Parents and caregivers play a critical role in children’s literacy development and lifelong achievement. First held in 1994, National Family Literacy Day highlights the importance of family literacy by encouraging parents and caregivers to engage in their child’s learning. Following are some links to websites and organizations that provide resources, information, and ideas for promoting literacy as a family-wide activity.

• Startwithabook.org allows parents and caregivers to easily find books that fit their child’s topics of interest and reading level. The website also provides ideas for hands-on activities that foster literacy development.
• Reading Rockets’ Family Guide contains tips and information for families regarding the steps they can take to become more involved at school and at home. The site also includes videos and fun activities to enhance learning.
• The ILA E-ssentials article titled “Supporting Parents as Valuable Partners in their Children’s Literacy Learning” explores current evidence related to ways educators can create effective partnerships with families diverse in race, culture, education, and income.
• A Literacy Daily post by Sherri Wilson, a founding board member of the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement and senior director of Consultative Services at Scholastic,titled “Building the Capacity to Engage All Families” offers advice for planning meaningful family engagement events.
• The National Center on Improving Literacy provides articles and guides specifically for families that help facilitate literacy activities at home. This site is especially helpful for families of children with learning disabilities.
• One of the resources highlighted by the National Center on Improving Literacy is The Literacy Pages for Families, which focuses on skills such as reading, writing, and listening by creating games and activities that parents and caregivers can participate in with their children to make the learning experience more enjoyable. Each activity contains an explanation of the purpose of the game as well as a list of additional readings.
• Curated by children themselves, ILA’s Children’s Choices Reading List contains book recommendations for children of varying grade levels.  
• Literacy Works provides families with a wide range of information, from book suggestions and lists of fun, engaging learning activities to newsletters and research briefs.
• ReadWriteThink offers tips, printouts, and information for families as well as podcasts, games, and tools for children of all ages. The categories are organized by grade level, making it easy to access specific games and learning activities.
• Byron V. Garrett, chairman of the National Family Engagement Alliance and director of educational leadership and policy for Microsoft, spoke about transforming education through meaningful family engagement at the ILA 2017 Conference & Exhibits.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics’  Books Build Connections Toolkit provides useful resources, strategies, and tools to support strong family reading habits.