Parents Should Use ICBD Celebration To Educate Children On Covid-19 Mr Mathias Tulasi

Mathias Tulasi

Mr Mathias Tulasi, the Chief Executive Officer of Literacy Ambassadors Ghana (LAG), a non-governmentmal literacy organisation has called on Ghanaian parents to mark the upcoming International Children's Book Day Celebration slated for Thursday, April 2, 2020.

His full statement below.

The world all over will on Thursday, 2 April 2020 mark International Children's Book Day Celebration across the globe on the theme "Hunger for Words".

Thus the entire membership of Literacy Ambassadors Ghana believes call for a serious celebration though the world has been hit by coronavirus pandemic.

International Children’s Book Day Celebrated on April 2nd on an annual basis.

It is a day set aside to celebrate children literature in all of its forms and acknowledge the writers who create this literature.

The celebration is also aimed at inculcating reading habits in children and young people.

The culture of reading and love for books is something that we must all do our best to inculcate in the younger ones in Ghana at a very tender age.

This is because strong literacy skills form the basis for learning in all subjects.

As a literacy foundation, we have observed that as a country we have not shown keen interest in marking international days concerning literacy as expected but things must change for the better now.

Against this background, we are appealing to all parents across the nation to try as much as possible to mark the impending ICBD in their own small ways at home with children while observing social distancing.

This we believe when done, will greatly create awareness among children and young people about the importance of the literacy.

As we recommend that parents use the day to educate children on the coronavirus pandemic, it is important we bring out some guidelines for its successful implementation.

First of all, parents must give children a brief history of International Children's Book Day.

Parents then must bring to the fore what history has revealed an astounding pattern of plagues.

Parents should guide children to understand that every 100 years since 1720, the world experiences devastating pandemic or plague that shifts or changes the world on its very axis.

In 1720, bubonic plague, 1820 cholera epidemic, 1920 Spanish Flu pandemic, and 2020 coronavirus pandemic.

Ask children to tell you all that they have heard and know about the coronavirus pandemic. After that, you should educate them about it into details.

Depending on their level, you can ask them to form as many words from the mother word "Coronavirus" such as virus, us, an, or, is, corn, nor, soon, ran, run, sun, in, etc.

Let them do dictation on some of the keywords as far as coronavirus pandemic is concerned e.g. pandemic, quarantine, lockdown, COVID-19, sanitiser, social distancing, gloves, handwashing, cough,

Veronica buckets, isolation, running water, running nose and immune system etc.

Guide them to understand the meaning of all the vocabulary words used during the dictation with the help of a dictionary and let them use some of the words in sentence formation.

Guide them to compose any song on the coronavirus pandemic.

Ask them questions about the lessons learnt.

We wish the entire citizenry especially children and young people a happy celebration in advance.

Let us not forget that a reading nation is a winning nation.

For further clarifications on the activities get in touch on this number 0243735430.