Early Literacy Resources

Establishing early literacy skills is the foundation for a lifetime of success. Below are several free literacy resources to inspire a love of reading in your child’s life.

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Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library:

A book gifting program that mails a brand new age appropriate book to enrolled children every month from birth until their 5th birthday.

ENROLL HERE

Explore our Healthy Families resource page:

Learn about topics ranging from sleep habits and nutrition to reducing stress and language development.

LEARN MORE HERE

BookSmart by Worldreader:

Booksmart is a free online library of books that features over 1,000 titles in multiple languages, with family activities to extend the learning.

ACCESS DIGITAL LIBRARY HERE

Cuyahoga County Public Libraries:

Explore a range of free literacy events and resources for all ages at your nearby library.

LEARN MORE HERE

Cuyahoga County Public Library Toy Rentals

At each of its branches, Cuyahoga County Public Library offers toys for children ages birth to 8 years old that are safe, sturdy and clean. You can borrow toys for up to two weeks. Toys can be renewed just like other library materials.

LEARN MORE HERE

Cuyahoga County Public Library Kindergarten Club:

For KIDS and their families who are beginning KINDERGARTEN in August 2023. The program is especially created for children who are not enrolled in classroom based preschool, daycare, or Head Start programs to provide group learning experiences.

LEARN MORE HERE

Bedtime Math:

Bedtime Math sends parents a fun, new math problem every day. Targeted for kids ages 3-9, it begins with a short, fun set-up story, followed by three math problems at three levels of challenge.

LEARN MORE HERE

Tips for promoting your child’s literacy development!

Below are recommendations to enhance and foster quality reading moments with you and your child.

Hug your child every day

Hug your child every day – it will build a stronger brain! And snuggle when you read to your child (at least 15 minutes) every day! Make it cozy, fun and joyful. While you read to them and when you read the same book repeatedly, you are building their brain and they are automatically learning all kinds of things that will help them when they are ready to learn to read. Talk about the pictures, characters, and events. Have a conversation.

Narrate the day

Sing and make up songs

Fill your house with books

Visit your local library

Visit your local library. If your child doesn’t already have a library card, register for one. Visit both the picture book and the children’s non-fiction section for information books about subjects that interest your child such as animals, trucks, vehicles, nature, etc. You can ask the librarian for help in finding those appropriate for your child’s age and interests & let your child choose some of the books too. This will build their vocabulary and knowledge.

Continue reading daily

Encourage imaginative play to build your child’s brain

Limit and control screen time

Provide your child with a spot in your home for them to put their ideas on paper

Provide your child with a spot in your home for them to put their ideas on paper. Just as children had to kick, roll, crawl, toddle and fall before walking, they need practice and experience using these materials to prepare for writing well and spelling accurately. Accept and praise their efforts along the way. They’ll go through many stages of “emergent writing” before full mastery many years down the road.

Visit a nature center, take a nature hike, and visit museums for some new experiences

Dialogic reading and the PEER sequence

Literacy experts tell us that except for the first reading of a book, it’s good to read a book using the following approach on many pages. It’s called dialogic reading and the PEER sequence:

Prompt your child to say something about the book.

Evaluate your child’s response.

Expand your child’s response by rephrasing it and adding information to it.

Repeat the prompt to make sure the child has learned from the expansion.

Here’s an example of how that might look:

Imagine that the parent and the child are looking at the page of a book that has a picture of a fire engine on it. The parent says, “What is this?” (the prompt) while pointing to the fire truck. The child says, truck, and the parent follows with “That’s right (the evaluation); it’s a red fire truck (the expansion); can you say fire truck?” (the repetition).

Screens aren’t the best but here are some helpful resources

Young children learn best through real interaction with real objects and real people & unstructured play.

Screens aren’t the best but here are some helpful resources (with better educational videos):

Common Sense Media and Fairplay (for Kids) are organizations that may help you navigate the online world for your children’s optimal benefit:

Recommended online resources:

While we know real books read by you provide the best experience, here’s an alternative better than animated book readings or random online choices: