Cafe Hoglan helps to forge family connections
T-R PHOTOS BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Dorene McBridge and her daughter Neveah, a kindergartener at Hoglan Elementary School, enjoyed each other’s company during the “Cafe Hoglan” breakfast and reading event on Friday morning.
Zach Steen and his daughter Brooklyn, a kindergartner, dive into a book and some breakfast during Cafe Hoglan on Friday.
From left to right, Gabriela Sanchez, her son Jose Sanchez-Sanchez and Eliseo Botello, both kindergarteners, pose for a photo during Cafe Hoglan on Friday morning.
T-R PHOTOS BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Dorene McBridge and her daughter Neveah, a kindergartener at Hoglan Elementary School, enjoyed each other’s company during the “Cafe Hoglan” breakfast and reading event on Friday morning.
Zach Steen and his daughter Brooklyn, a kindergartner, dive into a book and some breakfast during Cafe Hoglan on Friday.
From left to right, Gabriela Sanchez, her son Jose Sanchez-Sanchez and Eliseo Botello, both kindergarteners, pose for a photo during Cafe Hoglan on Friday morning.
Trending
Leadership at the Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) is always looking for new and creative ways to strengthen the bonds between students, staff and families by engaging them in a variety of activities and initiatives outside of traditional classroom instruction. On Friday morning, Hoglan Elementary family members were welcomed to drop in from 8 to 8:30 a.m., enjoy coffee, juice and pastries and read with their students as part of a biannual tradition known as "Cafe Hoglan."
Sarah Holland, a Title I teacher at Hoglan, helps to organize the event and was excited by the strong turnout, estimating that at least 150 parents and other relatives were in attendance on Friday. In addition, the upcoming Family Reading Night typically draws at least 400 people and has even gone over 500 a few times.
"This is just a little more lighthearted and gets the parents in the classroom reading with their students," she said. "And the book is a gift. They keep that."
Kindergarten teacher Amy Pollard said any initiative that encourages parents to read with their kids is a net positive, and she said at least half of her students' families showed up this time. If a child doesn't have a family member who can make it, she added, another parent will often welcome them to join.
"It's grandma, it's grandpa, it's older siblings. It's a little bit of everything," Holland said. "Everybody's busy these days, so this is nice because it's a drop in. And you don't have to stay the whole time. You can come in and leave in 15 minutes if you have to get to work. So I think it's flexible."
Another benefit is the connections forged between parents -- one may mention to another that their children have talked about each other, and before long, they're arranging playdates.
Dorene McBridge, the mother of kindergartener Neveah McBridge, said it feels good to keep up on what's going on at Hoglan.
"It's nice to be involved in it and to know what your kid's doing every day in school," she said. "(Neveah) feels like she's being more involved, and her parents are more involved with her.
Jacob Molitor, who also has a daughter in Heather Stanley's kindergarten class, felt the same way about staying connected with his child's learning, and in McBridge's case, she doesn't have to worry about Neveah running out of books anytime soon.
"She has a thousand books. She loves to read," she said.
------
Contact Robert Maharry
at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.