"Mix Learning with Everyday Moments": A Virtual Recipe for Early Literacy Development at Home

ABSTRACT

It's Thursday night during the COVID-19 pandemic, which means it's time for the virtual Gulf Coast Storytime @ Home (GCStory@Home) program for a group of families with preschoolers within a historically marginalized community of the US Gulf Coast region. We, the GCStory@Home facilitators, sit at our screens with our own children, pets, and families in the background. Through the many windows of our videoconferencing tool, we can see that it's dinner time in some households Pans sizzle in the kitchen and children sit at the dining table. In other households, it's nearly time to get ready for bed Children dressed in pajamas have made themselves comfortable on a sofa or bed, sometimes cozied up next to a parent, sibling, or stuffed animal. We also see families seated in parked vehicles, close to a school's Wi-Fi signal. From each of their unique spaces, preschoolers and their families gather to participate in the early literacy development program. All of us have joined the GCStory@Home videoconference for one or more reasons We want to talk about the books we read, the recipes we tried, the videos we created, and the photographs we took in the week since we last met together. We want to share a few quiet moments in making art together, too. Everyone is excited to connect with each other, even if through our screens.