Babies, Toddlers, Preschoolers - Early Literacy
Books and Reading
Reading is Fundamental: Stories, nursery rhymes, games, lullabies and finger plays. Divided into nice sections for Babies & Toddlers, Preschoolers (interactive games for them to play), and Parents (information about authors, Books, and activities, including music and coloring sheets)
http://www.rif.org/kids/leadingtoreading/en/leadingtoreading.htm
Starfall: Great resource for kids to use themselves! Whether they are just learning to read, or already reading…it is best for ages Pre-K to Grade 2.
http://www.starfall.com/
Get Ready to Read: This is a great parent resource that has games for kids to play. It is not a standalone site for kids to use by themselves, however.
http://www.getreadytoread.org/
We Give Books: This site has books to read online. They are not animated and read aloud to a listener, however; someone must read them to a child, unless the child can read on their own.
http://www.wegivebooks.org/
Lil’ Fingers: Lil' Fingers is a storybook site for toddlers with educational games, storybooks that are read aloud, and printable coloring pages. Toddler stories, activities & holiday sections are designed with bright colors & big buttons for little fingers.
http://lil-fingers.com/storybooks/index.php
Between the Lions: Features animated stories, games and Video Clips focusing on early literacy.
http://pbskids.org/lions/index.html
Songs & fingerplays
KIdiddles: Listen to kid’s songs and get free song lyrics.
http://www.kididdles.com/lyrics/busy.html
King County Library System-Rhymes and Songs: Videos of songs, rhymes, and finger plays.
http://wiki.kcls.org/tellmeastory/index.php/Category:Rhymes_&_Songs
The Blog Network: This is a great index for baby and toddler rhymes, organized by category and searchable.
http://fingerplays-b3ok.blogspot.com/
Songs for Teaching: Good resource for fingerplays, songs, and action rhymes with instructions on how to do them.
http://www.songsforteaching.com/fingerplays/index.htm
Games & Activities
Little Kids Games Online: This site features games to play with young children, both online, and offline (for some quality time with the little ones)! The links to games for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, featuring characters kids love, such as Peppa Pig, Thomas and Friends, Care Bears, Maisy, Spot, and even Go Baby! (from Disney).
http://www.littlekidsgamesonline.com/
Fun School: Fun and educational games for kids.
http://funschool.kaboose.com/preschool/games/index.html
Print Activites: Print various activity sheets such as Alphabet tracing, mazes, dot-to-dot, coloring sheets and more!
http://www.printactivities.com/index.html
Gamequarium: Portal to online games, books and more for preschoolers and up.
http://www.gamequarium.com/junior.html
Boowa and Kwala: Links to many many games for kids, toddlers to age ten.
http://boowakwala.uptoten.com/kids/boowakwala-games.html
Ziggity Zoom: Lists games appropriate for younger children.
http://www.ziggityzoom.com/content/best-online-interactive-preschool-games-young- kids
Lego: This site has lego games and printables geared for preschoolers.
http://duplo.lego.com/en-us/Games/Default.aspx
The following websites are based on Book and Television Characters
Nick Junior
http://www.nickjr.com/games/index.jhtml
Sesame Street
http://www.sesamestreet.org/
Disney Junior
http://disney.go.com/disneyjunior
PBS Kids
http://pbskids.org/
Crafts
Dltk Kids: Great website for crafts.
http://dltk-kids.com/
First School Preschool Activities and Crafts: Crafts, activities and lessons for kids ages 2-6.
http://www.first-school.ws/theme/crafts.htm
Disney Family Fun Crafts: Search for crafts by age, type, or materials used. Also has other useful links for playtime, recipes, and parties.
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/crafts-by-age/preschool-crafts/preschool-crafts-867856/
The Best Kids Booksite: The site not only has a lot of craft ideas, but booklists for many, many topics, as well as many other useful links for holidays, ABCs, and Story Times, to name a few.
http://www.thebestkidsbooksite.com/kids-crafts-aloha.cfm
Busy Bee Crafts: All crafts on this site! Great index to craft ideas for toddlers and up.
http://www.busybeekidscrafts.com/
Websites for kids and their parents
ALA list of great websites for kids: Great reference resources for kids; includes math, social sciences, animals, arts, history, and languages, to name a few. These are links with snapshots of the websites for kids to use for either research or just for fun.
http://gws.ala.org/
Internet Public Library: This link takes you directly to reading resources that include various author pages, animated and full text stories, Bilingual sites, book lists, poetry, folktales, and, nursery rhymes.
http://www.ipl.org/IPLBrowse/GetSubject?vid=12&cid=3&tid=4248&parent=0