Resources for Parents

Help your child learn and grow through play at a Learning Link! Learning Link is a drop-in program for children – infants to 5 years old – and their parent or caregiver. Learning Links are a great place for children to meet other children, and for caregivers to learn new ways to play with their child with the help of a qualified preschool teacher.

First 5 OC created a free resource, Building Blocks for Kindergarten, to help families and children prepare to start school.

This guide introduces tips and information for parents and caregivers to help children get ready for their kindergarten school experience.

Click here to download the resource in English.

Click here to download the resource in Spanish.

This helpful guide from First 5 Orange County helps families and caregivers find places to turn to when it comes to finding child care, preschool or transitional kindergarten (TK) options for your child.

First 5 OC also created a free parent's toolkit called Getting Your Child Ready for School. This parent and family resource is based on the Early Development Index (EDI) and Kid Builders.

The EDI is a teacher-rated measure of kindergarten children’s readiness to learn at school in five areas of early childhood development.

Kid Builders are activities designed to support children’s health and development. This parent toolkit provides tips, information, and Kid Builder activities for each of those five EDI areas.

Click here to download the resource in English.

Click here to download the resource in Spanish.

First 5 OC's Early Learning Systems manager Cristina Blevins has over 20 years of experience in early childhood education. In this Parenting OC column, she shares how parents can help their children ages 2 to 6 with anxiety about starting school. Read the column: parentingoc.com/education/dealing-with-school-anxiety.

This handbook was designed to assist in embracing legal problem-solving as a strategy and to provide a bigger toolbox that taps legal problem-solving resources both inside and outside the sector, so that  perinatal and early childhood systems, programs, and teams can more effectively meet their mission of supporting families to flourish. Get the handbook here.

The handbook is available in Spanish, Vietnamese, Cape Verdean Creole, and Haitian Creole here.