This winter our team went out to Sadie Saulter to provide reading tools for parents. The families in attendance were a mix of those that had been receiving Imagination Library books, had not, and other families whose children had already aged out of the program. These workshops have been found to be very helpful for parents who want their children to get the most out of what they read. On January 21st, 7 caregivers attended our workshop that taught about the ABCs of active reading and demonstrated how to do a picture walk of a book. The parents also learned how books can be great learning tools for expressing emotions and for children to begin to relate their own experiences to books, using The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfield as a guide. Afterward, Dr. Atkinson and Dr. Swaggerty 
answered any questions the parents had. The families appreciated this event, because it gave them additional skills to use when reading to their children. Each family left with one new book for them to start practicing the skills with their child.
On February 25th, the team held another workshop with the same objectives as the first, but with the addition of a new technique for second time attendees taught by Dr. Anderson. We had about 9 caregivers this time, including two that came to the last session. For the two second timers, Dr. Anderson stressed the importance of print concepts and print referencing, demonstrating with the book Eat Pete by Michael Rex. The ongoing emphasis in both parts of this workshop was how important it is to have communication with the child when reading. 
At the end, many parents requested that the team have further sessions and were overall very thankful for the experience. Like last time, they each were able to leave with one new book to continue using picture walks, the ABCs of active reading and print concepts.