Carlton families publish multilingual children’s book
A Carlton playgroup has launched a children’s book written and illustrated by preschool children and their mothers. ‘Me & Mum’ tells the story of pushing a child on a swing, cooking together in the kitchen, washing the dishes and all the everyday moments that shape how children learn and grow.
Me & Mum is published by Kids Own Publishing in partnership with Our Place Carlton. The project was funded by a grant from The Readings Foundation. Multiple languages, including Somali, Arabic and Indonesian, are woven into the story so families can see their own words reflected on the page alongside their children’s illustrations.
Our Place Partnership Manager, Cath Healy, said the book captures something the team sees every day.
“The connection between parent and child lays the foundation for children’s language and learning, and it’s in playgroup and in the everyday moments at home where that magic happens. What this group of families has done is put that on the page, in their own words and their own languages, and that’s something really worth celebrating.”
Cath Healy, Our Place Carlton Partnership Manager
Carlton is one of Melbourne’s most culturally diverse communities. Many families at the Carlton Learning Precinct are establishing themselves in a new country. The multilingual book affirms that wherever families come from, they are already their child’s first and most important teacher.
The launch coincides with the release of Towards Continuity of Learning: Influencing Home Learning, a new research paper from Our Place examining what the evidence says about home learning, and what services can do to support it. The swings, the kitchen, the bedtime routines in Me & Mum are exactly what the research points to: shared play, everyday conversation and simple routines as the strongest predictors of how children will learn and develop.
Read Me & Mum, by the Our Place Carlton community, here.
Our Place Carlton is located at the Carlton Learning Precinct, co-located with Carlton Primary School and Gowrie Victoria. Learn more about Our Place Carlton here.