Head Start organizations that offer home-based programs provide loving guidance and child development services directly to families in their home. These programs help parents create rich learning opportunities and support families whose life circumstances may prevent them from participating in a more structured setting.
Finding the right curriculum to fit the needs of the home environment can be challenging. Frog Street’s new Love & Learn program is designed to fill this gap and effectively guide Home Visitors to empower parents to provide high-quality learning experiences in the home.
The Love & Learn program offers:
• Research-based learning experiences to maximize growth and development in the home environment
• Lesson plans covering all learning domains (language, cognitive, physical, social/emotional and approaches to learning) designed around everyday routines and materials in the home
• Scientifically backed Conscious Discipline® strategies for social/emotional development
• Tools to foster secure and loving parent-child relationships
• Ideas and suggestions for group socializations
• Home Visitor training for program implementation and fidelity (available for additional fee)
Love & Learn aligns with Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) and meets Head Start Performance Standards 1302.35 and 1302.51.
Components
Love & Learn Components Include:
- Home Visitor Guides (Each guide contains 50 weekly lesson plans for an entire year – 3 guides available: ages 0-12 months, 8-18 months, 18-36 months)
- Literature Library (30 titles in both English and Spanish, to be used during home visits to model and teach language and literacy skill development)
Digital Components:
- 600 Learning Experiences for children ages 0-36 months
- 150 Parent Education pages (including health, safety, nutrition, and developmental milestones to coordinate with home visit topics
- Assessment & Documentation (ongoing information to evaluate each child’s developmental level and progress toward achieving goals)
- Music (streaming capabilities to support learning experiences)
- Training for Head Start Home Visit Providers
FAQ’s
Q: What are the program goals?
A: Frog Street’s Love & Learn Home-Based Curriculum, is designed specifically to fit the home-based model as outlined by the new Head Start Performance Standards and supports four key goals:
- Promote a strong parent-child relationship.
- Empower parents to see themselves as their child’s first teacher.
- Increase parents’ knowledge of child development and appropriate ways to stimulate learning.
- Provide opportunities for parents to apply knowledge.
(See “Head Start Performance Standards” document available here.)
Q: Does this program align with Head Start’s Early Learning Outcome Framework (HSELOF)?
A: Yes! Each one of the 150 learning plans and 600 learning experiences for children ages 0-36 months is aligned with the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework. For a complete correlation of HSELOF objectives with the Love & Learn Home-Based Curriculum, visit www.frogstreet.com.
Q: Is this program research-based?
A: Love & Learn Home-Based Curriculum is based on the first research findings from the advancement of technology in the neuroscience field published in the work Rethinking the Brain: New Insights into Early Development published by the Families and Work Institute. This publication examined five major findings and their relevance to the development of young children and those who work with young children.
Finding #1: The brain of a three-year-old child is two and half times more active than an adult’s brain.
Finding #2: Brain development is contingent on a complex interplay between genes and the environment.
Finding #3: Experiences wire the brain. Repetition strengthens the wiring.
Finding #4: Brain development is non-linear.
Finding #5: Early relationships affect wiring.
Each of these findings has a particular impact on the home-based curriculum model and align with the two major goals of a home-based program.
- To help parents provide high-quality early learning experiences to support their child’s cognitive, social, emotional, language, literacy, and physical growth.
- To promote secure parent-child relationships.
Q: Does this program include socialization experiences?
A: Group socializations are a time when a group of children and their parents come together for an event. A home-based program is required to provide group socializations (two per month) in which families participate in the planning and the events are attended by both children and their parents. The purpose of these group experiences is to strengthen the parent-child relationship, emphasize peer group interaction, and encourage parents to share their parenting challenges and joys with one another.
Frog Street’s Love & Learn Home-Based Curriculum Home Visitor Guides offer suggestions for group activities that can be implemented during socializations.
Q: What kind of assessment does the program offer?
A: Frog Street’s Love & Learn Home-Based Curriculum offers observation-based assessment tools that provide ongoing information to evaluate each child’s developmental level and progress towards achieving HSELOF outcomes. These observation-based assessments help determine a child’s strengths and needs to inform and adjust strategies to better individualize instruction.
Every child participating in a Head Start center-based or home-based program must have a developmental screening (including hearing and vision) within the first 45 days using a research-based developmental standardized screening tool. The purpose of this screening is to identify if a child has significant delays and/or requires additional resources. This screening tool is not provided in Frog Street’s Love & Learn Home-Based Curriculum.
Q: How does this program support the Home Visitor?
A: The Home Visitor plans a weekly 90-minute visit to each family’s home. A typical case load for a Home Visitor is 10-12 families. The Home Visitor’s goal is to collaboratively build a strong partnership with each family that includes mutual trust and respect. One of the first tasks for a Home Visitor is to identify each family’s child development goals. Frog Street’s Love & Learn Home-Based Curriculum offers forms to record this information to use for planning learning experiences.
The Home Visitor finds ways to capitalize on the learning opportunities in the home environment that support parents’ learning goals. Frog Street’s Love & Learn Home-Based Curriculum offers easy-to-use lesson plans that focus on learning experiences that use everyday materials in the home. The goal is for parents to be able to repeat and practice all activities with their child in between home visits.
The program content is formatted for online availability and printing so parent materials (in English and Spanish) can be left with parents after the visit.
(See “Home Visitor’s Handbook for the Head Start Home-Based Program Option” document available here.)
Q: How does this program support parents?
A: Parents play a critical role in a home-based program. Key program goals include fostering a strong parent-child relationship and empowering parents to see themselves as their child’s first teacher. The Home Visitor arms parents with knowledge and age-appropriate learning experiences they can use to help their child reach important milestones and goals.
Frog Street’s Love & Learn Home-Based Curriculum has an exclusive strength over other home-based programs in that it includes the same powerful Conscious Discipline® strategies that are woven throughout all Frog Street classroom curriculums. Conscious Discipline® is a leader in brain-based social-emotional learning. Now Frog Street can offer these scientifically-backed and practically-applied strategies to parents in the home environment.
(See “A Parent’s Guide to the Head Start Home-Based Program Option” document available at here.)
Q: What kind of training and professional development do you offer?
A: Frog Street offers an array of online training experiences to support staff in effective program implementation and fidelity.
Q: Home Visitors may be required to have a CDA (Child Development Associate) credential.
A: This Child Development Associate (CDA) is a national credential for early care and education professionals. It is administered by the Council for Early Childhood Professional Recognition. Frog Street offers a training program that will support this certification.
Q: What materials are required to implement the program?
A: The Love & Learn Home-Based Curriculum offers three types of ready-to-go resources for easy program implementation:
Home Visitor Guides
Hard-copy, spiral bound guides that include lesson plans and implementation tips for Home Visitors.
Online Digital Printables
All learning experiences and parent education materials are offered digitally online for easy printing. Home Visitors refer to the lesson plan (located in Home Visitor Guides) to determine which materials they need to print before each visit. Printables are intended to be left with families at the end of the visit.
Literature Library
The Love & Learn Home-Based Curriculum includes a selection of 30 board books and soft cover books (available in English and Spanish) that Home Visitors can take along on visits to model and teach language and literacy skills.
Learning experiences sometimes make use of ordinary household items. Using these materials, such as a mirror, laundry basket, muffin tin, or empty tissue boxes and containers, support discovery and learning with infants and toddlers in the home environment.
