Celebrate Family Literacy Day 2026

Family Literacy Day is celebrated every year on January 27. It is a national day that reminds families how important it is to read, learn, and spend time together. Family Literacy Day is led by ABC Life Literacy Canada and encourages families to enjoy learning through everyday activities.

The theme this year is “make mealtime family learning time.” Mealtimes are a great chance for families to talk, read, count, and share ideas together. Simple activities like reading and following a recipe, talking about food, making a grocery list together, or labeling items in the kitchen can help children build strong literacy skills in a fun way. Even sharing stories at the dinner table helps make mealtime a natural and enjoyable environment for literacy development.

To celebrate Family Literacy Day, the Library will be offering special Family Literacy Day Take Home Packs at all 14 branches while supplies last. These packs are available starting Saturday, January 24. Packs include activity ideas from ABC Life Literacy Canada, along with extra materials from the Library to make the activities even more fun - a magnifying glass for the food scavenger hunt activity and special food-themed sticky notes for the food labeling activity. These are great tools to encourage hands-on exploration and turn everyday mealtime moments into learning opportunities.

The library hopes these Take Home Packs encourage families to learn together, have fun, and make literacy part of their daily routine. To further encourage food and culture related learning, the Library recommends checking out A to Z World Foods in the Digital Library for access to thousands of recipes from around the world.