Parent Involvement
-
shoners
Parent Involvement
Im trying to think of activities to encourage parents to become involved in their childs day. We are planning a get to know you bbq. Any ideas? Very much appreciated.
Re: Parent Involvement
Hi Sue,
A getting to know you bbq sounds like a great idea. Here are some others:
1) A social evening - Parents and staffs only. BYO. You can prepare small platters of food to serve throughout the evening. Kids can decorate the room where you will hold this event. Send out invites that the children can make themselves. Parents can also wear name tags so it is easy for everyone to get to know each other...
2) A Disco Evening - Children, parents and staffs attend the childcare centre after centre hours for a disco night. It doesnt have to be held too late. If your centre closes at 6, you can have this from 6.30pm-7.30pm. During the afternoon, you can have face painting, hair spraying, etc with the kids...To make it even more fun, make it a dress up disco party with the kids...You can decorate the room with ballons and streamers and play the kids favourite songs such as Hi-Five, wiggles, etc..Kids love it..Make sure all staffs attend and get involved with dancing, talking with parents and even dressing up themselves...
3) Xmas (or) End of Year Concert - Since it is almost xmas and the end of the year soon, you can do this if you are planning an event in the next few weeks. In this, the idea is for the kids to put on a concert or a show for the parents to come and see. It doesnt have to be well choreographed or very professional. It is more for fun and you can make it simple. Parents love to see their kids perform and it will be a good time to also mingle with other parents and workers. The kids can sing xmas carols or do a simple dance such as the "Chicken dance or "Hokey Pokey"...For the older kids (pre-schoolers), they can put on a play such as "three little pigs". The teacher reads the story and the kids act out each scene. This is just an idea...There are so many you can do...For xmas, you can even get a staff member to dress up as santa to come and visit the kids...
I hope this will give you some ideas to start with...
Cheers and let us know how you went...
L.A
A getting to know you bbq sounds like a great idea. Here are some others:
1) A social evening - Parents and staffs only. BYO. You can prepare small platters of food to serve throughout the evening. Kids can decorate the room where you will hold this event. Send out invites that the children can make themselves. Parents can also wear name tags so it is easy for everyone to get to know each other...
2) A Disco Evening - Children, parents and staffs attend the childcare centre after centre hours for a disco night. It doesnt have to be held too late. If your centre closes at 6, you can have this from 6.30pm-7.30pm. During the afternoon, you can have face painting, hair spraying, etc with the kids...To make it even more fun, make it a dress up disco party with the kids...You can decorate the room with ballons and streamers and play the kids favourite songs such as Hi-Five, wiggles, etc..Kids love it..Make sure all staffs attend and get involved with dancing, talking with parents and even dressing up themselves...
3) Xmas (or) End of Year Concert - Since it is almost xmas and the end of the year soon, you can do this if you are planning an event in the next few weeks. In this, the idea is for the kids to put on a concert or a show for the parents to come and see. It doesnt have to be well choreographed or very professional. It is more for fun and you can make it simple. Parents love to see their kids perform and it will be a good time to also mingle with other parents and workers. The kids can sing xmas carols or do a simple dance such as the "Chicken dance or "Hokey Pokey"...For the older kids (pre-schoolers), they can put on a play such as "three little pigs". The teacher reads the story and the kids act out each scene. This is just an idea...There are so many you can do...For xmas, you can even get a staff member to dress up as santa to come and visit the kids...
I hope this will give you some ideas to start with...
Cheers and let us know how you went...
L.A
Re: Parent Involvement
Hello Shoner,
The points I suggested above are how you can socially get the parents involved within the centre so you can build positive relationships between families and staff as a getting to know you basis…
I thought I'd share some tips on how you can get the parents involved more on what's happening with their child at their centre…
----> Have each room leader write a daily diary of their groups day...they could include what they did during the day such as activities that were set up, art activities, games played, stories read etc. It's important to incorporate each child's name in the daily diary. For e.g "Sarah and Jill enjoyed dressing up in home corner today. They dressed up as fairies and used their magic wands to cast spells on their friends"... Now not all parents might have time to read it during the afternoon but you can photocopy the daily diary and provide copies next to the sign in/sign out area. The parents will begin to understand what goes on in their child's day, rather than just playing.
----> Use a digital camera and take pictures of the children throughout the day. Set this up in a slide show on the computer or even on one of those digital photo frames for the parents to see, when they pick up their child.
----> If the room displays change or new art work has been put up around the room encourage the children to bring their parents into their room to show em. Kids are so proud of work that is displayed for all to see.
----> If possible set up a parent area, somewhere in the centre...you could even provide a parent library, useful information (brochures etc) that the parents have access too. You could even arrange a tea and coffee facility for parents to use if they want, once they arrive at the centre. But make sure that it's away from kids (so they don't have access to hot water etc)...
----> Most important make sure that all staff members greet parents and room leader should talk to all parents about their child's day. It doesn't have to be too long...I know as a childcare professional we have thousand things on our mind and we cant remember all. Just one thing the child did throughout the day, should be told to each parent.
Hope this helps you out...
,
L.A
The points I suggested above are how you can socially get the parents involved within the centre so you can build positive relationships between families and staff as a getting to know you basis…
I thought I'd share some tips on how you can get the parents involved more on what's happening with their child at their centre…
----> Have each room leader write a daily diary of their groups day...they could include what they did during the day such as activities that were set up, art activities, games played, stories read etc. It's important to incorporate each child's name in the daily diary. For e.g "Sarah and Jill enjoyed dressing up in home corner today. They dressed up as fairies and used their magic wands to cast spells on their friends"... Now not all parents might have time to read it during the afternoon but you can photocopy the daily diary and provide copies next to the sign in/sign out area. The parents will begin to understand what goes on in their child's day, rather than just playing.
----> Use a digital camera and take pictures of the children throughout the day. Set this up in a slide show on the computer or even on one of those digital photo frames for the parents to see, when they pick up their child.
----> If the room displays change or new art work has been put up around the room encourage the children to bring their parents into their room to show em. Kids are so proud of work that is displayed for all to see.
----> If possible set up a parent area, somewhere in the centre...you could even provide a parent library, useful information (brochures etc) that the parents have access too. You could even arrange a tea and coffee facility for parents to use if they want, once they arrive at the centre. But make sure that it's away from kids (so they don't have access to hot water etc)...
----> Most important make sure that all staff members greet parents and room leader should talk to all parents about their child's day. It doesn't have to be too long...I know as a childcare professional we have thousand things on our mind and we cant remember all. Just one thing the child did throughout the day, should be told to each parent.
Hope this helps you out...
,L.A
-
shoners
Re: Parent Involvement
Thankyou for your reply. I guess its all trial and error. Its a topic thats hard to crack but will give anything a go.We are in an era where parents are extremely busy and miss the opportunities that children present on a daily basis. Im hoping a get to know us day will prove successful, we are providing acvities for the parents to become involved in, what activities im not sure as yet. The internet is a wonderful tool, however researching this topic has become quite daunting for me so I might go with simple things. There is plenty of time allowed so I will take everything you said on board. 
