The National Center for Families Learning and Toyota Partner to Ignite Imaginations Across the Nation

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Feb. 12, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a tale as old as time, the evening comes to a bustling end as mom or dad catches a glance at the clock and asks in disbelief, "Where did the day go!?" To get right to the bottom of it, the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) tapped Harris Poll in October 2013 to conduct an online survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults* to investigate how families spend their days together. And while they definitely can't create more time for parents, today NCFL and Toyota announce the Family Time Machine, a website and mobile app to help parents and kids make better use of every moment in the day.

In their survey, NCFL found:

• The average amount of time parents spend with their children each day is 8.6 hours
  • Even working parents (employed full-time, part-time or self-employed) spend an average of almost seven hours (6.7) each day with their kids
• Close to 2 in 5 (37%) parents aren't comfortable helping their children learn outside the classroom
• More than half (53%) of parents wish they knew how to make better use of the time they have with their children

Inspired by the study's findings, Family Time Machine turns everyday occasions into family learning time through sharing and imagination. Whether it's space travel at breakfast or dinosaurs at bath time, with the Family Time Machine there isn't a wasted moment for learning.

Tailored activities include:

• Morning time Toothbrush Jams and Step-a-thon
• Drive time Stoplight Stories and  Tree Hunt
• Meal time Dinner Geometry and Food Architecture
• Bed time Math Hands and Giggle Time

"Learning is no longer confined to a classroom, or a textbook," said Emily Kirkpatrick, vice president of NCFL. "Children need to learn in ways that are relevant to real-life situations, and our recent study shows us that parents are open to inspiration. The Family Time Machine will help parents seize learning opportunities in everyday and every moment."

Led by NCFL and funded by Toyota, Family Time Machine is a part of Toyota Family Learning, a six-year program that features modern-day solutions to educational challenges—including innovative mobile learning tools and funding for groundbreaking community work. The program strives to create new models for learning by expanding family literacy beyond the classroom and into homes and communities.

Key elements of Toyota Family Learning include:

• Family Time Machine, a new website community inspiring families across the nation to learn, interact, and thrive together
• Grants for communities to fund new family mentor programs and service learning programs targeting vulnerable families
• Online resources, such as Wonderopolis.org

"Family Time Machine exemplifies Toyota's commitment to supporting programs that help families learn together by transforming everyday moments into ones of great learning potential," said Mike Goss, vice president of external affairs for Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. "Literacy is critically important in maintaining a competitive workforce, so we're especially pleased to build upon our longtime relationship with NCFL through the Toyota Family Learning initiative."

A Longtime Learning Alliance
Over the 22 years of their progressive partnership, NCFL has fostered exemplary learning programs across the country with Toyota's generous support—256 family literacy sites in 50 cities and 30 states to date. The partnership has helped more than one million families make positive educational gains that have resulted in academic and economic success for parents and their children.

Additional Information

• Full Family Learning Report available here
• Follow the adventures on Twitter at @FamTimeMachine
• Show us  your own learning moments on Instagram #FamilyTimeMachine

About the National Center for Families Learning
The National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping adults and children learn together. NCFL creates and deploys innovative programs and strategies that support learning, literacy and family engagement in education. From the classroom to the community to the digital frontier, NCFL collaborates with educators, advocates and policy-makers to help families construct hotspots for learning wherever they go. For more information on NCFL's 24-year track record, visit www.familieslearning.org.

About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE: TM) established operations in the United States in 1957 and currently operates 10 manufacturing plants.  Toyota directly employs over 31,000 in the United States and its investment here is currently valued at more than $19.5 billion, including sales and manufacturing operations, research and development, financial services and design.

Toyota is committed to being a good corporate citizen in the communities where it does business and believes in supporting programs with long-term sustainable results. Toyota supports numerous organizations across the country, focusing on education, the environment and safety. To date, Toyota has contributed $700 million to nonprofits in the United States.

For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.  (NYSE:TM) 

Study Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the United States between October 8-10, 2013 among 2,020 adults (aged 18 and over), *among which 454 are parents/guardians of any children ages 18 and under living in their household and 309 are working parents, by Harris Poll  on behalf of NCFL. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, the words "margin of error" are avoided as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the online panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

[For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Sara Crumley at [email protected]]

SOURCE National Center for Family Literacy