RESOURCE GUIDE
Check back often for updates to the Resource Guide, including the latest information on school and college disability services, educational resources, and tips for navigating the transition periods in school (preschool to elementary school, elementary to middle school, middle to high school, and high school to college and work).
Literacy and Language - Pre-K and Early Elementary
Birth to Pre-K Developmental Milestones
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons: The preeminent tool for Direct Instruction phonics instruction you can do at home with your child in about 15 to 20 minutes per day.
Jolly Learning: Decodable readers, practice tools, and guides for teaching and reinforcing phonics at home using multi-sensory strategies (hand movements, visuals, music).
Blendable Sounds: We want to make sure we’re not just focusing on letter names, but instead teaching our children the letter sounds. Many of us likely do not remember learning the letter sounds as we say them automatically now as we read. Use this guide to learn how to teach your child the accurate letter sounds to promote reading.
University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI): Many resources to help you navigate best practices around early literacy.
Heggerty Pre-K Summer Lesson Plans: Heggerty and Jolly Phonics are commonly used in schools. Doing the at-home lessons will give your child individualized exposure and support repetition prior to school.
Teach Your Monster to Read: Online game-based tool to teach kids to read. The lessons are developed by Roehampton University in the UK, therefore the letter sounds represent British rather than American English.
Sold a Story: Investigative podcast by Emily Hanford about why so many kids in even the best US schools struggle to read. This podcast is a must listen for anybody with kids in American schools, and will give you context for the Science of Reading movement and why whole language practices are failing many kids.
The Knowledge Gap by Natalie Wexler: Essential reading for all parents of young kids to understand how our schools prioritize precious instructional time with poor literacy practices, while sacrificing knowledge-building time (like science and social studies), resulting in many students not connecting the dots or finding joy in reading.
National Center on Improving Literacy: Guide for Science of Reading concepts.
Early Numeracy - Pre-K and Early Elementary
NAYEC Where’s the Math?: Games, suggestions, and activities to promote early numeracy.
Counting Collections at Home:
Gather collections of items that can be grouped together (e.g., 25 poms, 50 legos).
Give your child a set of items to count and tools for sorting the items (e.g., egg crates, bowls, piece of paper with boxes drawn)
Discuss different ways to sort and count the items (e.g., 5 frames, in bowls)
Admire and analyze the process of sorting and counting (did you count one at a home, did you sort into groups of 5, did you divide the poms by color?)
See examples: University of Washington, Erikson Institute Early Math Collaborative
Integrow Math Resources: See Resources for Parents, including prompts for mathematical discussions before bed and DreamBox online math supplemental tools
IXL: Web-based Math supplemental tool learners can use through high school.
eeBoo Number Puzzle Pairs: Puzzle game to teach number identification and 1:1 correspondence.
Junior Learning Mathcubes - Number Lines: Teaches number sequencing and intervals with tactile reinforcement.
Social Emotional Skills - Pre-K and Early Elementary
Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning: Vanderbilt University resource bank of teaching tools and strategies around emotional development and teaching your child about emotions, feelings, and independence.
PBS.org: Parent hub with recommended activities and TV shows to promote social and emotional development.
Pathways (3-6 year old section): Parent guides on milestones, activities, and ideas for embedding social emotional skill development into everyday activities (like dinner time)