Welcome! Best Beginnings is proud to support early childhood professionals in their efforts to promote early learning in Alaska. Whether you work with families directly as a child care provider, provide referrals to other services, or serve as an advocate for early learning, we have a number of resources available to you.
Here are a few we think you’ll find particularly useful:
Downloadable activity sheets and guides are available in English, Yup’ik, and Spanish. They contain low-cost or free activities by age that can be done with a child to promote early learning. Based in research, they are designed around the five areas of early learning experts say are key to kindergarten readiness. Incorporate them into your existing program or promote them to parents as a resource they can use to further their young child’s education.
Best Beginnings delivers short, weekly emails sent to parents of young children about early literacy and school readiness. Topics change each month and range from using books for play to how to select books for children by age. Full of fun activities and information for parents to help their child grow, this newsletter was designed based on parent feedback to be convenient, concise, and educational. The content of each newsletter can be found in the Parent Center, as well as the link to sign up. Families who are enrolled in Imagination Library in Alaska, and who provided us with their email address, receive this newsletter automatically. If you’d like more information to promote the newsletter to your families please contact us.
Further your professional development by staying up to date on current research surrounding early learning and literacy, and referral links to high-quality sources.
Babies on Track – ORDER YOURS HERE
Babies on Track, produced by Best Beginnings, includes two baby board books with Alaska themes and a 14-minute DVD for parents:
- Our Alaska Family (photos of Alaska baby faces)
- Let’s Talk Alaska! (objects found especially in Alaska)
- Using delightful images of Alaska babies on location around the state, the DVD shows parents, rather than just telling them, how they can foster early learning and healthy brain development at home in easy, convenient ways.
Babies on Track is especially valuable for families with babies under 2 years of age. Babies on Track is provided to AEYC attendees for only $5 a set (to cover the cost of shipping). Cases of 20 may be ordered at the shipping rate of $30 per case. Please note in the comments how many copies you are requesting and how those copies will be used. If you prefer to pickup in Anchorage for free please call our office to place your order at (907) 297-3300.
Watch a preview of the Babies on Track video.
The fundamental principle behind Babies on Track is that the baby brain grows more in its earliest years – before 3 years old – than at any other time in human life. It’s also the time when language is taking shape in babies’ brains. Reading, talking, singing, and playing are critical during these years.
When parents talk more with their babies and children and have more back & forth conversations, it all adds up to bigger vocabularies, stronger readers, and success in school.
What You Can Do with a Wordless Book
Check out GROWING READERS and Words Count for more ideas.
