The American Academy of Pediatrics offers a great resource to families called Healthy Children with parenting skills, information on child development, and tips on healthy living. I especially like their “Symptom Checker” where you can identify symptoms that your child has and explore when you should call 911 versus your doctor along with Care Advice.

PBS for Parents has a fantastic Learn and Grow section of their website, where you can filter by age and/or by topic. The tips include suggestions of how to encourage gratitude, develop compassion, as well as explore activities by a specific development goal. These tips and activities encourage adults to create meaningful interactions with their children.

Parents Helping Parents offers virtual support groups to allow for opportunities to connect virtually with other caregivers. The groups are free to join and use Zoom to meet. The support groups offer caregivers a place to talk about their parenting experiences, developing parenting skills, and gain feedback in a judgment free, respectful, and anonymous space.

Postpartum Support International promotes awareness, prevention and treatment for mental health issues for new parents. Approximately 15% of all women will experience postpartum depression following the birth of a child. Up to 10% will experience depression or anxiety during pregnancy. When the mental health of the mother is compromised, it affects the entire family. What I like best about this resource is that there are mental health support services specific to Moms, Dads, Queer & Trans Parents, Military Families, and Adoptive Parents. You can call their HelpLine at 1-800-944-4773.

The Alliance National Parent Partnership Council (ANPPC), part of the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance, is a national model for effectively partnering with parents and integrating the powerful role of parent leaders in programs. What I like best is their Need2Know Parent Resources that includes parent-to-parent infographics, which are a series of tools that share parent strategies on how they use strength-based protective factors in their everyday lives. All of the infographics are available to download in English or Spanish on the following topics: Parental Resilience, Social Connections, Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development, Concrete Support in Times of Need, and more. You can download all of the infographics here.

The Incredible Years provides evidence-based programs to advance the social and emotional behavior of children of all ethnic groups, through a series of interlocking parent, teacher and child programs supported by more than thirty years of clinically proven worldwide research. Parents can purchase program curriculums to help learn about different stages of their child’s life, as well as about Autism and Language Delays.

The Boston Children’s Museum offers a free resource for Early Childhood Educators called their Tinker Kit. The Educator Guide is a professional development document that teachers educators about the importance of introducing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) to preschoolers, along with developmentally appropriate activities to use in the classroom. There are individual Activity Sheets that can be printed each day an activity is done. Lastly, there is a take home Family Guide that can be distributed to families for activities at home.

PBS Learning Media is a resource for teachers to find lesson plans with corresponding videos and activities that are linked to state standards for grades Pre-K through 12. Teachers can sort by subject area, grade, or standard that is being addressed. For example, this Geometry in Dance lesson for Pre-K includes the standards addressed, lesson plan, videos, games, and assessment.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Welcoming Schools Program provides training, resources, lesson plans, and suggested books for educators to become anti-racist and embrace family diversity, create LGBTQ+ and gender inclusive schools, prevent bias-based bullying, and support transgender and non-binary students. An easy first step to have an anti-racist classroom is to increase the number of diverse books in the classroom library. Then, these books can be used to ease into lesson plans. For example, Red: A Crayon's Story provides a wonderful opportunity to discuss stereotypes based on appearance (gender, race, ability). Each student will create a self crayon that explores their inner identities. The lesson plan is available here.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children promotes high-quality learning by connecting practice, policy, and research. NAEYC has a Professional Development section of their website dedicated to online learning and webinars. Additionally, NAEYC offers in person trainings and events, including their annual conference that provides training and networking opportunities.

Power to the Profession was established as a national collaboration to define the early childhood education profession, birth through age 8, across states and settings, by establishing a framework for career pathways knowledge and competencies, qualifications, standards, accountability supports, and compensation to define the early childhood education profession. This unified framework allows early childhood educators to advocate for appropriate compensation. As early childhood educators, we know the value of positive relationships for the children we serve, which includes the relationships we share with our own students. Investing in professional educators improves early childhood education, which ultimately improves development outcomes for children.

ClassDojo connects primary school teachers, students and families through communication features, such as a feed for photos and videos from the school day, and messaging that can be translated into more than 35 languages.

Teachers can encourage students for any skill or value — whether it's working hard, being kind or helping others.