Humanities Washington is the state coordinator for Motheread/Fatheread Washington. Based on award-winning children's literature, Motheread/Fatheread uses the power of sharing stories within the family setting to help parents read effectively with their children, initiate discussions of the books, improve their parenting and literacy skills, and increase family communication. Humanities Washington partners with agencies serving parents and children to offer parent classes using the Motheread/Fatheread curriculum.

Parents join in small groups with specially trained discussion leaders to read children's books and then talk about the images, feelings, and ideas that are conveyed in these stories. After the classes, parents are prepared to take the books home, read the stories to their children, and talk with them about the themes of the books. In addition to making books important in the home, the program helps to create strong family bonds. The program is an ideal follow-up to or component of literacy or parenting classes.

For more information on Motheread/Fatheread, email our Manager of Family Reading Programs or call her at 206-682-1770.

Annual Motheread Facilitators Conference
In 2008 we will hold two Annual Facilitators Conferences.

• Thrive By Five Presentation : Tthe state of early learning in Washington
• Judy Trefethen, MRFR Consultant and Humanities Award recipient, gives a state of the union address and general program updates
• Washington State Poet Laureate, Sam Green leads a book binding session and discusses poetry as a second language. (Seattle)
• National facilitator from the Project on Civic Reflection Adam Davis leads a discussion on the progress of our work as educators. (Yakima)