As children head back to school, parents are left trying to decide what's better, sending kids back or keeping them home.
For parents of four-year-old children across Utah, that decision is a little less stressful thanks to a local nonprofit and state leaders.
Waterford.org National Spokesperson Kim Fischer joined us to tell us about an option to get your kids ready for kindergarten at home, and it costs nothing.
Waterford Upstart is an at-home, early education for children in the year before kindergarten. They teach the basics of literacy: letter recognition, phonics and phonemic awareness. This gives children the foundation for reading so they walk into school ready to learn. In fact, Fischer says the average graduate walks into kindergarten at a nearly first-grade level.
Fischer says for families that don't have the tools they need to do the work from home, such as internet or computers, Waterford Upstart will help them out at no cost.
They also provide adaptive curriculum 15 minutes a day, five days a week that teaches your child the academic things you might not know. Parents are provided with a coach, a dashboard to keep track of their child's progress and push notifications that give parents ways to engage their child offline as well. And, all of this costs nothing!
Waterford Upstart gets funding from the state legislature that covers a large portion of the four-year-old children across the state. Fischer says now, because of COVID, the nonprofit has decided they will not turn a single family away.
To sign up, please go to Waterfordupstart.org.
