Basseterre, St. Kitts, September 8, 2020 (ZIZ News): UNESCO has declared September 8th as International Literacy Day where the aim is to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies.
In honour of International Literacy Day ZIZ news caught up with Kittitian national living in Trinidad, Ron Clarke and his family where nurturing literacy plays a big role in his household.
Shanique Harvey has more….
Coryn Clarke is not your average 4year old. With assistance from her parents she has written and published her very own book which is about 7days of fun activities with her parents.
Her parents, Ron Clarke and Dionne Baptiste-Clarke said that in the beginning, she wasn’t taken seriously when she said she wanted to write her own book but they saw her determination and decided to help her to make her book a reality.
Mr. Clarke spoke of his experience as a parent trying to ensure that her creativity is always encouraged.
“I think Coryn is above average and it’s a bit scary trying to make sure that we don’t stifle any of her tendencies, so any of those brilliant tendencies we have picked up on already, we try our best to just support her and give her the platform to keep reaching for the stars so in just trying to be there to support and to keep encouraging her – there’s no model for this basically so were just trying to make sure we do our best,” he said.
He also spoke of the importance of literacy in his household noting that reading has provided an escape especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Literacy is very important to us we’ve tried to model the behaviours that we’d like Coryn to emulate so in the evening timnes we will read with her – when her mom has a book when I have a book, Coryn would run and get a book to do the same so literacy especially in this time – in this Covid time, it provides an escape from the restrictions that are there so all of summer we’ve been in the house – her classes are now at home so reading gives us that avenue to escape so it’s very important to us.”
Coryn is not yet finished with writing books she said she is working on another that will be about her extended family in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Her published book entitled Chronicles of Coryn: 7 Days of Fun is available for purchase on Amazon.com