Links

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Visit these links to learn more about literacy programs and initiatives in Maine and across the nation.

• The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Click on Lessons Learned and Publications.
• The National Center for Family Literacy website contains publications, training, and information on national conferences
• Maine Early Childhood Initiative website contains information to support the work of the Maine Task Force on Early Childhood and Invest Early in ME.
• The Public Broadcasting website ties in to their TV programming and many other resources
• The Perpetual Preschool has over 12,000 resources for parents and educators of young children.
• Reading Rockets has an excellent e-newsletter, free, with resources, articles, tips related to early literacy and parenting
• Get Ready to Read (GRTR!) is a national program to build the early literacy skills of preschool children. GRTR! brings research-based strategies to parents, early education professionals, and child care providers to help prepare children to learn to read and write. Get Ready to Read! is an initiative of the National Center for Learning Disabilities .
  
• Raising Readers is a collaboration between MaineHealth and Eastern Maine Healthcare System, funded by the Libra Foundation. Raising Readers distributes new books to children ages birth to 5 years, through healthcare providers, at well child visits.
• The Harold Alfond College Challenge Grant provides a one-time $500 grant and is available for every Maine baby to open a NextGen account.
• The Kentucky Parent Advisory Council has issued recommendations and a rubric focused on increasing parental involvement in education in a document called "The Missing Piece of the Proficiency Puzzle."
• Verizon offers free on-line mini-courses, including an excellent, brief overview of family literacy
• Maine Humanities Council. Click on "programs" for more information on Born to Read, and New Book New Readers
• The Goodling Institute at Penn State provides on-line courses and the latest research on family literacy.
• The Oregon Family Literacy website provides some lessons and handouts for family literacy.
• Reading is Fundamental provides activities for children and their parents as well as tips for educators.
• Taking a Closer Look: A Guide to On-line Resources on Family Involvement through Fine Network: A Harvard Family Research Project
• National Institute for Early Education Research presents the State of Preschool 2007, news and current research on early education
• The Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy (CAAL) operates a varied program of cutting-edge research, policy and issue analysis, symposia, planning, and leadership development activities.
• Born Learning is a public engagement campaign that helps parents, grandparents and caregivers explore ways to turn everyday moments into fun learning.
• Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services Bridging Refugee Youth and Children’s Services (BRYCS) provides national technical assistance to organizations serving refugees
  and immigrants so that all newcomer children and youth can reach their potential.
• Literacy CyberSpace Designed for parents with children under age 18 who wish to prepare their children for success in school and life.  Parents can view website links and take online family literacy lessons to gain skills in many areas.  These areas include promoting child development, creating a safe and healthy home environment that supports literacy, and increasing involvement in their children’s education.
• Learn to Read To learn to read is to step into a world of inner insight that is quite hard to express in any other medium. If you know people who want to learn to read, then this is the resource that you can use to help them.
• Starfall Starfall.com opened in September of 2002 as a free public service to motivate children to read with phonics. Our systematic phonics approach, in conjunction with phonemic awareness practice is perfect for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, special education, homeschool, and English language development (ELD, ELL, ESL). Starfall is an educational alternative to other entertainment choices for children.
• Mind Nurture The focus of our company is upon the crucial learning period from birth to 5 years of age. We believe that both the process and content of the adult-child interaction are the carriers of early educational intervention. A portion of profits helps support the distribution of free or low-cost early learning products in needy communities around the world.
• Ages and Stages ASQ-3 is an accurate, cost-effective, and parent-friendly way to identify children from one month to 5½ years with developmental delays.
• FISH Imagine a workplace where everyone chooses to bring energy, passion, and a positive attitude with them each day. that's the FiSH Philosophy! An environment in which people are truly connected to their work, to their colleagues and to their customers.
• Center for Early Literacy Learning CELL is a research-to-practice technical assistance center funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Research to Practice Division. The main goal of CELL is to promote the adoption and sustained use of evidence-based early literacy learning practices by early childhood intervention practitioners, parents, and other caregivers of young children, birth to five years of age, with identified disabilities, developmental delays, and those at-risk for poor outcomes.
• Zero to Three The ZERO TO THREE Policy Center promotes good health, strong families, and positive early learning experiences for all infants and toddlers, with special emphasis on those who are the most vulnerable and in need.
• Story Stretchers by Gryphon House Story S-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-r-s contains 80 age-appropriate children's books and 240 ways to s-t-r-e-t-c-h the stories in new ways to enhance the learning process.
• Children's Books Forever Free download of children's books that have become classics and favorites from around the world.
• Mother-Daughter Book Clubs Check this site to find age-appropriate reading lists, favorite selections from book clubs, author interviews, and reviews from moms, daughters and other readers.
• Don't Give Up - The European Union funded project, 'Dont Give Up' offers language schools, teachers and students a complete set of motivational Best Practices for every level of adult language learning to ensure student success. In fact many of the best practices can be used in other levels of language teaching and learning.
• Washington Learning Systems - Our evidence-based program for parents and teachers, Language is the Key,  shows how to promote early literacy, language, and cognitive development.