Re: [NIFL-FAMILY:3046] Re: To eat or not to eat

From: Debra (dellaabe@birch.net)
Date: Sat Jul 15 2000 - 16:47:29 EDT


Received: from tango.birch.net ([209.251.184.60]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with ESMTP id e6FKoVZ18122 for <nifl-family@nifl.gov>; Sat, 15 Jul 2000 16:50:31 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from default (host40-230.birch.net [216.212.40.230]) by tango.birch.net  with SMTP id PAA18392 for <nifl-family@nifl.gov>; Sat, 15 Jul 2000 15:50:25 -0500 (CDT)
Message-ID: <01ab01bfee9d$e51b21e0$e628d4d8@default>
From: "Debra" <dellaabe@birch.net>
To: <nifl-family@nifl.gov>
References: <20000715202000.47689.qmail@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NIFL-FAMILY:3046] Re: To eat or not to eat
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2000 15:47:29 -0500
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600
Status: O
Content-Length: 4036
Lines: 104

Hi,
I thought I would add my 2 cents in about meals and family literacy.

I am not sure of your population, however we serve a minority population who
are in poverty.  Food is always the issue not matter what time of day you
schedule it.

You may want to examine your schedule and see at what point you want PACT.
If you have school age activities after school, and PACT right before you
leave, you might entice parents to stay and play with their kids, and end on
the light meal/snack.  This meal/snack may in fact be the best meal they
have all day and without it, they may not have very nutritious alternatives.

Or, do you do PACT in the home visit?

When are your parents scheduled for ABE?  Do you have all your scheduled
activities during the day, or do some cross over into the dinner hour?

Is it a Mon-Fri or do you have an alternative schedule?

Our program is during the day.  We have planned our PACT around the lunch
hour, and we schedule our home visits during the evening in order to catch
the most significant adults at the best time.

We start the day with the kids, and adults in their respective classes, and
meet for PACT then have lunch.  Parents can come for lunch and stay later
for PACT.  We have to work around the parent work schedules.  Then the home
visits are scheduled during the early evening.  Parent Time activities
happen during ABE/ESL.  Actually we have  an ESL site, so it works in great
during that time.  We offer a variety of times for PT and PACT, to work
around the parents work schedule.  In some cases the Home Visit is the best
place to schedule the learning activity with the school aged child.  A lot
of our parents have difficulty supporting the homework issues that relate to
the older ones.

If you provided a sample schedule, I am sure you will receive more comments
to your question.

Good Luck with your program,
Debra Wade
dellaabe@birch.net
KC MO Even Start Family Learning Program


----- Original Message -----
From: "michele koppinger" <isdistrict77@hotmail.com>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov>
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2000 3:23 PM
Subject: [NIFL-FAMILY:3046] Re: To eat or not to eat






>From: BRmidwest@aol.com
>Reply-To: nifl-family@nifl.gov
>To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov>
>Subject: [NIFL-FAMILY:3033] Re:  To eat or not to eat
>Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 18:53:56 -0400 (EDT)
>
><<Now I am interested in starting a family literacy program with
>after-school
>care (3:30-6:15) children.  But my problem lies in getting the parents
>involved since they are at work during the time we would have access to the
>children. We could possibly keep the children an additional 1 1/2 hours
>until
>the parents arrive at school.  However, how do you entice these parents to
>stay at school after a long day at work and during a time that is their
>normal dinner hour.  I have considered serving lots of food, but are there
>alternatives?>>
>
>If the question is indeed as stated: whether there are alternatives to
>serving food during "dinner-hour" activities, I would say the answer is no.
>
>*If* the event goes over the normal dinner hour, I think there is no
>*alternative* : there MUST be food. I realize I'm stating the obvious,
>but...
>when people (all people, any people) are hungry (even temporarily), food
>usually becomes our first priority.  Furthermore, hungry (and tired) people
>are usually grouchy people; sated people are more likely to enjoy an
>activity
>(and to come to it in the first place).
>
>Of course, there may be alternatives to the *time* you offer your
>activities
>(and perhaps that was in fact the question in the first place!) ...but
>since
>it is just about the dinner hour as I post this, I can't think about
>anything
>but the food question: proving my point.
>
>Betsy Rubin
>Blue Gargoyle Family Learning Project
>Chicago
>
>
>

________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 16 2001 - 14:41:46 EST