By Dianne Anderson

Excitement around literacy is something that many parents have long forgotten from their younger school days, if it ever was there, with the rise of the internet and email in the TTYL generation – Talk To Ya Later.

But for book lovers everywhere, there’s just something extra special about the smell of fresh ink in a new textbook on that first day of school.

It’s a thrill that Dr. Owusu Hodari hopes to evoke with 240 little kids and their parents during the next year through her new parent bonding and books program.

Over the next year, Hodari, Ph.D., executive director of Solomon Ujamaa Centers, will work closely with parents and their children under 6 years old to try to recover some of the lost art of curiosity and communication. Especially the bonding that happens when parents read to their children during those fragile formative years.

Her parenting education classes will give children their own free books, get parents excited about books for the kids’ sake, and prepare children to successfully transition into school settings.

She will also introduce parents and children to local libraries, show parents how to troll for great books at pennies on the dollar through library book sales. By the time they get to kindergarten, their children will have developed a thirst for learning.

“They will have motor skills, they’ll know how to sit down and raise their hands, they’ll know the alphabet, and they’ll know numbers. They’ll have a love for reading,” she said.

Her Family Resilience Education and Empowerment approach is reaching parents with curriculum called Mother Read/Father Read, and wants to teach parents how to reach their young children even if they themselves have problems reading.

Parents commit to one day a week with the program, and also to read to their children at least three days a week. The rest of the time will be structured childcare, where the kids will learn all they need to successfully enter kindergarten.

At the end of the 12-week free program, they’ll receive certificates of achievement, eventually coming together with city officials to show what the program accomplished during its first year.

Hodari, who specializes in phonics and English, said the old-school phonics approach to teaching young readers how to spot vowel combinations and sounds is effective. Phased out over the past 20 years, many educators are returning to the method that was mandatory in most schools during the 1950s and 1960s.

The program was awarded $608,000 by the First 5 of San Bernardino County. The administrative office is located at 1505 W. Highland Ave at the New Hope Family Life Center in San Bernardino.

Even with reading disabilities, she said parents can be taught to be expressive with pictures and help get their young children excited about books. Reading-disabled parents will be directed to local literacy programs so they can also learn what they didn’t get in grade school.

“We have to work around it, and pictures will help tell the story. You’re still getting your child into that love of reading. There are ways around it,” she said.

Late studies and trending markers are disturbing to Hodari, who said that researchers can now predict if Black and Latino students will be going to prison by third grade just by how they’re performing in school.

“We have to engage these parents; we have to get them to a place where they want to see their child succeed. That’s what this First 5 money will afford to do.”

In Swahili, Ujamaa means family, and Solomon symbolizes the epitome of wisdom, Hodari explains.

“If we can bring parents into the center, they’ll get the wisdom and the knowledge that they need to help their families be sustained and resilient,” she said.

“We have to give them a love of reading. We have to get them to a point where they actually believe in themselves,” she said.

To sign up for the class, parents can call 909.880.3200.