Free education 3 year olds: Help paying for childcare: 15 hours free childcare for 3 and 4-year-olds

Head Start and Early Head Start

Head Start and Early Head Start programs are free, federally funded programs designed to promote school readiness for children from low-income families. Early Head Start serves pregnant women and families with children under age 3. Head Start programs serve children between 3 and 5 years old.

These programs encourage parent involvement through regular visits to the child’s home, regular opportunities for parents to volunteer in the program, and special activities. Head Start and Early Head Start programs also link children and families to other services in the community.

Head Start programs are operated by local nonprofit organizations, community action agencies, and school districts. Children who attend these programs participate in various educational activities. They also receive some free medical and dental care services, have healthy meals and snacks, and enjoy playing indoors and outdoors in a safe setting.

Head Start programs help all participating children succeed. They are required to serve children with special needs, such as physical and developmental delays or homelessness.

Head Start and Early Head Start programs must follow many federal requirements. Depending on the rules in your state, these programs may or may not be required to be licensed in addition to meeting federal requirements.

You can learn more about these programs by visiting the Head Start website. You’ll find more information on the kinds of services that are offered to enrolled children. You can also find out if you are eligible for services. The online program locator is available to help you find a program in your area. Once you find a local program, you can contact the program to learn more about how to apply for Head Start services.

Tips for Choosing This Type of Care

• Ask whether your family qualifies for Head Start services and if your local program has any openings for children your child’s age.

• Ask about the programs hours and if the program is available in the summer. Make sure that the program is open when you need care. If you need full-day or full-year care and the Head Start program doesn’t offer this, ask about partnerships with other child care providers that can care for your child when Head Start is not open.

• Ask about what types of services you and your child will receive and whether there are any other requirements.

• Ask about the program’s staff turnover rate (how frequently staff leave). If a program experiences a large amount of turnover, your child could experience many transitions to new teachers. A high turnover rate could also mean that there are issues that could affect the quality of the program.

• Ask what curriculum is used. Also ask the provider to explain the types of daily activities planned for the children, and how those activities will support your child’s learning.

• Ask about information and activities provided for parents. Ask if the program provides opportunites for parents to learn about how their children are doing or talk about their children’s progress.

• Print a list of questions and things to look for that you can take with you when visiting a potential child care program.

Why Families Choose This Type of Care

Many families choose Head Start because of the free high-quality comprehensive early childhood services. Families may like that their children are cared for in groups with other children the same age. They may also appreciate the additional federal requirements that Head Start programs must meet.

This text has been adapted from content originally created by Child Care Aware of America Grant #90LH002 for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Child Care (OCC).

State-Funded Preschool in Colorado | CDE

What is the Colorado Preschool Program (CPP)?

CPP is a state-funded, district-run, preschool program. CPP is intended to serve preschool-aged children who are at risk of starting elementary school unprepared due to individual or family factors.  Eligibility determination and the enrollment process are coordinated at a local level.

To find out about CPP options in your community, use the Family Contact Directory to find the school district representative who can help you.

Family Contacts

What is Preschool Special Education and Child Find?

Preschool special education is a state and federally mandated program for three and four-year-old children who are experiencing challenges in their learning and development and meet state eligibility criteria for special education and related services.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is my child eligible for CPP?

Child and family qualifying factors must be present in a child’s life in order for a child to be fit for CPP. These factors are determined by the legislature and are not based on income alone. Learn more about legislated eligibility criteria.

What are the age requirements for CPP?

The eligibility date for preschool is the same as the eligibility date for kindergarten in your district. A child must be 3, 4 or 5 by the district’s kindergarten age cut-off date, which can be no later than October 1.

• If a child is three years old, the child must have three significant family risk factors in their life that put him or her at risk for later school challenges. 
• If a child is served as a four- or five-year-old, the child must be age-eligible for kindergarten the next year and have one significant family risk factor present in their lives. They may only participate in CPP for one year.
• If a child is old enough to attend kindergarten, they cannot be funded by CPP to attend the second year in preschool.

If my family moves, will my child stay in CPP?

Since each school district manages its own program, your child’s spot in CPP cannot be transferred. If you move to a new school district, you will need to go through the enrollment process again in the new district. Because resources are limited, availability for placement cannot be guaranteed when a family moves from district to district.

Resources for Families

PLAYbook

The PLAYbook contains information and activities that anyone caring for young children – including parents, siblings, guardians, grandparents, babysitters, neighbors, and family friends – can use to prepare children to be successful when entering kindergarten. The PLAYbook contains activities and information that are designed to get caregivers thinking about building the child’s skills in the locations where they spend time together, using what they may already have around their home through play. Please reach out to [email protected] with any questions.

English Version Spanish Version

The PDF file is interactive, allowing users to take notes or use the checklists and interactive tools digitally! The PLAYbook can also be downloaded and printed.

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Finding Childcare

Find Child Care –  Colorado Office of Early Childhood. Child Care Resource and Referral agencies work to connect you with quality early learning programs, like child care and preschool, valuable local resources, and tips for choosing a child care facility.

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Head Start

Head Start programs provide wide-ranging services for low-income children from birth to elementary school at no cost. The program is child-centered, family-focused, and community-based.Use the Head Start Program Locator to find Head Start Programs. 

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PEAK Parent Center

PEAK Parent Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that has been serving families and self-advocates across the State of Colorado, and beyond, since 1986.Since its inception, PEAK has maintained a steadfast commitment to ensuring that people with all types of disabilities can be fully included in their neighborhood schools, their communities, and in all walks of life. We welcome you to learn more

 

20 online resources to help keep kids educated and occupied

Kids are now spending more time at home – to keep them entertained, you can offer them many different online courses: from English and communicating with children around the world to a course in modeling or animation. Our blogger Elena Abramova has collected 20 platforms where you can find free courses.

The school portal will become a mandatory virtual turnout for children and teenagers in a week, but they still have a lot of free time for exciting activities. Self-isolation limits walks and games with friends, but gives time to explore the vast expanses of the Internet. Entertain the kids you didn’t send to kindergarten and encourage teens to stay at home with these resources.

Let’s start with the lessons

There are many online platforms that offer quality educational content.

1. Skills4u.ru — the platform has opened full free access to slice tests and lessons in the Russian language (grades 1-11, OGE, USE, VPR) and mathematics (grades 1-7) until April 15.

2. Eschool.pro – will help schoolchildren in grades 1-8 learn math and Russian for free online in a playful way.

3. Khan Academy – free online courses in mathematics, physics, biology and other disciplines for children and teenagers from 4 to 18 years old. By studying school subjects in English, you can also improve your foreign language.

4. Puzzle English — on the platform for independent learning of English, until May 1, full free access to two initial courses of the Teacher Method is open – the “Children’s Course” (88 lessons for children from 5 to 12 years old) and the Beginner course ( 198 lessons for beginners to learn English) for high school students and their parents.

5. Drawing and drafting lessons for beginners is a free online resource that will help schoolchildren improve their drawing skills, as well as begin to grow into the profession of future architects.

6. Umnasia is an online platform where elementary school students can try their hand at subject Olympiads for free.

Communication and hobbies for schoolchildren

It will be easier for children to cope with isolation if they can discuss the situation with their peers, and also engage in exciting activities.

1. iDialogue is a free online platform for collaborative learning and cross-cultural communication for teenagers from 90 countries. Until April 30, she is holding a challenge – children from different countries can work on joint projects in the field of ecology. Since March 23, discussion of coronavirus and quarantine has been open in the Community section – children can discuss the situation with friends and practice English at the same time.

2. JuniorUni is a free online Goethe-Institut university for teenagers that provides knowledge in the field of robotics and astronautics, technology, energy and sustainable development, and also helps to improve the German language.

3. MyBook – the largest subscription book service offers a month of free subscription to the standard catalog (140,000 e-books) for those who stayed at home due to quarantine (promo code STAYHOME). In total, the resource catalog contains more than 250,000 electronic and audio books in Russian, English and many other languages.

4. Financial Literacy in the Lessons of General History and the History of Russia is an online resource with which teenagers can immerse themselves in finance through the history of the development of monetary relations, consistently learning how financial instruments appeared and how they developed. A series of texts, presentations, creative tasks will help children not only learn the basic concepts, but also understand what factors influence financial decision-making.

5. Finknaika is an application for developing financial literacy, with the help of which schoolchildren in grades 1-4 will independently master the topics “Money”, “Banks”, “Currency” in the game.

6. Smartorika – free online courses in robotics and robot programming for children from eight years old.

7. Geekbrains – now the platform has opened free access to courses in three of the four areas: programming, design, management and marketing.

8. Animation and me – for free and online, children and teenagers under 18 can learn how to make cartoons in different genres.

9. ProstoyKarandash.ru – free video drawing lessons in various techniques, including for beginners and children, instructions on working in Photoshop, as well as an overview of online graphic editors. Chess Online

Games and educational activities for preschoolers

Online services help parents and grandparents not only keep their children entertained, but also develop their skills discreetly.

1. Kids Online is a free resource with tons of ideas and learning opportunities for kids, from audio storytelling to shadow theater and origami, a fun collaborative experience for kids and their parents.

2. Let’s play – a children’s portal of educational computer games will help not only to entertain the child, but to train his attention, develop logical thinking, give him basic mathematical skills and more.

3. StoryPlace – Free colorful educational cartoons, comics and videos for learning English and Spanish for children from four to eight years old.

4. Watch.Learn – many free courses, one of the interesting ones “Modeling clay for the whole family” will be useful entertainment not only for children, but for grandparents.

Save this list for the holidays, there are many interesting opportunities for adults too!

You are in the “Blogs” section. The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.

Photo: Unsplash (Sven Brandsma)

programming, drawing, preparing for school

Gifted children live in every city, but teachers who are ready to go beyond the school curriculum are far from everywhere.

Polina Kalmykova

for accessible education for all

Author’s profile

But the Internet is full of resources for learning – independent and under the guidance of experienced teachers. You can learn anything: build robots on your knee, create art installations from ordinary things, or program in Minecraft.

I have selected 11 sites that provide quality and interesting education for children and teenagers – the selection includes paid courses and free alternatives.

Choose what your child needs right now

• Get ready for school
• Get to know the arts
• Learn to code
• Pull up school subjects

Get ready for school

Tilly


How much: 10 tasks per day – free, full access – from 83 R per month
Age: from 2 to 7 years old

Tilly has developed courses for children from two years of age and to prepare those who are older for school. Children learn to distinguish colors, learn the names of the cubs of different animals, and train to determine whether an object is flat or three-dimensional in a picture.

And for future first-graders, classes help to understand the system of sounds and letters of the Russian language and mathematical concepts that will be needed at school: addition and subtraction, even and odd numbers, the number line and the composition of the number.

Classes are held in the form of interactive exercises. Children watch theory slides and listen to the speaker’s comments, and then complete tasks: they try to substitute the desired mathematical sign in an example or find where the stress falls in a word.

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Classes are designed to meet Federal State Educational Standards, which encourage families to be involved in the learning process. Therefore, part of the exercises – for example, from the speech therapy block – children will be able to perform only together with their parents. Once a day, Tilly sends homework: this helps the child to study regularly, and parents do not waste time looking for suitable exercises.

Everything is like in school: first theory, then practice

How much: for free
Age: from 5 years old

family leisure. Some of them, for example, the special project “History of Russia. XVIII century” – will help you deal with the school curriculum in a playful way, while others will simply tell you how to have fun and educationally: watch cartoons about art, solve old riddles from “Murzilka” or “Chizh” or color illustrations from old books.

In addition to children’s audio performances and stories, “Arzamas” has collected useful games – rebuses and logic tasks

Get to know art

DSHI-online


Price: free
Age: from 7 to 17 years old

The creators of the “Children’s Art School Online” decided to look at the world around children from the point of view of art and talk to schoolchildren in a language they understand.

For example, they offer to study the basics of photography at a selfie master class, and at a course on creating a non-standard avatar, children will learn about the history of a portrait in world painting. Teachers will tell children who love to dance how to conquer Tik-Tok, and parents will be helped to find a common language with a teenager — for example, by turning the mess in his room into an art installation together.

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English, programming and logic: 9 educational online games for kids will not receive access to new lessons. At the same time, teachers are still in touch: they check the work and help students deal with emerging issues.
Microcourse “Animated canvases” will help the child to take a high-quality photo for the flash mob #isolation

Get to know art

Animation and me


Cost: free
Age: 14+

Animation and Me is a course that will teach your child how to create cartoons. It consists of 30 lectures recorded by legendary animators – Yuri Norshtein and Konstantin Bronzit – and young professionals who talk about modern techniques in animation.

Lectures are divided into two blocks. First, children get acquainted with the theory – the history of animation and the basics of the profession. And then they will learn about the practical skills that any multiplier needs. The lessons themselves are not long – 20-25 minutes, but after each one they give homework: it will help you get your hand in before you start creating a real cartoon.

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Board games for kids

No one will check your homework, but you can compare your work with others: the completed tasks are placed right under the video with lectures. And in the project groups on Vkontakte and Facebook, cartoons of guys who have already completed the course are published.

Finished homework for the lecture “Acting”: it was necessary to depict five standing people in calm poses, but in such a way that they differed from each other

How much it costs: free
Age: from 6 years old

The Pushkin.Youth project is an educational course for students and schoolchildren based on the Pushkin Museum. All of them are devoted to the history of art and culture, but take place in different formats: from open lecture halls and project workshops to a full-fledged 4-year curriculum.

Usually classes at the museum are held face-to-face, but some of them are recorded on video: you can watch lectures by art historians on social networks. Now the museum is closed for quarantine, so classes are held live and are available to everyone. To get a link to the conference on Zoom, you need to leave contacts in a special form or just write to the guys on Instagram.

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Pupils and students who are constantly studying at Pushkinsky conduct online tours of the museum, launch flash mobs and marathons and create their own games . If a child is just getting acquainted with art, you can start with entertainment: games will help you understand that museums are not boring, and flash mobs are a great way to join the company of other enthusiastic teenagers.

Every year on March 11, Pushkinsky.Youth students take the places of guides and acquaint visitors with the life and works of the Pushkin Museum

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Learn to program

Code. org


Price: free
Age: 4 years and older

Programming courses on this site are more like puzzles: students use blocks with ready-made commands to solve game problems: for example, help an artist draw a picture from a stencil or a bird — get out of the maze.

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Even those who cannot read yet can study. Actions on simple levels are indicated by icons, but the essence remains the same: to solve the problem, you will have to figure out in what order to perform actions, how cycles work, and how variable numerical values ​​change the behavior of characters on the screen.

If you are tired of the same type of tasks, you can make your own project: program a mini-game or make colorful characters dance to the music. For inspiration, it is convenient to use the archive of other people’s work: all projects are published with open source so that students can exchange ideas and experiences with each other.

In order for the artist to draw the roof of the house exactly along the lines, you need to arrange the lines of code in the correct order and substitute the correct values ​​

Learn to program

Aitigenio


How much: from 550 R for a two-hour lesson, the first lesson is free
Age: from 8 years old

This online school is suitable for children who want to try their hand at programming, but do not know where to start.

There are no ready-made programs in ITGenio: the course is individually adjusted to the interests and abilities of the child, and the direction of learning can be changed at any time – for example, switch from game programming in Scratch to programming in Minecraft or completely engage in Photoshop or 3D modeling .

Classes are not held in groups, but one-on-one with a teacher: you can choose a convenient time and study at your own pace.

If a child gets bored with programming, you can try your hand at creativity – for example, learn 3D modeling

How much it costs: from 4300 R per month
Age: from 8 years old

“School of programmers” is not an entertainment course, but full additional education with a program for several years. Classes are held according to the schedule in the mode of webinars: students communicate live with teachers, write and submit code for verification, and immediately receive feedback. There are a lot of lessons: every week 4 hours are allotted only for compulsory classes, and each student can also choose electives according to interests, for example, web design, information security or robotics.

Students in grades 2-11 can enter the school, the program depends on age. To enroll, you will have to pass exams: those who fail to cope with tasks in mathematics, logic and algorithms are unlikely to be enrolled in the course.

You can enroll in the main department of the “School of Programmers” only at the beginning of the academic year. For those who want to see how the classes are going and learn something new right now, an additional registration for special courses and free lessons is opened during the year.

Children who attend the “School of Programmers” from the fifth grade will have mastered two programming languages ​​by the eighth grade: Python and C++

Pull up school items

Children and science


Price: free
Age: from 7 years old

The Children and Science project is not an addition, but an alternative to school lessons in biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. Online courses for the portal were created by the best Russian teachers who do not want to work with outdated textbooks and programs. Previously, only students from several elite Moscow schools could attend their author’s classes, but now they are available to anyone with an Internet connection.

Each course consists of video lectures, notes, game assignments and a final test that will help assess how well the child has mastered the program. Each student chooses the pace and trajectory of learning for himself: for some, it is enough to look over the notes to catch all the most important things, and for some, they want to watch several related lectures on different subjects before moving on to the next thematic block.

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What students can get for good studies

The “Children and Science” project will not be able to completely replace school classes: so far, the portal has only one or two lessons for each class. Most of all classes are in mathematics: among them there are also topics that are not even mentioned at school, for example, “Game Theory” and “Probability Theory and Statistics”.

I did not cope with the task. But for schoolchildren who have taken a course in human physiology, it’s time to spit

Pull up school items

Letovo.Online


How much: for free
Age: from 11 years old

Letovo is a special private boarding school, which is more important to find a talented child than a family that can pay for education. Children are accepted on the basis of a strict competitive selection, and scholarships that can cover up to 100% of the cost of education help to solve the financial issue. Although Letovo is located in Moscow, children from all over the country can enter there: for students from other cities, there is a campus with accommodation buildings on the territory of the school.

To help talented children prepare for exams and make a good education accessible, Letovo teachers have created an online school. On this portal, students can check their level of knowledge in school subjects: the test will show which topics have gaps and offer materials that will help improve the result.

Letovo.Online also invites children to try their hand at solving Olympiad problems, and if this still doesn’t work, you can watch webinars where teachers explain the logic of solving competitive tasks. Or join an online circle to prepare for the Olympiads with other schoolchildren. True, you won’t be able to start right away: the next set will be only in September.

Olympiad problem in Russian: the illustration tells how to find the correct answer

Pull up school items

Foxford


How much: free during quarantine
Age: from 7 years old

Classes in Foxford are like a real school, only in an online format: children come to the webinar according to the schedule, listen to the teacher and look at the blackboard , ask questions that can be answered immediately, and after the lesson they do their homework.

Foxford has no compulsory classes to go to, even if they are deadly boring. From a huge database of courses in all school subjects, you can create your own program, including, for example, preparation for the Unified State Examination in computer science, a course on diseases, and online physical education training.