A trip to the playground in Miami-Dade now comes with a reading lesson built in. Pages in the Park puts six colorful, interactive signs in each of four county parks, prompting kids and their grown-ups to read, talk, write, sing and play together. The program was celebrated with a ribbon cutting on Wednesday, September 23, at Ruben Dario Park, 9825 W Flagler Street.

Where to find it

Pages in the Park is installed at four Miami-Dade County parks:

  • Ruben Dario Park, 9825 W Flagler Street
  • Westwind Lakes Park
  • Oak Grove Park
  • JL (Joe) and Enid W. Demps Park

The signs are spread throughout each park rather than clustered in one corner, so a walk from the swings to the slide turns into a string of small activities. The idea is simple: young children build the skills that lead to reading long before they can read, by hearing words, naming things, rhyming, singing and telling stories with an adult. The signs give parents, grandparents and caregivers an easy prompt to do exactly that.

The parks themselves are spread out across the county, from the Flagler Street corridor at Ruben Dario Park to Joe and Enid Demps Park, so the program reaches families in different neighborhoods rather than concentrating in one. These are everyday neighborhood playgrounds, not destination parks, and that is the point: the reading prompts are where children already are on an ordinary afternoon.

Who is behind it

The project is a partnership of three local groups. The Children's Trust Book Club mails free books to young children across the county. Uplift Literacy is a Miami nonprofit that works with schools in underserved neighborhoods to help children read well by the end of third grade. And Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces supplied the playgrounds. Together they took the reading-at-home idea and moved it outdoors, where families already spend their weekend mornings.

The free book club behind the signs

If you have a child under five in Miami-Dade, the bigger news may be the book club that sparked the program. The Children's Trust Book Club sends one free, new book a month, along with a parent guide full of activities and tips, straight to the child's home. Books come in English or Spanish, and the Trust's announcement for Pages in the Park says Haitian Creole is offered as well. The Trust says the club has given away more than 1.6 million free books.

Children can be enrolled from birth up to four and a half years old, and the books keep arriving every month until the child's fifth birthday. That adds up to a real home library by the time a child starts kindergarten, at no cost to the family.

Pages in the Park is, in a sense, the Book Club stepping out of the mailbox. A book on the shelf works best when someone reads it aloud, and a playground sign that says sing this song or find something blue does the same job for families who are out and about. The two pieces are designed to reinforce each other.

How to make the most of it

Pick the park closest to you and go early, before the afternoon heat, when the playground is quieter and a toddler has the patience to stop at each sign. Let the signs set the pace: sing the song, find the shape, make up the story. Ten minutes of that, a few times a week, is the kind of everyday habit early literacy experts like to see.

Then sign up for the free books at the Book Club enrollment portal, so the reading keeps going once you get home. It takes a few minutes, and the first book is the start of a shelf your child will remember.