 Sample Literacy Program Content (February 2022)
NEW!! Second Grade Literacy Pilot Program (Feb-May)
In response to the overwhelming need for literacy reinforcement for second graders who spent a good part of their kindergarten and first grade doing remote learning, we collaborated with the San Mateo Library’s literacy expert on content and curriculum, to pilot this new program in February.
With a combination of worksheets, crafts, books and hands on projects, our second grade students are building penmanship, reading (spelling, vocabulary) and comprehension skills. We are currently in the third month of this four-month pilot and have learned a lot about implementing this as a year round program.
The Literacy Program will hopefully be a regular program offering starting Fall 2022.
Family Engagement: Literacy Themed Family Night
After several attempts to schedule a Family Night had to be canceled as new virus surges occurred, we finally hosted our much loved Literacy themed Family Night at the San Mateo Public Library on March 23rd, 2022.
About 50 people attended and got a bilingual presentation and tour of the Library's facilities and services. Then families did an activity where each family created a box with questions in English and Spanish on the outside and inside – the questions serve as conversation starters / prompts for discussing books.
Every child (students as well as siblings) also got to choose and take home three new or almost new books each. While we had collected some books, thanks to the Young Men’s Service League’s (YSL) book drive, we received another 78 books, and books were also donated by the San Mateo Library.
A big "Thank you!" to the Library and Supervising Librarian in the children’s section Adriana Valencia, Homework Central staff and board members, Patty from YSL and all book donors who helped make this event a success.
Stay tuned for the end of the year party for our families!
Board Transitions  Ellyn Corey
We welcome Ellyn Corey to the board in the role of interim Treasurer. Ellyn is deeply invested in youth and education, and has been mentoring high school students for over a decade through Bright Futures, a San Jose based organization for youth at-risk. Having grown up and gone to school in the Hillsborough - San Mateo area, she has a personal interest in our schools and the success of our students. In her professional life Ellyn works in her family's commercial real estate business, where she handles finance and operations.
A warm welcome to Ellyn Corey to the HWC board!
Bill Swackhamer
After over 7 years on the Homework Central board, William "Bill" Swackhamer stepped off the board. As Treasurer, he ably guided the financial health of the organization and we are very thankful for his contributions. In his professional life, Bill works at his own CPA firm.
Thank you very much for your service to our kids and community, Bill! We will miss you!
Save the Date: “No Homework Tonight”(NHT)!!  NHT Virtual fundraiser, Thursday May 19, 2022, 7:00-8:30 PM
Our annual event “No Homework Tonight” will be a virtual Zoom event for the second year in a row, due to ongoing concerns about larger in-person gatherings.
The theme this year, in keeping with the mood in the schools and the world, is “Moving Forward”.
Please stay tuned as more information follows!
As you do your online shopping, please consider using Amazon Smile, which donates 0.5% of the price of eligible Amazon purchases to charitable organizations, and making Homework Central the beneficiary.
Simply go to smile.amazon.com and log in as you would on amazon.com. On the menu bar, select AmazonSmile and choose Homework Central (in San Mateo) as “Your Current Charity”. Then bookmark the site and each time you shop, log in on smile.amazon.com. That’s it! It is the same as the regular Amazon site, but every eligible purchase benefits Homework Central and our work.
Thank you to those who have already designated Homework Central as their charitable organization and logging in using smile.amazon.com —we have already started seeing the donations from Amazon come in!
Padma Gargeya Executive Director
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