Supports for Families

Supporting children's literacy at home is a big job. We want to help.

Join us for workshops, watch videos, and get book recommendations right here!

Family & Caregiver Workshops

This series will help support your children's literacy development outside of school. These workshops will provide you with essential tips, suggestions, and ideas for ways to work with your child outside of school to become powerful and life-long readers and writers. There will be offerings 1–2 times a month and will range in focus from grades PreK–8. We’ll discuss a variety of topics including spelling, punctuation, and grammar; essay writing; AI; ChatGPT; early literacy and reading; STEM; storytelling and oral language; social justice; and more.

Click here for a list of all Family & Caregiver Workshop dates and topics throughout the year. We look forward to having you be a part of our learning community and learning about what you most need to support your families!

Upcoming Schedule (all sessions start at 7:30pm ET)

  • April 3, 2024 - Play, Songs, and Games that Help Children Learn and Develop Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, and Vocabulary, Grades PreK–6 Presenter: Emily Butler Smith

  • April 4, 2024 - Ways to Help Your Children Find Real World Purposes for Writing: Finding Ideas, Projects, and Purposes to Put Their Ideas, Beliefs and Imagination Out in the World to Make a Difference, Grades 1–8 Presenter: Beth Hickey

  • May 1, 2024 - Gearing Up for Summer Reading and Writing: What You Can Do to Foster Your Children’s Literacy Lives Over the Summer, Grades PreK–3 Presenter: Beth Hickey

  • May 2, 2024 - Gearing Up for Summer Reading and Writing: What You Can Do to Foster Your Children’s Literacy Lives Over the Summer, Grades 4–8 Presenter: Mary Ehrenworth

  • June 5, 2024 - Rev Up Your Child’s Summer with Activities, Reading Challenges, Visits to Museums and Libraries, and Other Bookish Events, Grades PreK–6 Presenter: Beth Hickey

Not sure you can attend all sessions? Register below and the link is valid for every session all year. We will send you reminders before each session.

Click here to Register

Family Videos

In these family videos—each less than ten minutes—we draw on a combination of research, classroom experience, and educator knowledge to help parents and caregivers support young people, PreK to grade 9, with their reading and writing. Some videos show you games to play at home while others help you support phonics, avid reading, creative writing, study skills, research, vocabulary, or abstract thinking. We’ll add to this collection periodically. We’ve tried to make these accessible and joyful and to support you in ways that will make a difference for your youngsters.  

View all on our YouTube Channel

K–2 Family Videos 3–5 Family Videos 6–8 Family Videos

Book Collections

Want help finding some books your child will love to read? We’ve curated book collections of all-time and brand-new favorites, designed to hook readers young and old. We have lists for fantasy novels and graphic novels, for high-interest series, and even a collection of courses of study for your teen readers. We update these lists regularly, so check back for more.