Cobden,
Illinois
Success Stories |
| Written
in the voices of Project MAX staff |
| (All
names have been changed for confidentiality.) |
Anita
writes questions, sentences, and instructions in
 Spanish
in a little notebook. When I go to her home for
a family visit, she asks me to help her rewrite
everything in English. This is important to her
because her husband does not permit her to attend
English classes outside of the home. Through her
hard work and perseverance, she has been able to
obtain her driver’s license. She continues
to study grammar and conversation in English at
home. |
|
 |
| María, a mother who attended
every Project MAX workshop and participated enthusiastically,
has made real progress in the way she interacts with her
children. She reads books with them and the most important
thing is that she is patient when they make mistakes. |
|
 When
Juana began making home visits with María and her
son, José, she noticed that José had speech
problems. Juana asked María some questions about
this and was told that José was receiving speech
therapy at Migrant Head Start. During the next few home
visits, Juana spoke to María about parenting skills
and why it is so important for parents to read books to
their children. Juana also reads books to José
and shows him flashcards. She encourages him to repeat
words, to learn new vocabulary, and to increase his language
skills. After getting to know Juana better, María
told her that before receiving home visits José
did not even like books. Now he shows more interest in
them. María also mentioned that she is more patient
with her son and reads books to him more often. |
|
| Four months ago the children in the
García family answered my questions only in monosyllabic
words. Now they tell me all about their experiences and
activities at school. |
|
 When
I began home visits with the Treviño family, their
2½ year old was very shy and didn’t want
to talk to me. He also was disrespectful to his mother.
Now he is cooperative and he uses words like “please”,
“thank you”, and “good afternoon”,
and I can see he enjoys playing with his mother. He likes
the activities that they do together and pays attention
during them. |
|
| Carla, one of the Salazar
family’s children, was emphatic about not wanting
to participate in home visit activities. Nowadays she
likes to take part and shares toys and colors with her
sisters. Her mother also enjoys reading the magazine Ser
Padres and makes comments about the articles to me. |
 |
| Rosa and Roberto decided
to take ESL classes together. Rosa, especially, has increased
her knowledge of English substantially. They like to have
lots of books around the house for their children to read.
The family studies a great deal together and their values
of education and hard work are making a difference in
their lives. |
 |
