Educational Resources

Early Learning

For children, the time from birth until they enter kindergarten is a critical learning period. The sections listed on the right have local information, services, activities and suggestions for you to help your child learn during these formative years and to help them develop a life long love of learning.

Child Care

Choosing child care is one of the most important decisions families make, but all too often they must rely on word-of-mouth. Local Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) organizations help parents take the guesswork out of choosing care - giving them referrals to local child care providers, information on state licensing requirements, availability of child care subsidies, and other pertinent information. CCR&Rs provide guidance by phone, in person, and in other ways, such as the internet, that are tailored to each individual family.

http://www.daycare.com

http://www.childcareaware.org

Early Learning Activities

Starfall.com

A free web site to inspire a love of reading and writing. The Starfall Method promises to improve reading acquisition by using the Internet to help make it fun for the children. Primarily for first grade, these activities are also useful for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.

ABCTeach.com

Here are 5,000+ free printable pages and worksheets including Basics (learning ABCs activities, reading, comprehension, math, writing, handwriting, shapes, etc.); Fun Activities (Crossword, puzzles, printable games); Babysitting/Daycare (babysitter forms, note pads, fun activity pages).

MeddyBemps.com

Using this free site, you can participate, guide and share in the pleasures of discovery. By following this model, you can build skills using all sorts of materials in your child's environment. You will also strengthen the bond between you by sharing experiences.

LiteracyCenter.net

The Play and Learn lessons are wonderful, simple, easy to follow learning activities for parents to share with young children. Many thanks to the Literacy Center.net for providing this really cool resource. (You will need Flash Player for these lessons - the web site provides a free download of Flash Player).

Search and Purchase Early Learning Products Online

Reviews and Recommendations

Provides parents with reviews and recommendations for educational and entertainment products and activities for children.

Edutaining Kids

Edutaining Kids is dedicated to providing parents with reviews and recommendations of "edutainment" products and activities for children. The kids' products selected for inclusion on this site are designed to entertain and to educate simultaneously, and include children's software, educational toys, books, audio, video games, and videos.

Divided into age groups and subjects, EdutainingKids.com's feature articles and reviews help make sense out of web sites, activities, and the latest products available to children and their parents.

Entertainment Software Rating Board

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory body for the interactive entertainment software industry established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), formerly the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA). ESRB independently applies and enforces ratings, advertising guidelines, and online privacy principles adopted by the computer and video game industry. The ESRB rates over 1,000 games per year.

Parents' Choice Foundation

Established in 1978, Parents' Choice Foundation is the nation's oldest not-for-profit evaluator of children's books, videos, toys, audios, computer software, vision, and magazines. The Foundation's mission is to provide parents with information to participate wisely in their children's learning.

The Foundation strives to impart solid information about the vast array of children's media products and toys that are on the market, helping parents and caregivers of all achievements and backgrounds make informed decisions about which new products are right for their children. The Foundation's purpose is to search out and recommend products that help kids grow - imaginatively, physically, morally and mentally-fairly priced products that are fun, safe and socially sound.

Parents' Choice Foundation has no commercial ties, maintaining its twenty-five year tradition as an independent voice.

Health & Safety

KidsHealth is the largest and most visited site on the Web providing doctor-approved health information about children from before birth through adolescence. Created by The Nemours Foundation's Center for Children's Health Media, KidsHealth provides families with accurate, up-to-date, and jargon-free health information they can use. KidsHealth has been on the Web since 1995 - and has been accessed by more than 170,000,000 visitors. On a typical weekday, more than 250,000 people access KidsHealth's reliable information.

KidsHealth has separate areas for kids, teens and parents each with its own design, age-appropriate content, and tone. There are literally thousands of in-depth features, articles, animations, games, and resources - all original and all developed by experts in the health of children and teens.