The British Association for Early Childhood
Education
This is a leading organisation for
early years practitioners and parents and has free leaflets on such
topics as ‘Making their Mark – Children’s early Writing’ and
‘Toddlers and Very Early Learning’.
Bookstart
This is a
national project run by Booktrust that works
through locally-based organisations to give a free pack of books to
babies and includes guidance notes for parents. The 0-2 pack
includes two books, a rhyme placemat, a Surestart leaflet, a
Bookstart Baby Books Guide, and Babies Love Books and What Babies
Love leaflets. Most are given by Health Visitors at the
eight-month health check.
There are separate packs for children of 18-30 months (Bookstart
+) and 3-4 year olds (Bookstart treasure chest) that include
crayons and a notepad. Booktouch is a resource for visually
impaired children.
Campaign
for Learning
The Family Learning
website contains some useful resources, particularly in
the section on the the Family Learning Festival: the
downloadable leaflet 'Get together discover more' is a guide to
learning together for families, and there are also resources for
practitioners and an online guide to planning family learning
events. The annual Family Learning Festival takes place in
October.
Department for Education -
DfE
Fathers
Plus
Fathers Plus offer a range of
resources to help practitioners recognise the importance
of a father’s role in the life of his children, including the
booklet ‘A Question of Balance: Including Fathers in
Services’, a set of ‘My Dad Matters’ postcards; and 'Dad's
guides' to children's centres and breastfeeding.
Family Learning
Programmes
These Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funded programmes are
specifically designed to enable adults and children to learn
together; or to enable parents to better understand how to support
their children’s learning.
ICAN
An
organisation that promotes the importance of communication in
babies and young children’s lives; ICAN gives tips and advice on
how to develop positive communication. Examples of resources are
‘Chatter Matters’ - a DVD illustrating key points in daily
communication with examples of parents and their children - and
‘Learning to Talk - Talking to Learn’ - a DVD for
practitioners.
Learning Through
Landscapes
An organisation that promotes the
development of outdoor space and the importance of outdoor
play in children’s lives. Early years resources include the
book ‘Creating a Space to Grow’ - a guide to developing the
outdoor environment, and the DVD ‘Outdoors for
Everyone’ which illustrates the benefits of outdoor
activities. Free advice and activity sheets include
'Families Outdoors' and 'Outdoors with your child' (some resources
are only available to members).
Literacy
Trust: talk to Your Baby
Talk to Your Baby
provide many free resources for parents and practitioners,
including resource sheets of quick tips to encourage
practitioners and parents to help children develop good talking and
listening skills: these are available in 13 languages. Examples
include: ‘Sharing songs’, ‘Dummies and Talking’ and ‘Playing with
your Baby’.
National Family
Learning Network
The National Family Learning
Network is an alliance of Campaign for Learning, ContinYou
and NIACE. The network supports over 9,500 practitioners
who work with an estimated 5 million families each year. The
website includes a forum and searchable directories of funders
and online resources.