Three important themes emerge in reviewing their interpersonal interactions. First, despite the fact that these parents are not well-educated by today's standards, with only one of the participants holding a regular high school diploma, the parents unanimously place strong emphasis on their children learning and value educational achievement. Second, the parents draw upon their limited personal resources to support literacy and learning in their interactions with their children. Third, the parents have many opportunities to extend literacy in their day to day activities. These themes and perceived limitations expressed by society of the low-income parents in providing literacy experiences in their homes are elaborated upon in the text that follows. As illustrated, many of these parents engage in a number of activities which support literacy, but they also face barriers, particularly in achieving school literacy. Table 5 at the end of this section offers a summary of these activities and limitations.

Value Education

Parents in this study value education and expect their children to perform at their grade level at school. Two ways they unanimously support their children through literacy experiences at home is to see that the homework is completed and that their children practise their reading. Some examples of how they accomplish this and barriers and problems they may face with these activities will be presented in the sections that follow.

Support for homework.

Regardless of the presence or absence of a father, clearly, homework is a gendered task. Beth, like the other mothers in this study, recognizes the value of her children doing home assignments and is in charge of reviewing the homework in her household, with her husband checking only on the odd occasion. The parental role appears to be to encourage the child to complete the work, to help when necessary and where possible, and to support the school in making the child stay late to finish incomplete home assignments.