Early Learning: Family Resource Suggestions
Overview
Resource suggestions for family leadership, voice, and engagement, including ideas to explore with your family learning with remote learning.
Websites, Apps, and Read Alouds
Resource Sites
Message in a Backpack ™ | National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
This is a column that appears in Teaching Young Children. Download printable documents with helpful tips for families to engage in learning activities with their children.
Message in a Backpack ™ Recipes to Road Maps: Fun Ways to Learn from Everyday Information
Message in a Backpack™ Fun Ways to Build Your Child’s Literacy Skills While Doing Laundry Together
Mensaje en la mochila: Ayude a su hijo a aprender a ser responsable
Message in a Backpack™ Helping Your Child Learn Responsibility
Message in a Backpack™ Things Every Parent Should Know about Play
رسالة في حقيبة الظهر (Message in a Backpack™) الفقاعات (Bubbles)
书包金点子 (Message in a Backpack ™) 泡泡 (Bubbles)
PBS KIDS for Parents | Public Broadasting Service
Offers activities and tips you can use to help kids play and learn at home.
Great Schools.org
Website with worksheets, booklists, parenting cue cards and other free resources for parents
Kinderart Lesson Library | Kinderart
Free art lesson plans that parents and teachers can use in their home and school classrooms.
Fun and Free Educational Websites for Kids | VeryWell Family
Apps w/ Activities
Appropriate Apps for Children | Madison Public Library
PBS KIDS Video app | Public Broadcasting Service
Available on mobile, tablet, and connected TV devices and offers on-demand educational videos, and a live stream of the PBS KIDS 24/7 channel. No subscription required.
PBS KIDS Games app | Public Broadcasting Service
Nearly 200 educational games, which can be downloaded for offline play anytime, anywhere
Online Storytime Events on Facebook
Read Alouds
Rosie Revere, Engineer | Storytime from Space
The Bad Seed | HarperKids Storytime Anytime
Authors reading their own books | Kate Messner website
Storyline Online | Screen Actors Guild -American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
Except where otherwise noted, this work by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All logos and trademarks are property of their respective owners.
This resource contains links to websites operated by third parties. These links are provided for your convenience only and do not constitute or imply any endorsement or monitoring by OSPI. Please confirm the license status of any third-party resources and understand their terms of use before reusing them.
Family Voice
- Natural Leaders
This program serves as multi-cultural bridges between students, families, communities, and schools. The organization that runs the program is the Washington Alliance for Better Schools. It can be a way to use a combination of funds for building sustainable, family leaders. http://www.wabsalliance.org/community-leadership/natural-leaders/
- The Washington State Family and Community Engagement Trust and the Everett Community College have The Parent Leadership Training Institute (PLTI)
The PLTI is a free, 11-week, 6-hours per week civic and community engagement course for parents and community members offered in partnership with Everett Community College, https://www.wafamilyengagement.org/
- Parent Academy — Mount Vernon School District
The Mount Vernon School District is not only made up of wonderful, hard-working students, but also of amazing, dedicated parents. The district offers a six-week Bilingual/Migrant Parent Academy for parents to learn and understand the complex educational system. This program is offered in 4 different languages. Click here to learn more.
Toolkits & Guides
- Family Engagement Toolkit: Continuous Improvement Through an Equity Lens click here (California and WestEd), other state’s toolkits
- The U.S. Department of Education (ED) Parent and Family Digital Guide English | Spanish
- The Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships (Version 2)
- OSPI’s Multilingual Families Toolkit English | Spanish
- Hawaii's AFFECT five online modules, supports both preservice and in-service teachers to understand and use family engagement principles and strategies
- Flamboyant Foundation Academic Partnering: Teacher | School Leader Guides.
- Seek common ground and the experts at Student Achievement Partners have created Family Guides to help parents, grandparents, caregivers, friends.
- Build Initiative’s Family Engagement Toolkit
Other Resources and grade levels
- COVID-19: Evidence-Based Resources from the RELs and USDE click here (includes Early Learning and more).
P-3 School Improvement Family and Community Partnerships
Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Association of Educational Service Districts (AESD) publishes ideas for school improvement in the P-3 School Improvement Monthly Bite. The issue released January 2021 include content and data to equip school districts to engage in "authentic and transformational partnership with famiies and communities."