2022 FESA Family Events So Far

Throughout the year, the Further Education Society of Alberta (FESA) is holding a variety of family literacy events in Calgary that feature activities, story time, and songs to bond parent and child and introduce new skills for success. These programs are open to everyone, where we aim to create an open and welcoming environment that facilitates a positive learning experience. We can't wait to see you at our upcoming summer event; we will be announcing when this program is on our social media channels, so by liking and following us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you can stay up to date and sign up!

So far for 2022, we have held two special events, one for Family Literacy Day and one for Family Day. Both were online sessions; the Family Literacy Day session was about the importance of nature and the outdoors in terms of helping to improve our physical and mental health. Our Family Day program was for younger children and aimed to teach parents how to connect better with their kids

We reached out to our facilitators that hosted each program to provide a bit of insight and how the program unfolded.

Del Edwards

What was the Program about, and what did it involve? What was the purpose behind it?

The program for this session was about the importance of nature and the outdoors in terms of helping to improve our physical and mental health. We have all suffered during the pandemic, so this was a good topic to cover. The other purpose of this session was also to introduce participants to the idea that there are literacy activities we can use outdoors to help our children (and ourselves) improve our literacy and increase interest in learning. We did a couple of activities during the session as well, and participants were given activity books to use with their families.

Who was there? How many participants were there? Did we partner with any organization?

There were 12 participants. The group was a mixture of community members and other facilitators. This program was done purely through FESA, and registration was open and advertised.

General Highlights of the program?

The general highlights were that the group found it useful and helpful, and it promoted a lot of discussion. The activities that were done included a word search and this was won by one of the children participating! I think one of the real takeaways from this program was that people didn't realize how much the outdoors helps our health and our learning.

What was your favourite part of the program?

I enjoyed all the program as it was completely different from what we have offered before and introduced learning and literacy in a completely different way. Some activities I will be using with my grandson for sure. To help with his literacy development. We should offer more programs of this nature to really introduce literacy differently.

Beibei Lu

Hello, my name is Beibei Lu, and I am a Senior Program Facilitator with the Further Education Society of Alberta (FESA). Last February, on Family Day, we hosted the FESA Family Day one-hour virtual event. We sang songs and nursery rhymes with the children. I also guided parents through the steps on how to interact with their children during the songs, nursery rhymes, and story time.

In addition to the kid’s activities, we showed parents strategies to help their young children understand a variety of concepts; things like counting, spellings, feelings, action and opposition words, colours and shapes, animals, and body parts through singing, rhyming, reading, drawing and crafting.

To top off the event, we had a prize draw that was conducted on a virtual spinning wheel. Overall, it was a successful session with great participation. Seeing all the children’s faces lit up with joy and happiness was a joy. I felt extra passion and enthusiasm from young children when they were singing and rhyming together with their parents and siblings. I witnessed the true spirit of Family Day.

At the end of the session performed a lovely family themed song; you can sing it yourself with the lyrics below: “I love you. You love me. We are a happy family. With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you. Won’t you say you love me too?”

Hooray for Family Day!