Both Shearer Elementary School and Justice Elementary School students and their parents will have the opportunity to bond over books this year.

An award-winning family literacy program is underway at Shearer and is coming to Justice March 5.

Kentucky Humanities, a nonprofit corporation affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities, awarded a grant to Shearer and Justice to offer the Prime Time Family Reading Time program.

Shearer’s program began Feb. 4 and will end on March 11. At Justice, the Prime Time Family Reading Time will meet Mondays from March 5 to April 16. The program is free and includes meals, door prizes and educational childcare for younger siblings.

Kathleen Pool, associate director at Kentucky Humanities, said Sun Prime Time is a six-week family literacy program that focuses on children ages 6 to 10.

“It’s a six-week family program aimed at children who are reluctant readers,” Pool said.

The program tries to take all of the obstacles away such as transportation, meals or childcare for younger siblings.

“We try to take away all of the obstacles,” Pool said. “We provide dinner. We provide childcare… and if you can’t get there, we send a taxi.”

Kentucky Humanities Executive Director Bill Goodman said he Prime Time focuses on bonding families around reading.

“Prime Time is an important program of Kentucky Humanities,” Goodman said in a statement. “The reading program bonds families around the act of reading and seeks to transform them into life-long readers and regular visitors to Kentucky’s libraries. We’ve been sponsoring Prime Time since 2004 and have hosted 240 Prime Time programs in 85 Kentucky counties in 15 years.”

So far, there are nearly 30 programs scheduled for 2019.

Pool said the program used to be mainly held in libraries, but thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the program has expanded into schools.

Pool said the program usually averages about 15 to 20 families.

“Each week, families will take home two books and are encouraged to read them throughout the week,” Pool said.

Shearer Elementary School also hosted the program last year, marking the first time Clark County had ever hosted a program, Pool said.

Amy Reese will be the storyteller for Prime Time and Jacqueline Kohl-Hamilton, a professor in Eastern Kentucky University’s department of English and Theatre, will be the Prime Time scholar and will lead discussions after story time for both the Shearer and Justice programs.

“The storyteller models how to read aloud the book, and the scholar will model for parents how to ask open-ended questions to inspire discussion after reading the book,” Pool said.

Pool said the books are all chosen because they have good themes and lend themselves to a good open discussion.

“We also have door prizes and try to make it an all-around fun time,” Pool said.

Children participating in family literacy programs made gains at least three times greater than would have been expected based on their pre-enrollment rate of development, according to the National Center for Family Literacy. Children also showed an 80 percent increase in reading books and made twice as many trips to the library.

Prime Time found 74 percent of parents reported the program enhanced discussion with reading, fostering more reading and led to better interactions with their children.

“It’s important because learning and liking to read opens the doors to all aspects of learning,” Pool said. “If we can change a child’s attitude to reading, we can change their attitude toward learning in all subjects.”