DAVENPORT, Iowa — Davenport Public Library's Fairmount branch is offering story time for children to engage and practice their multiple language skills.
Volunteers from the community came to read and sing with the children in English and Spanish. Daniel Salazar, a student at St. Ambrose University who hopes to become a school teacher one day, read out loud to the children for the first time in his time with the program.
"I thought that this is an amazing opportunity to reach out not just to the kids who only know Spanish and try to teach them English," said Salazar. "But on the other side of the aisle, maybe there's some students and would like to learn something different, something new other than English. And this exposes them to that to kind of a cross-cultural educational experience."
The program is set to be a fun and interactive way for children to become exposed to various languages.
Angie Hammond, a library assistant who helps run the program, has been excited about the program since its inaugural.
"We were really, really excited to put together the bilingual story time program for summer at the Davenport Public Library," said Hammond. "It was geared for English-speaking children to come in and pick up a little bit of Spanish but also for Spanish-speaking children to come in and pick up a little bit of English. So we were really, really excited to put that together."
Fairmount Branch has been offering this program throughout the summer. Their next event will be on Tuesday, August 16th. To register your child for the event, visit the Davenport Public Library's website.