By: Deborah Megoulas, ESA Youth Services Manager
What is Steppingstones to Milestones? If you look at the definitions of these terms, you get an idea. One definition of a steppingstone is an action or event that helps one make progress towards a specific goal, and the definition of a milestone is a significant point in development. Steppingstones to Milestones is a series of early learning programs geared toward building early literacy skills in children from birth through 5 years of age.
How do we reach this goal? We do this by helping parents and caregivers learn ways to better support their children’s learning through the five practices of reading, writing, talking, singing, and playing. Our storytimes exist as a model for parents and caregivers, and we hope they learn something they can take home and use with their families. Engaging in storytimes with their children is one of the easiest things they can do to promote early literacy and language development. To encourage parents to read to their young children, we invite them to participate in 1000 Books Before Kindergarten, a reading incentive program where children receive prize books when they achieve their reading goals.
The stepping stones in our program include Born to Read, Toddler Storytime, and Preschool Storytime. We also offer an All-Ages storytime that combines elements of each of these.
Born to Read is for children from birth to 18 months old. The benefits of reading to babies are great. The younger you begin reading to a child, the more beneficial it is for their early language and literacy development.
Toddler Storytime is for children aged 18-35 months. This program builds on the language and literacy development of Born to Read by adding age-appropriate activities to support the development of vocabulary, phonological awareness, and print awareness.
Preschool Storytime is for children 3 to 5 years old. Preschool Storytimes continue to build on those early literacy skills with growing awareness of print motivation, letter knowledge, and narrative skills.
To learn more about our program schedule, please visit one of the libraries or www.dcls.org for a copy of Compass. We are excited to announce that we are expanding our storytime options with an All- Ages Storytime at the Madeline L. Olewine Memorial Library beginning Wednesday, April 1, 2026.
If you can’t make one of our storytimes, check out our Steppingstones to Milestones Newsletter for ideas and activities you can do at home to support your child’s early literacy development.