First Teachers brings current parenting information and resources to Alabama parents and child care providers of children, birth through five, based upon nationally recognized programs, such as Parenting Counts, Right from Birth, Going to School, The Whole Child, and A Place of Our Own .

Parenting Counts is a family of educational materials sponsored by Talaris which provide research-based information about how children think, feel, and learn and supports parents with examples of best parenting practices. The website for Parenting Counts is parentingcounts.org.

Utilizing research-based PBS KIDS programming with its rich web content and resources, the Ready To Learn Initiative works in partnerships with state and local agencies to ensure Alabama’s children experience school readiness and school success. Ready To Learn workshops are unique sources of critical information on developmentally appropriate media for children and media literacy for parents, caregivers, and teachers of children, ages 2 through 6.

For more information, contact Tiffany Conner at 800-239-5233 or tconner@aptv.org

PBS KIDS Raising Readers is a new national literacy initiative designed to harness the power of public media content and tools to teach literacy skills to children ages 2 to 8, especially those from low income families. Alabama Public Television was selected as one of 20 public broadcasting stations in the nation to participate in this innovative research project, investigating how children learn from media.

The Ready To Grow Initiative reaches out to extended care programs serving school-aged children throughout the state. The core of Ready To Grow is an Activities On the Go Curriculum Kit containing over hundreds of hands-on activity plans, children’s books, video clips, and curriculum guides from PBS KIDS programs. For more information, contact Suzanne McFerrin at 800-239-5233 or smartina@aptv.org