Parent/Caregiver Workshops and Resources

By sharing key skills and practices with at-risk parents and caregivers in your community, you will make a vital difference in the early literacy development of young children. The Every Child Ready to Read® @ Your Library® 2nd edition toolkit (ECRR2) provides talking points and customizable slideshows for workshops that allow you to educate parents and caregivers, library staff, and community partners on the importance of promoting reading readiness by reading, writing, talking, playing, and singing with young children. To facilitate your workshop planning:

Use your ECRR1 and ECRR2 materials to develop your workshops.
Schedule a Ready to Read training for your staff to teach them how to do workshops in the community.
Borrow an Ohio Ready to Read kit to enhance your workshops.
Download a Fun and Facts early literacy workshop presentation (Microsoft PowerPoint, 3.3MB). A version of the workshop presentation incorporating links to the Ohio Department of Education's Early Learning Content Standards (Microsoft PowerPoint, 3.8MB) is also available for download. Please note these are the 2011 standards and are being superceded by new Early Learning and Development Standards, which will be implemented in 2013-14. Ohio Ready to Read will provide an updated presentation for your use by September 2013.
This presentation script from Elaine Betting at Lorain Public Library System was used for a library program for parents of incoming kindergarten students. It describes the Five Practices and easy ways to use them to support early literacy skills development. Elaine originally presented it in spring 2012 for parents whose children would enter kindergarten that fall. Librarians are welcome to use or adapt this script for your own outreach efforts.
Use the Ohio Early Literacy Crosswalk to relate ECRR concepts to the ODE Early Learning Content Standards and the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework Outcomes.

More Workshop Resources

If you are providing training to staff of child care centers or to Type A homes, you may use this form to document your attendees' participation:
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Form 01307: Inservice Training for Child Care Employees. Your training description goes on page 2 (Child Development). The MLIS/MLS qualifies as a related field as long as the training is related to how early childhood professionals can use the library services in their role working with young children.

Consider offering a workshop in partnership with another community group. Find suggestions on the Partnerships section of this website.

Use this Tip Sheet (PDF) as a guide to reach out to families who do not come to the library.

Browse the Early Literacy Resources section of this website for more ideas

Saroj Ghoting has created a series of videos demonstrating early literacy asides. These video clips are useful for incorporating tips to adults on early literacy in the storytime setting. Saroj did these video clips at the request of Enid Costley, Youth Services Consultant at the Library of Virginia, to support an online class on early literacy storytimes.

For Parents and Caregivers

Many excellent resources exist to educate and encourage parents to thrive as their children's first and best teachers. Consider sharing these links in your workshops and in your outreach and in-library interactions with parents and caregivers of young children:

PBS Parents: Reading and Language
Learn how children become readers and writers and how parents can help them develop by talking, reading, and writing together every day.

Zero to Three
Resources for parents and others to learn about brain development, early language and literacy, and child development. The site includes special sections for Family, Friend, and Neighbor Care and School Readiness.

Get Ready to Read screening tool
This online, 20-question tool for 4-year-olds was designed to show where a child is on the path to developing pre-reading skills. It is free for parents and caregivers to use with children, and is available in English and Spanish.

Boosting Your Child's Brain Power
Sponsored by the Ohio Department of Education, this site offers information on methods parents can use to help their young children learn in the early years.