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Ready To Learn

Each year, WETA Kids' Ready To Learn program offers more than 100 free literacy workshops throughout the Washington area for parents and childcare providers.

Conducted in English and Spanish, the Ready To Learn (RTL) workshops explain how to use PBS children's television programs to enhance literacy skills and prepare young children for success in school.

The workshops are offered in cooperation with our Ready To Learn partners. Last year, more than 1,500 participants who collectively care for 10,000 children in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. attended a workshop.

Please see below for more information about WETA's Ready To Learn project.

Ready To Learn for the Washington area

WETA's Ready To Learn program has served Washington area communities for more than 15 years. This high-touch, high impact community service shows families and child care providers how to nurture a child’s natural curiosity and love of learning. The project builds on the appeal and learning goals of PBS children’s programs that families know and trust — such as Sesame Street, Between the Lions, Cyberchase and Clifford — to help young viewers learn to read.

Components of WETA's Ready To Learn program include:

  • The broadcast of quality educational and entertaining children's television programming every week on the WETA Kids Channel
  • Non-commercial, educational breaks on-air to help children become successful learners
  • Free Ready To Learn workshops for parents and families, child care providers, and teachers to help them use TV as an engaging literacy tool.
  • PBS Families, a magazine published in English and Spanish with stories and ideas for activities
  • Free books for workshop participants and their families
  • Publication of the WETA Ready To Learn newsletter

Positive impact

In April 2007, WETA conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Ready To Learn program. The findings were overwhelmingly positive and concluded that the Ready To Learn program is generally having the desired results with its participants: parents and providers are reading more to their children, changing their children’s TV viewing habits for the better, and implementing the practices that they learned from the training.

Download the evaluation report »

Thank you to our funders

WETA Kids Ready To Learn is made possible through the generous support of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation, The Claude Moore Charitable Foundation and The RealNetworks Foundation.

For more information

For more information about WETA's Ready To Learn program, please contact us.