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Family literacy is founded on the premise that parents are a child’s first and best teacher, and a child’s home its first school.

But what if a parent doesn’t know how to read, or knows how to read, but doesn’t have the skills necessary to help his or her child get ready to read, or can read and write, but not in English?

Family literacy programs include adult education, child education, and interactive parent/child activities and education. Although all of the resources on this website support literacy by the very nature of singing, the songs, activities, and information in this section specifically support family literacy programs. Like everything else on this website, it’s all free, so please use and share!


Although not everyone can read, everyone can sing. So there is no “teaching,” just doing! In fact, the American Library Association has identified singing as one of the five practices, or activities parents can do with their children to build early literacy skills.

Simply telling parents that when they sing with their children they're helping to get them ready to read empowers them to use the abilities they already have.

  • Singing is interactive language, so parents and children can do it together.

  • Singing is portable literacy, not limited to sitting with a book, but done throughout the day.

  • Singing together builds relationships, reinforcing the parent child literacy connection.

  • Singing is fun, engaging, and celebrates different family cultures and traditions.

This website provides mp3s to every song listed, which is great if you have a way to listen or download them. But technology is changing every day, and it's left many people with new, limited, or even no way to download or even listen to the music.
CLICK HERE to discover ways to make sure the families you serve have access not only to the printed material, but also to the songs themselves.  

Published Books To Sing
 A book list of specific picture books that contain only the traditional lyrics with a link to the song library. Most of the books will be available from the public library.
Printable Books To Sing
 This page has rebus books, little wordless books with pictures you can make, and printable picture books.
Other Resources
Here you'll find links to helpful related websites, resources for finding books listed here, and tips for parents and teachers.