Story Time

education

Story Time supports parents to read to, and with their children at home. Northside Partnership is working together with the Marino Institute and Dublin City Libraries to offer the Story Time programme to parents and children in our target area.

The Story Time programme aims to:

  • Encourage you to read on a regular basis with your child
  • Improve your child’s social and communication skills
  • Increase your child’s language, conversation and thinking skills

Since Story Time began in 2011, over 500 parents have taken part in the programme.

You can take part in Story Time if you are a parent of a child from pre-school to junior infant age.

Your child’s teacher or childcare worker will encourage you to take part.

Taking part in Story Time is easy and fun. We run Story Time over a six week period, usually twice a year.

We will invite you to an information meeting in Marino Institute of Education. At this meeting we will give you tips and suggest ways to read to, and with your children. We will also give you evaluation forms which you can complete to help you see how these tips and approaches are working.

You are encouraged to sign up with your local library and collect one book a week for five weeks which you read to your child.

At the end of the five weeks we will invite you and the teacher or childcare staff who are working with your child to a meeting in Marino Institute to give us feedback on your experience. We will also present you with a Certificate acknowledging your participation in Story Time.

Parents who have taken part in Story Time tell us that:

  • Their children’s language and vocabulary has improved
  • Their children enjoy reading more and have a greater interest in books
  • Their relationship with their children has grown stronger
  • Their children’s confidence has improved
  • The amount of time watching TV and DVDs before bedtime has reduced.
  • Books are now more likely to be given as gifts to children at Christmas and birthdays, by parents and carers