It sounds like something more at home in a dream than reality.
Pre-K and Kindergarten classes sharing a building with a nursing home? The Grace Living Center in Tulsa is just that. 60 schoolchildren walk down the halls with 170 elders, called Grandpas and Grandmas. And the benefits freely flow both ways.
For the elderly, having children bobbing up and down around them is pure joy.
“You’re sitting there eating [ice cream] and a kid you worked with in the morning will come up and ask, ‘What kind are you having, Grandpa Charlie?’ and it almost tears your heart out,” he says, choking up, “that they would remember me.”
The children get extra literacy practice by regularly reading to their “Grandpa”, and as a result their literacy outcomes are higher than average. The two populations occasionally have other shared activities like crafting to bring them together.
To read more about this, read the full article here. But be warned that it may well bring a tear to your eyes!
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Sarah Forrest is a Literacy Specialist for the Easyread System, an online course for children with reading difficulties, dyslexia, and more. Get a free 10-day trial at www.easyreadsystem.com