will help him if he asks for help. She still reads to her son “one or
two nights a week. It used to be every night. One to two times a week I get
him to read aloud. The other nights, he reads by himself. He hates reading though.”
They have a lot of books at home and her son brings books home from the school
library one to two times a month.
Melissa’s son watches television, mostly youth cartoons, for one and a half hours a day and he uses the internet for an hour a day. He is only allowed to access sites that Melissa knows or sites given by his school. He uses the internet usually for recreational games. Melissa and her son have gone to the museum twice and recently visited the TELUS World of Science for the first time.