Family Literacy Day and Wicked Wednesdays

In case you missed it during all of today's Apple-related madness, it is Family Literacy Day.

The event is run by ABC Literacy Canada, and the idea is to "encourage families to read and learn together."

I agree wholeheartedly with the folks at ABC that literacy is about more than just reading books. You can encourage literacy by doing all sorts of things, including following a recipe. I love the way we can organically learn about fractions through baking, too. (I know, that was my nerdy schoolmarm moment of the day.)

Not sure how to mark the occasion? Here's a list of fun activities. Or find a Family Literacy Day activity in your area.

I think my favourite Literacy Day initiative might just be the Munsch at Home contest. Families submitted their own Munsch-inspired stories for a chance to be published with a real-deal Michael Martchenko illustration, and to win personal visits from Munsch both at their home and in their neighbourhood school.

We've got the winning story here.

ABC has all the finalists here.

We weren't really trying to mark the occasion, but I guess we started our Family Literacy Day with a pre-breakfast reading of Captain Underpants. After school today, our caregiver will be cajoling lovingly encouraging Cameron through a couple of pages of homework (due tomorrow). That counts, right? And we'll be reading our routine bedtime stories, likely including favourites by Mo Willems or Oliver Jeffers.

On a slightly different but related topic, I've been noticing a pattern of badness on Wednesdays (not every Wednesday is chock full of Family Literacy Day fun).

I don't mean to suggest that my boys are being "bad" on Wednesdays - it's more that we're all hitting a bump of midweek fatigue that leads to tears on Wednesdays evenings.

The kids even cry sometimes, too.

But seriously, we've all been through quite a bit of school- and work-week busyness by Wednesdays, when the weekend still feels quite a way off. Sitting on the bunkbeds last week, Cam drying tears about something I can no longer recall, I proposed that we start a new Wednesday tradition called "Wicked Wednesdays." (We're predictably alliterative about these things, having already had "Friday Fun" in place for a while.)

We've had stomach flu ripping through our house this week, so I'll be happy if we can mark our inaugural Wicked Wednesday with a minimum of vomit. However, the "deal" is that if the kids already have their pajamas on WHEN I GET HOME AT 5:30, we can have a movie night and a "snacky dinner" in the living room. For some reason, this break in routine has the kids pretty excited.

I'm all about parenting by gimmick if it makes the evening a little more fun and bedtime come a little sooner.

So in between our Family Literacy Day reading, we'll be taking a brief (90 minute) break to watch a movie. I won't give away what it will be other than to say it will likely be part of a series that rhymes with Czar Pores.

If you're also looking for a way to get through Wednesday, I hope you just might find a little help in the Munsch stories, or copy our lower-brow movie plan.

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