Early Learning Everywhere

Early Learning Everywhere focuses on supporting children who are not enrolled in formal care through programming at community spaces. Children and families gain skills in literacy, language, math, and social-emotional learning, all through workshops, play-and-learn groups, and other events at libraries, resource centers, health clinics, parks, and more.

Tandem’s multilingual family workshops build upon families’ strengths while providing techniques and activities that families can put to use right away to support early development. These workshops build on books as a foundation to teach language & literacy, math, social-emotional learning, diversity in storybooks, and more.

Tandem facilitates workshops in partnership with community organizations to meet families at locations convenient to them.

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In Tandem’s Give Me 5 Play-and-Learn Groups, caregivers play with their kids through guided activities while gaining knowledge of how to support their child’s development.

Tandem first developed Give Me 5 based on input from fathers in San Francisco. Participants wanted to be more involved in their children’s early learning, but they wanted to spend their precious time together learning with their children, not in a workshop next door. In this 5-week series, caregivers engage with their children in building key kindergarten readiness skills through experiments, movement, song, storytelling and play.

Tandem’s Lil’ Libraries initiative partners with local small businesses and family-serving organizations to install bookshelves of up to 100 high-quality, multilingual children’s books for use by families in the community. We partner with laundromats, salons and barber shops, family resource centers, and more to ensure that families receiving services have access to children’s books in their home languages to enjoy while they wait.

Along with increasing access to books within the community, families visiting Lil’ Libraries locations also receive information on upcoming community-based Tandem programs, including interactive read alouds, family workshops, and play-and-learn groups.

To build an ecosystem of early learning, Tandem participates in community-wide events that engage children and families. Tandem offers giveaway books, activity guides, and quick tips for engaging children in interactive learning experiences. Tandem also offers pop up play-and-learn groups and read alouds.

Towards the goal of building diverse home libraries and literacy-rich environments for children, Tandem distributes multilingual books, often accompanied by a storybook activity guide to build on the book-sharing experience. Each year, Tandem distributes thousands of books alongside partner organizations.

Explore our book collection and enjoy storytime resources for free.