Early Learning

Florida Office of Early Learning: OEL administers federal and state child care funds and partners with 30 local early learning coalitions to deliver comprehensive early learning services statewide. The office 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 ext. 2900 in Orange County and 321-219-6300 in Osceola 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 Office of 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.

Parent’s Guide to Child Care: Here is a family guide to selecting early learning programs, click here.

Parent Checklist for Quality Child Care: Here is a quality checklist for evaluating early learning programs, click here.

Child Care Parent Resources: Choosing a quality child care provider is an important decision. For resources to help families through the process, 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.

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.

Promote Grade-Level Reading with Good Health development can greatly influence a child’s ability to learn and achieve reading proficiency by third grade, 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

At-home literacy activities for families, click here

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.

Local county library systems in Central Florida offer many resources to promote children’s literacy. Here are links to library websites devoted to children in Orange, Osceola, and Seminole.