Welcome to the website for Early Childhood Programs and activities, including: Great Start Collaborative Cheboygan Otsego and Presque Isle Tapestry: Together Agencies, Parents, and Elementary Schools Teaching Readiness to Youngsters Great Parents Great Start  Cheboygan- Otsego- Presque Isle And other early childhood activities in our three counties.
	For more information, call us at 1-800-354-2327 or locally at (231) 238-9394 or e-mail us at cornels@copesd.k12.mi.us. Fax: (231) 238-8551
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The purpose of the Great Start Collaborative for Cheboygan Otsego and Presque Isle Counties is to help support area activities for young children and their families, by supporting efforts to coordinate services, build connections among agencies and organizations, and involve parents, service providers, organizations, and the community as a whole in needs assessment, strategic planning, and advocacy to support early childhood activities and programming.

The goal of Tapestry and Great Parents Great Start Cheboygan, Otsego, Presque Isle is to help children grow and develop during their first five years so that they will have better success in school. To do that, we give parents or guardians timely information on child development and brain research, give ideas to foster their child’s development, host activities for parents and their children in the community, and help parents get answers to questions about their child’s growth, development, and school readiness.

Tapestry and Great Parents Great Start Cheboygan, Otsego, Presque Isle are for any interested family with a child birth to five years old and not yet in kindergarten. There are no income requirements to participate. A child does not need to have a problem or developmental delay.

Tapestry is a project of COP- Educational Service District in Cheboygan Otsego and Presque Isle Counties, Michigan, USA.  It was begun in 2001 with an ASAP-PIE grant from the Michigan Department of Education, and funded since 2003 by COP-ESD. 

“Great Parents Great Start Cheboygan Otsego Presque Isle” is supported since 2003-2004 by funding from Michigan's Great Parents Great Start, part of Michigan's Great Start Campaign, through the Michigan Department of Education. 

The Great Start Collaborative project is supported since 2008-2009 by a grant from the Early Childhood Investment Corporation, a statewide Michigan Public-private partnership organization part of Michigan’s Great Start Campaign. For more information see www.greatstart4kids.org

Related Programs and Websites

Michigan's Great Parents Great Start is part of Michigan's Great Start Campaign. More information about Great Start is at www.greatstartforkids.org

Michigan’s Great Parents program website has a county-by-county directory of resources for parents of young children. It was developed by the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators. To see this information go to http://www.migreatparents.org/default.htm

The Born Learning public education campaign is another excellent source of information on early childhood development and ways to support children in their early years. Their website is http://www.bornlearning.org You can subscribe to their parent e-newsletter “Bits of Understanding” for regular tips on parenting and child development.

Parenting Counts is a national parenting project done in some other areas of the state in cooperation with PBS. For information about their project, go to their website at http://www.talaris.org/parentingcounts.htm

Public Broadcasting’s website with information for parents of young children is “PBS Parents.” See it and their Early Learning information at http://www.pbs.org/parents/earlylearning/parenting.html

Reach Out and Read (ROR) is a national non-profit organization that promotes early literacy by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud in pediatric exam rooms across the nation. For information about this program go to www.reachoutandread.org

Helpful Information for Parents

Concerns about lead have been in the news as we find that this dangerous substance is in many common products. A site with a good overview list of toys and other products recalled due to lead levels is: www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/Recalls/allhazards.htm

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has a website with information about all products recalled for whatever safety reason, including car seats, high chairs, toys, etc. Go to www.cpsc.gov . You can also sign up to receive email alerts on recalls of child products as they are announced.