The Best We Can Be: Parents and Children Growing Together

The Best We Can Be: Parents and Children Growing Together is a publication designed to provide support for life's most rewarding and challenging job: parenting. This resource demonstrates how parents can use everyday activities and materials for strengthening their relationships with their children, promoting their early learning and preparing them for success in school and in life. The sections are coordinated with the first 14 well-child checkups and provide age-appropriate advice for enriching the time spent with children to facilitate their development in all domains.

The publication is based on the premise that "little moments lead to big rewards," and each page ends with a "Big Rewards" section that gives parents the reasoning behind the suggested activities.

In addition, The Best We Can Be includes tips for keeping children safe and healthy, as well as strategies for dealing with the challenges that children's emerging skills can create for parents. Each section ends with a "prescription" for parents, inspired by the pediatric literacy program Reach Out and Read, which encourages them to support their children's language and literacy development through conversation and reading books together.