According to the Kentucky Governor's Office of Early Childhood, school readiness means that each child enters school ready to engage in and benefit from early learning experiences that best promote the child’s success and ability to be Ready to Grow, Ready to Learn & Ready to Succeed. The Cumberland County Family and Consumer Sciences agent has partnered with the local Early Childhood Council to promote early learning in preschool children. 

An early learning event was held in the fall with parent learning sessions and a story walk for families. Sixteen families participated with 60+ people in attendance. The parent learning sessions highlighted ways to help preschool children become kindergarten ready with helpful tips on simple ways to encourage learning in their child(ren). Each family was given children's books, learning board books and learning aides. 

12 Nights of Virtual Bedtime Stories was held on the Anchors and Paws Early Childhood Council Facebook page in December with a nightly bedtime story read by a member of the community. Each night featured a code word that children and families reported back in a post evaluation. At the end of the program, each family that participated received a copy of each of the 12 books that were read. Community readers included: a policeman, fire fighter, district judge, farmer, doctor, and Mrs. Clause. Twenty-eight families participated with 18 completing follow-up evaluations. 

Follow-up evaluations showed positive results with parents sharing that their preschool children enjoyed and looked forward to the nightly bedtime story. Fifteen reported that they observed an increase in the child's interest in reading. One parent stated "My 4 year old seems more interested since it became a habit to listen to a story each night." Another shared "She has been asking us to read to her more and has been more interested in actually listening to the story."

A springtime Early Learning event was held in which parents/caregivers were given learning aides and milestone/kindergarten ready information  to work with their preschool aged children. Fifty-four families (76 preschool children) attended this event and engaged with the local Early Childhood Council for ways to engage their children with the materials.