Education classes, General Education Development certifications, and vocational training. Building Family: The Leadership Program's nationally recognized Building Family program invites parents into school communities with workshops that are hands-on, informative, and fun. These successful workshops meet a wide variety of parent needs and interests: from personal health and professional growth to nurturing the creative spirit and parenting strategies for promoting children's academic achievement. Backed by The Leadership Program's decades of experience facilitating more than 2,000 Building Family workshops for over 20,000 public school parents, this inspiring guidebook includes thirty-three complete workshops with convenient step-by-step instructions. Use it to lead dynamic experiences that will inspire enduring parent engagement in your own school community. Childhood Education: Helping to involve parents can be done in a child's learning through play groups, sharing stories and books together, and child-directed play time that all help the child to bond with their parents. Parent Education: The family literacy program developed in Illinois at the Prairie State Family Literacy Program provides parental support about health issues, good nutrition, discipline, and takes parents and children on field trips to purchase books for children to read at home. Interactive Parent/Child Activities: The Prairie State Family Literacy Program has developed a special time for interactive activities that they call "P.A.C.T." time. During this P.A.C.T. time there are play groups that involve both parents and their children working together. They are separated by age groups to help guide the interaction and activities. Greenman Elementary in Illinois established the first family literacy project called P.A.L. Parents Advocating Literacy in district 129. Since 2010 over 100 parents have become members of P.A.L. (Parents Advocating Literacy.) P.A.L. is a family literacy project that teaches parents strategies that teachers use in the classroom every day. Establishing P.A.L. is the most effective approach to increase parental involvement in reading development. The purpose of family literacy curriculum is to increase students’ achievement by connecting school and home. When family literacy is established parents become advocates for their child's literacy. Through P.A.L. parents become empowered and become lifelong supporters of their child's education. P.A.L. was implemented district wide in 2013. P.A.L. is also in other districts throughout Illinois. F.R.E.D.:Fathers Reading Every Day is a family literacy program developed at Texas A&M University. In this program, fathers or father figures such as grandparents, uncles, or family friends are encouraged to read to their children every day for four weeks.