When the wheels of the spotted school bus rolled into Camrose, Rochelle Leslie had to bring her two children to see what was inside.
A bus painted like a Holstein cow is bound to be fun.
“We were curious and the kids love buses,” said Leslie, who spent the afternoon in the COW bus, short for Classroom on Wheels, playing games and reading books with her children and the Alberta Prairie COW staff.
Painting the bus like a Holstein on the outside and with sunflowers and blue skies on the inside is part of how Darrell Giraldeau and Debbie Whitten show that literacy is fun.
Read Also
Wildfires have unexpected upside this year
One farmer feels smoke from nearby wildfires shrouded the July skies and protected his crop from the sun’s burning rays, resulting in more seeds per pod and more pods per plant.
Part of their message is that literacy is not the drudgery of memory work, but playing games, singing songs, talking and reading.
“It’s just language in all its forms being celebrated in the home,” said Whitten.
“Playing is a big part of literacy.”
Stuffed into different corners of the bus are puppet theatre, puzzles, games, mazes and books for children and their parents to explore.
“We can all get information and tips and share new ideas,” said Giraldeau.
“A big part of what we do is modelling. We try to encourage parents to engage their children.”
Giraldeau spends a large part of her days on the floor singing and playing.
“Caregivers and parents are their first teachers,” she said.
There are six COW buses in the province, five in Edmonton and one travelling bus that visits rural Alberta. The project was launched in January and there is funding until March 2006. Already the bus is fully booked for this year and 90 percent for 2005.
The bus has had some early successes. During one stop an immigrant family, with limited English, toured the bus. A local literacy co-ordinator hooked the family up with appropriate agencies and the adults with English tutors.
“The goal is to promote family literacy across the province,” said Giraldeau, who added one-third of Albertans struggle with literacy.
At the end of each stop a collection of books is donated to the community as part of a Legacy Library, just one more way to encourage literacy, she said.
