Finding Free Early Childhood Information
Education, Preschool, Daycare, and Parenting Resources
Feb 14, 2009
No one wants to spend hard earned money on purchasing lengthy early childhood education resource guides or lesson planning books. If you are looking for some new ways to find easily accessible, free materials, this article will guide you in the right direction. Please keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list of resources. Be creative in your search for information. It may take a little more time, but your efforts will pay off in the classroom.
Free On-line Information for Early Childhood Educators and Parents
If you are reading this, then you probably already have a firm grasp on finding free information on the web. A simple internet search for keywords such as early childhood education, early childhood activities, preschool lesson plans, or preschool themes will bring up an enormous amount of websites dedicated to educating young children.
Early childhood activity or lesson planning websites can be a great resource in terms of discovering new songs, crafts, art projects, fingerplays, or circle time activities for the classroom. Often these are grouped by theme. Adding the theme word to your search will help to narrow your results.
Although there are many wonderful websites that are full of well researched information, it is important to remember that anyone can create a website. Just because you read it on the web does not make it true. This is generally not much of an issue when it comes to finding activities, but if you are searching for general information on a subject such as development (or specific information such as a delay or disorder) look at the source first.
Websites that can generally be trusted to have accurate, useful information may include:
- National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
- The U.S Department of Education
- Specific university or academic institution sites
Free Sources of Print Materials on Early Childhood Education
A great source of thorough, well researched information on early childhood and education is the U.S. Department of Education's free publications (EDPubs). If you are a teacher, a parent, a student of child development, or an administrator you can find excellent information on many educational areas. Most resources found her can be mailed to you in print, and many can be downloaded directly from the website.
Another resource that every early childhood educator should check out is your local public library. Most libraries have teacher resource books or lesson planning/ activity books. If you have access to a university library, you can also find child development textbooks and other educational theory resources.
Free early childhood development and education materials are numerous and readily available. Whether it is a simple web search, looking to a university or national association, or ordering a booklet from the Department of Education, educators everywhere can save money on no cost resources.
