Powerpoint

Running head: FAMILY INVOLVEMENT PLAN 1

FAMILY INVOLVEMENT PLAN 6

Family Involvement Plan

Name

Name of Institution

1. Roles families should play in the early childhood program.

Families play a crucial role in early childhood programs. Children's important cognitive growth and development occur during the preschool years. Parents should therefore take active roles in the early childhood education programs. This is important because, one; parents will help their children achieve the full development of their potentials. Parental involvement in early childhood programs grants the children full social and emotional support necessary for cognitive development. Family members will help the child experience extended classroom experiences in their homes thus create a positive environment that allows children to perform to their fullest both at home and in school. A family is also important in the early childhood program because it offers parental support for preschool learning experiences at home. This offers the children an opportunity to connect the school setting and the home setting by relating items learned at school with reality at home. Parents ensure that the child connects the two learning environments thus motivating their learning strengths and potentials. This also assists in developing confidence and competency abilities in the child, which is necessary for further learning experiences. The family also provides a conducive environment for observing and acknowledging family diversity and comfort. According to Dunst (2016), family members create a real circumstance in which children will begin to observe and understand cultural differences and diversities. Good parenting will expose the child to social life issues that are likely to occur to the child while in the environment outside the home. A parent will therefore equip the child with skills and strategies that will help manage each circumstance as it occurs. This is important in growth and development and provides the child with a chance to understand life issues better.

2. How your staff will demonstrate sensitivities to differences in family roles, structure, and comfort in the early childhood environment.

The early childhood program managers and staff must demonstrate sensitivity to diversity in family roles, structures, and comfort in the early childhood environment. The strategies that may be useful in accomplishing this include:

One, program managers may invite family members from diverse backgrounds to share with the children about heritages. For instance, family members may share information on meals, family members’ roles in different cultures, and norms or values. This will assist the children to understand that all families are never the same. Again, children will understand that even though families are not the same, members may still co-exist and play productive roles in society (Brinn, 2020). Two, staff may focus on the importance of a family. They should ensure that children understand the value and importance of family in society. They should understand that different families have different structures that promote their harmonious existence. Staff might use different family photos to show children in the class. An educator may use different instances in life experiences to demonstrate to children how to achieve a comfortable childhood life. Three, educators may create curiosity about the environment. For instance, the educator needs to allow children to observe and identify the diversities of things in life. Beginning with differences in skin color is important. It will be important for the educator to help children understand the differences thus make them feel positive and appreciate the diversity in the world. This will help establish a strong and inclusive society where everybody enjoys a sense of belonging thus supporting mental health. Staff is therefore encouraged to allow children to identify and talk about observed differences. An educator should be objective and never assume anything while responding to the children's questions about observed differences (Ogbu, 1992).

3. Specific strategies to make sure families are involved.

Making families take a responsible role in the early childhood program is crucial. Childhood program managers need to establish appropriate strategies to enhance family involvement in early childhood programs. Staff must therefore invest strategies that will ensure this happens. For instance, the program managers may invite parents to schools so that they understand children's programs, interact with program managers, and understand the operations in the care centers. Again, the program managers may request parents to participate in classroom activities voluntarily. They may ask parents with special talents and skills may share with children in a classroom setting. More still, the managers may source topics that parents would wish involved in the program curriculum. Again, they may prepare progress journals and ask parents to offer certain guidance to their children. Continuous flow and sharing of information between the managers and the parents will also be a constructive way to involve parents in early childhood programs. The staff should formulate communication channels that will make parents and children interact positively while monitoring the child's progress. The parent should thereafter offer constructive feedback to the educators to ensure they determine appropriate means to solidify positive learning skills in children. Besides, the early childhood educator may structure a set of activities that the child might complete at home with the guidance of the parent. This brings the child and the parent into a social interaction that allows them to continuously identify and learn new things while at home. The parent, therefore, gets a firsthand experience of teaching new stuff to his child, besides parenting. The parent develops eagerness to see the child grow and develop important skills and a set of information that impacts his or her life positively (Brinn, 2020).

4. Daily communication strategies to ensure involvement.

Daily communication with the parent is important for the daily attainment of set expectations and monitoring a child's growth and development. Appropriate strategies that might facilitate daily communication with the parents include; one, phone calls. Calling children's' parents is one most effective strategies for passing appropriate information about the child and making appointments. Phone calls are useful in reporting minor injuries, accidents, and passing out specific information to the parents. The second strategy is the use of text messages. It is important to develop a group texting structure whereby parents are informed of the current events that concern the child. After making an electronic register, some systems may be configured to alert the parent that his or her child is present or absent from class. This gives the parent clues of the position of the child and encourages daily monitoring of the child’s behavior. The third strategy is the use of the family care website. Posting on the family care website allows the parents to interact with the staff daily. Parents are capable of monitoring and evaluating the operations and progress of the childhood education program. The parents can observe their children, correlate with the school program, and give their feedbacks (Donohue, 2016). Daily face-to-face communication is possible especially when the parents are collecting their children. The staff might structure a short program whereby parents are given information every time they collect their children. Group communication is possible if the time for collection of children is strictly specified. Before parents are allowed to pick their children they convene together and management passes a word of the day. This helps reinforce what teachers have included in the short notes placed in the children's correspondence books. Implementing a correspondence notebook is another constructive strategy. Children receive information through correspondence notebook and pass it to the parents. Some institutions may use a note pad (Moore et al., 2014).

5. Strategies to support home-school continuity.

Home-school continuity is important in enhancing continuous learning and interaction with real issues learned in class while at home. Several strategies might support this objective. One, administering homework to children. Usually, homework in early childhood programs is meat to bring parents into the learning experiences of their children. A child is asked to inquire from the parents and respond to the homework quiz. Two, the program managers should educate parents about their roles in the growth and development of the child. This will open their eyes to see the roles they should play in the daily learning experiences of their child. Three, appreciating parents for taking an active role in the learning experiences of the child while at home. Some parents will only learn from others and thus appreciating parents that take an active role in home-learning sessions of their children will encourage home-school learning continuity. Four, promoting activities that increase the imagination and curiosity of parents. This makes children observant and inquisitive about issues they observe. As children inquire from their parents, home school learning continuously. Encouraging children to ask questions while at home increases their effective interactive sessions with their family members at home. This means that children observe some things at school and confirm with their parents if it is true. This culture is good for promoting healthy child-parent interaction at home. Continuous academic interaction at home promotes home-school learning (Kayange & Msiska, 2016).

References

Brinn, M. S. (2020). Partnership Working between Home and School. In Parenting. IntechOpen.

Donohue, C. (Ed.). (2016). Family engagement in the digital age: Early childhood educators as media mentors. Taylor & Francis.

Dunst, C. J. (2016). Family systems early childhood intervention. In Early Childhood Intervention (pp. 52-74). Routledge.

Kayange, J. J., & Msiska, M. (2016). Teacher education in China: training teachers for the 21st century. The Online Journal of New Horizons in Education, 6(4), 204-210.

Moore, H. W., Barton, E. E., & Chironis, M. (2014). A program for improving toddler communication through parent coaching. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 33(4), 212-224.

Ogbu, J. U. (1992). Understanding cultural diversity and learning. Educational researcher, 21(8), 5-14.