Soon-to-be-released fathers at ACI learn how they can help prepare their young children for school

This year, for the first time, Ready to Learn Providence took its Fun Family Activities for Preschoolers course to men in the minimum security facility at the Adult Correctional Institute.

Participants were required to have a young child between the ages of three and five, and be within a few months of being released. In the five sessions facilitated by R2LP’s Tania Quezada and Denise Beltre, the 14 fathers learned about the eight domains of development spelled out in the Rhode Island Early Learning Standards, and discovered dozens of affordable and enjoyable school readiness activities they can do with their children once they return home.

“They became quite excited when they realized how much they can teach their children on a simple walk around the neighborhood, or with inexpensive materials found in the home,” Tania says. “It was very rewarding working with these men. We look forward to doing it again.”

While this was the first time R2LP has offered the course in the men’s facility, it has delivered the program several times to mothers incarcerated at the ACI.

R2LP’s Fun Family Activities for Preschoolers course gives parents a clear understanding of what children should know and be able to do before entering kindergarten. Participants also learn how to make numerous activities designed to support those skills.

Fathers in the course at the ACI, which ran from August to September, assembled collages highlighting some of the activities they look forward to doing with their children after their release. They also decorated bags designed to hold the different materials and activities they had constructed. The collages and bags have been mailed to their home addresses where they will be ready for use when the men are released in October and November.

From top to bottom: A collage of activities made by one of the fathers at the ACI. Facilitators Denise Beltre (left) and Tania Quezada review some of the activities in the Fun Family Activities guide. A bag designed by one of the participants to hold activities and books.