Access a wide variety of educational preschool materials including interactive activities, games, books, videos, animated songs, mathematics, and reading activities spanning K-3.

PBS Kids offers a wide collection of fun educational games and activities, as well as videos and printables designed to help kids learn about various topics such as mathematics, animals, science and social studies.

Filled with educational activities for preschoolers, the Sesame Street website offers a fun approach to learning. The site also includes interactive games, videos, and printables that can help children learn about numbers, shapes and colors.

Reading Rockets is a national literacy initiative that gives parents the resources they need to help young children become strong readers and writers.

In the words of Mary Anderson, My Music Starts Here founder and teacher, “Sharing music with children is one of the most powerful tools to support their brain development and overall wellness, setting them up for a lifetime of joyful learning.”  Enjoy a selection of programs and playlists from their or any learning opportunity.

Developed by the Library of Virginia, the DayBydayVa early literacy calendar offers daily links to songs, stories, and crafts to encourage early learning and reading fun!

It’s never too early to read, talk, sing, and rhyme with your child.  Help develop the building blocks of language by:

• Visit your local library for a wonderful selection of books to check out, take home, and read with your child.  
• Enroll your child (ages birth through 5) in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and have books mailed to your house to build your own picture book library.
• Check out Reading Rockets for more information on the importance of reading aloud and tips to utilize to make the experience fun and meaningful.

• Children begin communicating and developing language the day they are born.  Talking to your child, even as an infant, helps develop language skills and lay the foundation for future success in reading and writing.

Some ideas and tips include:

• Engaging your child in conversation throughout the day. Do not use baby talk. Speak at a normal rate, volume, and tone without unnecessary exaggeration.
• Reading with your child every day. Ask him or her, “What do you think will happen next in the story? Would you have done that? What do/did you like best about…? Do you think that could/would ever happen to you?” This is a time to read slowly with inflection, using different voices for different characters. Follow words with your finger as this shows children that reading words moves left to right across a page. They will also see how to hold a book while reading.
• Reading everything: labels, cereal boxes, road signs, menus, newspapers, comic books!
• Playing games that focus on the importance of listening: Simon Says, Hokey Pokey, Telephone, or while reading, ask questions like, “Do you remember the dog’s name? What did the family do after dinner? Who do you think is coming to visit?”
• Teaching the rules of conversation early (listening and speaking): do not interrupt someone that is speaking, take turns speaking, stay on topic, use an appropriate volume while speaking (inside/outside voices), etc.
• Creating opportunities for children to follow and give oral directions that follow a sequence using simple crafts, activities, chores, or while playing games.
• Asking children questions about and discussing age-appropriate topics: What do you like best about preschool/going to the park/shopping…?” Encourage children to ask questions of others. “Ask Mr. Brown where he got his new puppy!”
• Asking open-ended questions. What would you do if….? What if you had …? Where would you go if...? Encourage children to extend their answers by expanding the question….But what if you couldn’t ….? What do you think would happen if you…? Who/what would you take with you?”
• Teaching new words and incorporating them into normal conversation. Instead of stir the eggs and sugar together, say, “Let’s blend the eggs and sugar together.”…etc.

• Singing is a fun way to get your child ready to read and helps them learn to recognize and use the sounds of spoken language and to build vocabulary.

Some fun activities to incorporate signing include:

• Singing familiar songs like “Old MacDonald” or “The Wheels on the Bus” that encourage movement, activity, and participation by your child.
• Making up silly new songs using a variety of words and phrases making sure to add in lots of rhyming words.
• Singing throughout the day..learn or make up songs about everyday routines and tasks like picking up toys or brushing teeth.
• For more ideas, take a look at this fun selection of videos from music educator Mary Anderson on the importance of music for early language and learning.

• One of the simplest ways to encourage early literacy, learning, and language development is reciting nursery rhymes with your child.  These tried and true poems and rhymes feature patterns and simple repetitive phrases that young children find easy to remember and repeat. Nursery rhymes also:
  • Introduce new words.
  • Help children recognize the sound in words.
  • Teach children where words begin and end in sentences.
• Visit your local library for a great selection of nursery rhyme books to check out and share with your child