An early start on literacy

SPRINGVILLE — During a class at Westside Elementary School, teacher Keri Huntsman read an illustrated children's book by Robert N. Munsch.

As she read, Huntsman held the book up to the students so they could see the pictures. Her voice expressed surprise, sadness and happiness.

The students were entertained. The students wanted to read the book again.

The students were in their 20s and 30s.

They're parents of children who will enter kindergarten in the Nebo School District in the next year or two, enrolled in a class called Cradled in Literacy. For the past 10 years the Nebo School District has offered such classes to about 150 parents a year.

Cradled in Literacy is designed to help parents prepare children for reading and writing, said Raquel Shepherd, who works in special education and federal programs for the Nebo District.

The classes meet two hours once a week for four weeks. Each class is dedicated to a topic such as handwriting or using music to promote poetry and literacy. Parents go home with a book after each class.

The district offers the class twice a year in schools that serve high numbers of disadvantaged students; the program costs about $18,000 a year and is paid for with a U.S. Department of Education Title I grant for schools where at least 40 percent of the students live in poverty.

Huntsman, whose day job is supervising Brigham Young University student teachers in Nebo schools, teaches Cradled in Literacy with Darlynn Menlove, a kindergarten teacher at Canyon Elementary in Spanish Fork.

The class can become a forum for parents to ask Menlove and Huntsman classic "Is my child normal?" questions.

One parent was concerned about her son's backwards handwriting.

Just be happy he's writing, Menlove said, adding that he'll write the letters properly with time.

Many children get confused whey they learn to write letters and numbers because loops in numbers are on the left side and the loops on letters are on the right. That can lead to backwards handwriting, Menlove said.

Another parent asked for tips about how to teach her son to write his name — which contains the letter "k," difficult because the writer has to lift the pencil. That led to a discussion about the Nebo School District's handwriting program.