Learning begins at home

Personalized support for families at home

For some families, home is the first and best place for early learning. Our home-based programs connect families with caring parent educators who provide personalized visits, child development guidance, learning activities, and ongoing support to help children grow and thrive.

Head Start's home-based model for infant, toddler, and preschool programs provides quality, culturally competent child development and parent support services with an emphasis on the role of the parent as the child’s first teacher and most important relationship. The home-based program is designed for families in which the home is the child’s primary learning environment.

Participants in the home-based model receive a combination of weekly home visits and regularly scheduled group socializations, which are opportunities for children to interact with their peers through age-appropriate activities at a classroom, community facility, local park, or other location.

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Home-based curriculum: Parents as Teachers

Parents are viewed as a child’s first teacher, and Head Start provides regular home visits to help families better understand their child’s stages of development. Parents are taught activities that support their child's social-emotional and cognitive growth in their own home.

The Parent as Teachers (PAT) curriculum is used in our home-based program. Our parent educators provide one-on-one individualized visits to support the needs of the families utilizing the PAT curriculum. The parent educator works alongside parents, and through facilitation, parents take the lead in each PAT activity utilizing their home environment and materials. We work to empower, educate, and build a partnership with our families to support their children’s goals.

These short videos provide more information about our home-based program:

What our families say

Options for Learning's Head Start program has made a great impact on my children’s development (ages 2 and 5) and has supported me tremendously in my journey as a parent as well. It is a family of caring teachers and professionals who truly care about our children, and I am forever thankful for all their support through parent coaching, workshops, lesson plans, etc., especially during the pandemic. Thanks to the program, my children are flourishing.

Denise P., parent, home-based program

"This program has helped my daughter grow and open her mind. Our teacher was always very caring and helped my daughter every step of the way. She once would only say one to two words to describe her ideas; now she uses full sentences to communicate. She learned to count numbers and her ABC's. She is so much more confident when speaking and expressing herself. Thank you once again."

Mike L., parent, home-based program