Florida Early Learning: Administers federal and state child care funds and partners with 30 local early learning coalitions to deliver comprehensive early learning services statewide. Oversees three programs—the School Readiness Program, the Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program, and Child Care Resource and Referral services, click here.
School Readiness: SR program offers income-eligible families financial assistance for early education and care. For more information, click here. To apply for School Readiness using Florida’s Early Learning Family Portal, click here.
Child Care Resource & Referral: CCRR connects families with early learning providers. The service is free to both families and providers. Call 407-522-2252 in Orange County, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, Families click here, and Providers click here.
Voluntary PreKindergarten: VPK is a free educational program that prepares 4-year-old children in Florida for Kindergarten and beyond. For more information, click here. To apply for VPK using Florida’s Early Learning Family Portal, click here.
Head Start & Early Head Start: Programs promote school readiness and child development for eligible low-income families with children from birth to 5 years old. For more information, click here.
Parents’ Pages: Find useful information to encourage fun, learning, and family bonding in the Florida Early Learning monthly Parents’ Pages, click here.
Child Care Provider Search: Provider profiles contain all relevant information pertaining to a child care provider, click here.
Family Guide to Selection Quality Early Learning Programs: English | Spanish
Quality Checklist for Child Care Centers and Preschools: English | Spanish
Quality Checklist for Family Child Care Homes: English | Spanish
Parent’s Guide to Child Care: Here is a family guide to selecting early learning programs, click here.
Florida Department of Education: It serves as the single repository of education data from school districts, state and community colleges, universities, and independent postsecondary institutions, click here.
Vroom: Tools and materials turn everyday moments into brain-building exercises. For more information, click here.
Transition to Preschool
- Helping Your Child Adjust to Preschool, click here.
- Talking to Your Child’s Preschool Teacher, click here.
- Preschool Activity Library, click here.
- Early Education Parent Toolkit, click here.
Transition to Kindergarten
- Transitioning to Kindergarten Toolkit, click here.
Language & Literacy
Center for Early Literacy Learning has developed specific materials to assist parents in guiding their child’s early literacy development through the use of fun and exciting literacy learning experiences, click here.
Florida Electronic Library has more than 190 million articles, e-books, videos, and other electronic resources for the citizens of Florida, click here.
Ten early literacy tips for families, click here.
Communicating With Baby Tips and Milestones:
- Birth to 3 months English | Spanish
- Months 4 to 6 English | Spanish
- Months 7 to 12 English | Spanish
- Year 1 to 2 English | Spanish
- Year 2 to 3 English | Spanish
- Year 3 to 4 English | Spanish
- Year 4 to 5 English | Spanish
It’s never too early to help your child learn – English | Spanish
Tips for families – English | Spanish
Benefits of being bilingual – English | Spanish
Using language at home and in the community – English | Spanish
Resources to support children’s learning at home for bilingual families:
- Help Your Child Learn to Read, click here
- Learning Together at Home, click here
- The Preschool Years, click here
- School Success, click here
- The Importance of Home Language Series, click here
Getting ready to read, click here
Choosing good books for children of all ages, click here
How to get preschoolers excited about reading, click here
Reading aloud to your children, click here
Reading Tips for Parents:
- Babies – English | Spanish
- Toddlers – English | Spanish
- Preschoolers – English | Spanish
- Kindergartners – English | Spanish
- First Graders – English | Spanish
- Second Graders – English | Spanish
- Third Graders – English | Spanish
Baby talk, click here
Building literacy every day, click here
Explore literacy at home, click here
Home literacy environment checklist, click here
Learning letters: Games and fun, click here
Raising readers video, click here
Growing Healthy Readers:
- Supporting Healthy Births and Infancy, click here.
- Ensuring Early and Appropriate Screenings and Intervention, click here.
- Is Your Child Ready to Read? click here.
- Supporting Children’s Healthy Social-Emotional Development, click here.
- Ensuring Oral Health, click here.
- Controlling Environments and Managing Asthma, click here.
- Promoting Health Food Choices, click here.
- Increasing Physical Activity, click here.
Exploring Math & Science
Baby and toddler math milestones, click here
Early math video series, click here
Help your child develop early math skills, click here
Math in the bath, click here
Preschool and kindergarten math milestones, click here
“Let’s find out!”: Three tips for raising curious kids, click here
Science throughout the day, click here