Parent to Parent: Non-profit helps deployed military parents read to kids
Non-profit helps deployed military families
In the past Parent-to-Parent segments, we have emphasized the importance of reading to your child, but what happens to those hundreds of thousands of kids with a parent deployed in the military. One non-profit organization is using a unique method to make sure parents can read to their children no matter the distance.
HOUSTON - Military service women and men are also mothers and fathers who have to leave their child or children at home, but a nonprofit makes sure they stay connected through reading.
"Up until I was in my mid 20’s I had a parent in the military. Then I went and married a service member myself so this is my community. I was one of those children and now I love those children so very special to me personally as well," said Samantha Hagan Lingad who is with United Through Reading.
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The nonprofit started in 1989, has now connected three million military families through video-recorded storytime.
"Military kids you may or may not know, move a lot. So that means going from one curriculum to another curriculum and it can be even harder for those kids to catch up if their reading levels are not what they need to be," said Lingad.
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"We have our United Reading app which is free to our service members and to our veteran community as well. Any service member or veteran can use that app to make a story time recording," Lingad adds. "They can make as many story time recordings as they want and they can actually request free books to be sent home to the child as well. This is a great kind of hack so you make the recording when you have the time."
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