Our team at Future Ready Five has been hard at work over the last 6 months, collaborating with 33 local childcare programs, offering 147 hours of professional development to their teachers and staff, providing 3 hours of virtual literacy workshops to parents and guardians, and preparing nearly 500 children in our current cohort for kindergarten!
And while the results from our efforts speak for themselves, we are constantly looking for new ways to grow and expand our program. Throughout this entire cohort, every member of our team has also been doing something just as important as teaching; they’ve been listening.
So when it was time for our team to develop our year two program, it was relatively easy for them develop the strategy because they heard our current participants loud and clear; they love what we’re doing, they just want more of it. So this year, we’re thrilled to be able to offer more incentives for everyone’s participation, more curriculum for our preschool teachers, more in-person workshops for families, and more opportunities for professional development!
Year Two Incentives
$250
For Childcare Centers¹
$615+
For Program Directors²
$1,495
For Staff & Teachers³
$475+
For Parents & Guardians⁴
¹Each participating childcare center receives $250 for meeting the enrollment deadline, which is dispersed in November.
²Incentives for Program Directors are administered throughout the year for child enrollment, screener completion, and child attendance submissions. More details can be found here.
³Incentives for Staff & Teachers are administered throughout the year for teacher workshop attendance, administering formative assessments, and participating in teacher coaching. More details can be found here.
⁴Incentives for Parents & Guardians are administered throughout the year for Khan Academy Kids® lessons completion, screeners completion, attending virtual parent workshops, and their child having a 75% attendance rate at their participating early learning center. More details can be found here.
Year Two Curriculum
Heggerty®
A widely used and trusted daily program focused on developing essential phonemic awareness skills through short, engaging lessons that help children learn to hear and manipulate sounds in words.
Khan Academy Kids®
An educational app designed to engage kids in core subjects like early literacy, reading, writing, language, and math. We are able to monitor each child’s progress in real time, and tailor their learning journey to fit their own unique needs.
Read It Again!® *NEW*
Our 2025 curriculum addition, this was created locally by The OSU Crane Center for Early Childhood Reasearch & Policy, and designed to develop and strengthen young children’s early foundations in language and literacy and social-emotional skills.
Year Two Family Workshops
Virtual Educational Workshops
Our kindergarten readiness coordinators will lead 30-minute workshops each month featuring quick literacy activities parents/guardians can do at home with their child. They will be notified via email each month to signup, and will receive $20 per workshop for participation. If they attend one workshop every month, they will be eligible to receive $160 by the end of the program! For the full workshop calendar, click here.
Open Office Hours *NEW*
In 2025 we are excited to offer open office hours with our kindergarten readiness coordinators! They will be available 3 days each month on a Monday, Thursday, and Saturday from 12pm-7pm at the Columbus Library: Whitehall Branch to answer questions, set up interventions, and make sure children are completing their Khan Academy Kids® lessons.
Year Two Professional Development Opportunities
In-Person Teacher Workshops
New childcare teachers and staff will be able to attend four in-person workshops each month, from 9am-3:30pm. Participants who passed Year One of our Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative will be invited to attend the Returning Teacher workshops which meet twice per month. Teachers must arrive by 9:30am at the latest and stay for the entire duration of the workshop to receive full credit. Centers will receive compensation for hiring substitute teachers for the days teachers are attending the workshops. For a full workshop calendar, click here.
Child Development Associate Credentials
During both Fall and Spring terms, 20 teachers/staff are elligible to enroll in the CDA program through Columbus State Community College. This program consists of three courses, which are spread out over three terms, one course per term. Each term lasts about 8-10 weeks and requires participants to meet once per week, including virtual and in-person, from 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM. FR5 covers the full cost associated with the course, including tuition and books/materials!
Ready to apply for the Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative?
The enrollment window for Early Childcare and Preschool Centers for the 2025-2026 Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative is May 5th through July 31st. To receive an alert when the application goes live, be sure to fill out the interest form by Clicking Here. Spots are limited and do fill up quickly.
If you have any questions about our Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative please reach out to our program manager, Megan Hamilton, at megan.hamilton@futurereadyfive.org.