Early Education
Focusing on literacy and academic readiness
Our program partners with four mid-Penninsula pediatric clinics (Gardner/Packard, Fair Oaks County Clinic, Mayview Community Clinic, and Ravenswood Family Health Center) to address issues of early education. We strive to increase low-income children's access to books, enriching clinical environments, and school readiness interventions.
Little Libraries
Encouraging reading for all families who visit our clinics
The Little Libraries program is an undergraduate Cardinal Commitment through the Haas Center of Public Service at Stanford University.
Little Libraries was founded with the goal of promoting reading to all patients who visited our clinics. Through our extensive library collection, children can read a book while they wait and take a book home for free. Volunteers also join our Little Libraries for a fun weekly Story Time session in the waiting room.
Story Times
Promoting reading in the clinic
The Story Times Program recruits volunteers from the undergraduate community at Stanford. Using the "Little Libraries" collection at two clinic sites, volunteers host Story Time readings to patients while they wait for their visit, demonstrate early reading strategies, and promote the importance of early literacy. Pre-COVID, our volunteers complete 20 Story Times circles a quarter!
Talk, Read, Sing
Empowering families to engage children in early literary
Through the generous support of the Association of Auxiliaries for Children at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (LPCH) Stanford, we have brough Talk, Read, Sing to families in the mid-peninsula. We have distributed Talk, Read, Sing educational materials to families at the Well Baby Nursery at LPCH and at Ravenswood Family Health Center, Fair Oaks Clinic, Gardner Packard Clinic, and the Mayview Community Health Center.
Tips by Text
Promoting school readiness interventions
Tips by Text is the second phase of the current project “Kinder Ready,” a collaboration between pediatricians, patients, families and school communities aimed at improving school readiness in children under five.
Waiting Room Murals
Bridging together new learning environments
In addition to the Little Libraries, we aim to transform pediatric clinic waiting rooms into early learning environments. We have implemented vibrant and bright early education murals - artistic scenes that promote learning for children - at both Fair Oaks Clinic and Mayview Community Health Center.