It's Saturday afternoon, and Tosha and her dad are in the kitchen, tying on aprons. Eagerly, Tosha unloads the backpack she brought home Friday from her second-grade class. One by one, she lays the items out on the kitchen table—two books, a magazine, muffin mix, a large print recipe card, two folders, a measuring cup, and spoons. Using the backpack ingredients, Tosha and her dad follow a recipe to make banana nut muffins together for the first time.

Literacy activities for families. Tosha's backpack came home compliments of SPARC, a theme-based, family literacy backpack program in greater Madison, Wisconsin. SPARC allows 2,000 preschool and elementary children in 20 schools to explore their favorite topics through learning-rich activities at home and in school. Every five weeks, each child takes home a backpack, stuffed with books, manipulatives, puzzles, games, cards and other family activities to do at home. Typical themes include cooking, pets, families, dinosaurs, the ocean, and wild animals. Children and parents use backpack journals to record their activities and provide feedback to teachers.

Input from experts. Other backpacks—checked out through school psychologists—explore sensitive issues such as divorce, moving, incarcerated parents, death of family members or pets, and substance abuse. Each backpack also contains a parent folder with instructions, an inventory list, feedback sheets, and supplementary tips such as effective read-aloud strategies.

Ongoing, integrated services. The backpack themes are extended throughout the year, through family literacy nights that offer additional strategies for parents. AmeriCorps*VISTA Leader Anne Hladilek serves as the “super glue” for SPARC, supporting 18 other VISTAs engaged in several literacy support activities. They recruit and support reading volunteers, write grants for materials, create backpacks, develop and coordinate family literacy events, and participate in training sessions delivered by school reading specialists.