The Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children (PAEYC): The Pittsburgh Association for the Education of Young Children (PAEYC) works to support high quality early care and education for young children through professional development, collaboration with community resources and advocacy for the needs and rights of children, their families and the individuals who work for them.

What is WQED Ready To Learn?
WQED's Ready to Learn Service (RTL) is an unprecedented blending of services: quality children's educational television programming, program breaks delivering educational messages and a variety of outreach services. RTL supports parents, teachers, and other caregivers in using PBS programs to help children love learning.

• RTL features the PBS children's series-the quality, educational, nonviolent, noncommercial programming that parents have trusted for two generations.
• WQED airs 9 1/2 hours of PBS children's programming each weekday.
• Breaks between programs deliver educational messages designed to complement the children's series and help young people build the skills they need to become successful learners.
• WQED works with community organizations, schools, and libraries to enable adults to receive training and the quarterly magazine PBS Families to extend the programs' educational impact. The through our Ready to Read program, we distribute free books to children who might not otherwise have books of their own.

Success to Date
WQED's Ready to Learn service is part of a national effort. The University of Alabama has nearly completed a two-year research project that produced some very positive results from the RTL program. Preliminary findings indicate that parents who have participated in RTL workshops:

• Read more with their children
• Read for longer periods of time
• Read more for educational and informational purposes
• Took their children to a library or bookstores more often

Extend the Value of What Children View
Preschoolers learn by interacting with the people and objects in their environment. Direct hands-on experiences and repetition help them to digest information and retain it. There are several ways to help reinforce the concepts presented in educational children's programming. Below are some suggestions.

Watch for Activities You Can Do with the Children
If a show takes you on a tour of a pretzel factory, for instance, try making pretzels with your group. You can make pretzels with play dough or clay, or children can pretend to be human pretzels. If you think the children are ready, try making real ones to eat on another day. Making a recipe chart with the children about the ingredients used and the measurements involved will help them to explore some math along with enjoying pretzels!

Link the Children's Experiences to What They See
Point out connections as you go through daily routines. "We are cooperating just the way Elmo and Maria did on Sesame Street." "Suzie is making believe she's been to the moon, just the way they do in the Land of Make-Believe on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

Encourage Children to Recreate What They See in Dramatic Play
Set out props that the children can use to recreate places and situations they enjoyed from the television programs. Help them to design their own railroad stations, banks and stores. Participate in the game along with them.

Use Art Activities to Extend the Learning
Suggest that the children make drawings or paintings of places and characters they have seen on programs you've watched together. You may want to help them construct scenes from favorite programs using household items such as milk cartons, straws, paper towel rolls and lots of imagination.

Extend the Learning with Books
Find books that reinforce themes presented on television series that your children watch. Help the children to make connections between the material and characters they like on television and the stories you enjoy together.

NINE SUBJECT AREAS AND THE SERIES THAT ADDRESS THEM
Nine subject areas have been identified as important to address in order to ensure that our service is educationally valuable.

Physical/Motor Skill Development
Children will learn what the body can do, learn how each body part is identified and how it moves; learn how to approach and accomplish physical tasks; and appreciate the complexity of his/her own body movement and motor skills. (Barney & Friends)

Social/Emotional Skills Development
Children will learn to name the feelings he/she has; learn that others have similar feelings and show them in their faces and physical postures; learn appropriate and creative responses to a wide range of emotional responses; and learn that other people can be supportive, loving, and responsive. (Barney & Friends, Dragon Tales, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Sesame Street, Teletubbies)

Critical Thinking/Problem Solving Skill Development
Children will learn how to break a problem down into smaller tasks that make up the problem; learn what resources are available to them for help in solving problems; and learn to find books, and turn to other children and supportive adults as resources. Children will learn that some frustration is a natural part of solving problems, but that with patience and self-confidence, answers can be found. (Arthur, Dragon Tales, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Sesame Street)

Language/Literacy Skills Development
Good language skills allow children to understand other people, to express themselves so that others can understand them, and to be able to learn how to read and write. Children will learn how to read a book and where to find one. Children will learn how being able to read and write well is relevant to happiness and success in personal and professional pursuits. Children will learn that language is a dynamic and satisfying tool for communicating with others and making connections. Children will learn that mastering reading and writing requires tenacity and practice. (Arthur, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Teletubbies)

Cognitive Skill Development
Cognitive skills are the building blocks that allow children to organize their knowledge and experience and begin to develop problem solving and reasoning skills. Cognitive skills can include being able to classify objects according to form, structure, size, number, etc.; being able to recognize when objects are the same or different; recognizing numbers and letters of the alphabet; and understanding relationships between objects and events (e.g. inside, on top of, behind, before and after). (Barney & Friends, Sesame Street, Teletubbies)

Science Study
Child will be encouraged to look around him/self and to ask questions about animals, plants, and all parts and pieces of the natural world. Children will feel capable of pursing science studies because of role models of all races and both genders featured in television programs. Children will learn what resources are available to answer their questions about science and the natural world and will be introduced to basic scientific principles from which elementary school science curricula are formed. (Kratts' Creatures, Reading Rainbow, Zoboomafoo)

Life Skills Development
Children will be introduced to the tasks of childcare, cooking and nutrition, cleaning and organizing home and room, managing money and time, behaving properly, and identifying interests and careers. (Barney & Friends, Kratts' Creatures, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Sesame Street, Zoboomafoo)

Cultural/Social Diversity Appreciation and Understanding
In a multicultural society, children will learn that diversity can be interesting, challenging and positive. Children will learn that differences in a person's appearance, behavior, taste in food and clothing, choice of games, and holiday observances are often related to the person's specific religious, ethnic, and cultural background. Children will learn that it is fine to ask questions to find out more about how people are different and to feel confident and proud of the ways in which they may be different from others with whom they are friends or classmates. (Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street)

Music and Art Appreciation and Performance
Children will hear a variety of musical styles and learn what kinds of music result when the different components of music are changed and varied. Children will learn to look at various examples of visual art and recognize the processes that went into, for example, a painting's composition. Children will understand the relationship that classical works of music and art have to ordinary, contemporary lives. Children will appreciate the ways music and visual arts enhance life. (Barney & Friends, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Teletubbies)