To teach kids reading habits, these volunteers get creative

Mittens, cotton balls and packing peanuts are just some of the teaching tools volunteers with Play Partners use to encourage young children to read.

Play Partners is a Children, Youth and Family Services Inc. program that pairs volunteers with home daycare providers to promote a love of reading in children. CYFS is a nonprofit that provides services to low-income children in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

Play Partners uses books, songs and arts-and-craft projects to provide literacy development.

“It’s just so much fun,” said Rebecca Foster, who has volunteered with Play Partners for nine years. “I don’t have children of my own and this allows me to spend time with children and give back.”

Each week from September to May, a Play Partners volunteer tag team goes into a home daycare to read to students. The volunteers focus on one book for four weeks and give a copy to each child before moving on to the next book.

The volunteers use songs and arts-and-crafts projects to keep children interested in the book.

Foster and her volunteer partner, Loretta Willis, visit the Lil’ Hands Daycare in Albemarle County for an hour each Wednesday. The children sit in a circle while the women use songs and arts-and-crafts projects to bring the book to life.

“[The children] want you to come each week,” said Willis, who has been volunteering with Play Partners for a few months. “They know the book and they are excited to get the book to take home.”

Play Partners began in 1997 and has grown as more daycare facilities were added, said Susan Schloss, coordinator of the program. Play Partners has an annual budget of $28,000 and is funded through grants and donations.

Volunteers work with 28 book kits and have weekly “teaching tools” to help children learn the book inside and out.

“We’ve been able to operate on a low budget because of so many volunteers,” Schloss said. “The volunteers have put their own ideas into each kit.”

With 26 active volunteers, the program has a waiting list of daycare providers and could always use more volunteers, Schloss said.

The program’s three-pronged goal is to ready children for kindergarten; provide daycare providers teaching ideas and learning tools; and reach out to parents, Schloss said.

“We’ve gotten positive comments from parents,” Schloss said.

Sheila Carr, owner of the Lil’ Hands Daycare, has participated in the program for five years. She said her students look forward to their “special teachers” coming each week for reading time.

Carr said one parent recently commented that her 13-month-old daughter, Zoe, could sit patiently while others read books to her — something the woman’s older children would never do.

“The program is so wonderful,” Carr said. “It teaches children how to listen and be focused on the stories.”

Carr said she has also learned much from the program and now works the books into the children’s daily routine.

“They teach me new songs that I didn’t know and point out things I sometimes don’t see,” Carr said. “It’s been great for all of us.”