New round of Reading with Babies and Toddlers workshops in MahmoudAbad Shar-e-Rey

On 4 September 2016, Reading with Babies and Toddlers workshops were continued in Supportive Education Center of MahmoudAbad for a group of mothers who had started these workshops last year. There was also a new group of mothers who joined this program in this year.

On this day the third course of Reading with Babies and Toddlers workshops was held for a group of mothers who had joined the program in previous January and mothers talked about their experiences of reading with their children during this period and its effects on their children and their families and they were delivered the new Readng with Babies and Toddlers book bags. 14 Mothers participated in this session and they all expressed their satisfaction of taking part in this project and mentioned how they have been motivated by this program. “This program has encouraged me to participate in Adult Literacy courses and I have learned the alphabet and the numbers. Now I feel so confident that I can help my elder child when he goes to school”, an Afghan mother of two children said.

Also a new group of 9 mothers (5 Iranians, 4 Afghans) joined the third group of mothers who participate in Reading with Babies and Toddlers Workshops in Supportive Education Center of MahmoudAbad.

The session was started By showing some posters on the walls on the subject of the relation between babies and books. So the conversations about the workshop subject were started and the workshop was introduced to mothers. Following the introduction, child’s brain structure and mother’s role on child’s brain training were described and ten advantages of reading were discussed. At he end of this session, the first Mother & Baby bag were delivered to trainees which included: “Baby Read-Aloud Basics”, a set of six cardboard books named “My First Library” and two spongy cubes and they were asked to start book reading with their babies. The second session was held on 11 September where eight important principles of Reading Aloud, the characteristics of maternal language, methods of reading, playing and singing with children were taught to mothers using a doll.

“Reading with Babies and Toddlers sessions” are held in four courses during a year for mothers with babies from 0 to 3 years old. In this plan, mothers participate in four weekly sessions in the first course and learn read-aloud basics and receive first book bag in order to read with their babies. Next courses are held every three months and mothers receive a new book bag on every session containing quality books for their children. So during a year mothers are guided through the correct path of reading with their babies and let their children benefit quality books from first years under the supervision of the institute’s experts. In these sessions practical and theoretical education related to books are given to mothers. In addition of book reading they learn the right way of singing lullabies and songs and telling stories with dolls and they also learn to make books for their babies by themselves.

This post is also available in: Persian