child and family

Scenario #2

Oakwood Learning Center is a large member center in a regional collection of learning centers, owned by

an individual owner. There are some practices and rules that each center has to follow in order to

maintain the collective image of Oakwood Learning Centers, but owners often have some flexibility in

how they connect with the families in their own center.

Mr. B is the owner of one center in Orange County – his family was enrolled in this center several years

ago and he was excited to purchase the center from the previous owner when it was available. Though

he is the owner, he admits to not having much experience in the field (except as a father), so he leans on

his Director, Mrs. Amy, when it comes to developmentally appropriate practice. He believes the center

does “an extraordinary job” at involving families and being flexible in the way it serves the families that

are enrolled.

Mrs. Amy shared a great deal about the center and how it involves and engages with parents in the

center – “from listening to their concerns and making changes to regularly scheduled student

conferences and an open door policy, Oakwood Learning Center definitely connects with families”. When

asked about listening to family concerns, Mrs. Amy shared that the center has a Suggestion Box that lets

parents anonymously vent any issues they feel need to be brought to the administrators’. Families that

feel more comfortable talking directly can, or they can send an email to just Mrs. Amy or Mr. B. “we

respond to them immediately and depending on what solution is required, we try to make the change as

soon as we can”. Mrs. Amy shared that they also make sure to share the changes they’ve made with

families in monthly emails that she and Mr. B write together. Email seems to be the best way for Mrs.

Amy to communicate with families – mostly because of the pace of the center and because parents have

crazy schedules too.

She also shared that when there are emergencies, classroom staff will call parents directly and are able

to contact families whenever they need to. In the Infant, Toddler, and Twos classrooms, center staff use

an online program to share daily information (meals, diaper changes, and sharing pictures) with parents

and other family members. They can also talk at drop-off and pick-up if needed.

The center staff also offer conduct 2-3 conferences a year for each family to talk about any

developmental concerns families and teachers might have. In the conferences, the teachers share

portfolios they’ve made for the children that are based on the center’s curriculum goals. Parents can

then share anything they want the staff to work on with the child and together, they figure out how that

can happen in the center and at home.

Families are told when they enroll that the center has an open door policy, which means that parents

and other approved family members can come to the center whenever they want. Most of the time,

parents come to have lunch with their child and some moms come to breastfeed instead of pumping at

work.

“To remind families that we are a center community, we also invite families to our annual center

anniversary party in June”, Mrs. Amy shares. There are games and Mr. B cooks hot dogs and

hamburgers on the grill, there’s even an ICEE truck that comes and gives everyone free icees. “It’s a fun

event that all of the staff help us make happen.”

Center Scenario #3

Lottie’s House is a small child care center, situated on the campus of a local non-profit agency, serving 15

families with 40 children. Most of these families are using subsidy to pay for care, though a small number also

private pay on a sliding scale (based on income). Though it is on the property, the non-profit does not sponsor

Lottie’s House. The director is Ms. Vanessa, who has worked at the center for almost 20 years, in a variety of

roles. She was happy to talk about how the center engages and involves families.

Every day, staff in the classroom welcome the child and whoever is dropping them off by name. They ask

questions about how the child’s night or weekend was and if there is anything the center should know about the

child or family. The staff also have a similar conversation with the adult that picks up in the afternoon – greeting

the adult, letting the child know its time to clean up and go home, and talking about what happened throughout

the day. Ms. Vanessa was clear that teachers avoid having conversations about “good days and bad days.

Mostly because children might have bad moments, but we learn from those and keep growing. We talk about

learning moments instead of judging the day”. Infant and toddler classrooms also share daily sheets that tell

families about the day’s activities, when a child ate (and how much), and when they had a diaper change (or

went to the bathroom). The older classrooms make monthly newsletters that share information about what

children are learning and at least one activity families can do at home that relates back to what the classrooms

are doing. Normally, families that do the activities can share them with the teachers and are highlighted on a

bulletin board in the classroom. The classrooms also have Parent Boards where they can put information for

families like the teacher/child ratios, menus, lesson plans, and center closure dates.

The center also has celebrations throughout the year that families are invited to – “Thanksgiving, Christmas,

Easter, and Summer festivals are fun times for families to come together and fellowship with each other. One or

two parents may help the staff prepare for these events, but we pull it off each year”, explains Ms. Vanessa.

Parents are also asked to join the older classrooms for lunch or to read books during Dr. Seuss week in the spring

– when they do it, they dress up or wear pajamas like the children. It’s a fun time.

With so many families on subsidy, Ms. Vanessa says that Lottie’s House has always worked to coordinate care for

the children – there is a pediatric dentist, physical and speech therapists that come regularly for the children and

the library bus comes by to get books for the classrooms and children (they have to stay at the center though).

Whenever a class is investigating community helpers, the center will also get visits from police and fire fighters or

make the short trip to the nearby grocery store to learn more about some of the community helpers. If any

family members are community helpers, the center will ask them to come in as well.

One last thing Ms. Vanessa wanted to share was that the Pre-K teachers have made connections with three

Kindergarten teachers who have helped them create a parents’ program for getting ready for Kindergarten. The

three teachers come from the main schools most of the families will attend and help prepare parents and

children for the transition to Kindergarten. They do a session in the fall that talks about how the teachers in the

classroom will focus on preparing the children, then one in the winter about making the choice for schools

(families can apply for magnet and charter schools here), and one before the summer where they can join the

Kindergarten teachers in their classroom and get a tour of the schools. “Families have really enjoyed attending

this boot camp of sorts, they have said they were better prepared for Kindergarten and could help their child get

ready too).

Scenario 1, KidExplorers

After visiting KidExplorers, I learned that the teachers in the school go out of their way to make sure they

are always available to parents. At least one teacher in every room is available either in the morning or

the afternoon, so they can briefly discuss any concerns families have. They are also available to talk in

the middle of the day, if the parents can call the center. The teachers in the Pre-K classroom also

sometimes write a newsletter with pictures of big activities or projects they do with the children. The

older classrooms (Preschool and Pre-K) also invite parents to come and visit with them (reading and

sometimes having lunch with the class on special days). The younger classrooms normally have special

events (children’s birthdays or other celebrations) and try to answer parent questions during the day.

These classrooms provide a daily sheet every day, but the teachers say that the parents don’t read them.

The administrator for the center is the owner and director, Mrs. Mary. Mrs. Mary has been working in

childcare for almost 30 years. She started as a Toddler teacher and says that having family events and

engaging parents is very important to the center. There are nearly 50 families in the center that serves

infants through 5th grade. The center has a Fall festival, Christmas events, and a Summer Fair. Families

come to all of the events and enjoy games, snacks, and other “fun things”. Mrs. Mary also said that she

is responsible for meeting any family that is thinking about enrolling in the center. If they call, she will

answer all of their questions and ask them to come in to pay their deposit and go over the Parent

Handbook. Every new family starts on the first of the month (or the closest day to the first) and because

they don’t always know what to bring to the center, she will give them a list of supplies and the rules of

the center, printed out. Depending on the age of the children, she will ask parents to take their child to

the classroom. Otherwise, she will take the child to their new room and introduce them to the teachers

and other children until the child can go without crying or fussing. She does this so that parents don’t get

caught in the class in the mornings when they drop off. She did mention that the parents can talk to the

teachers when they pick up and sometimes, they call in the middle of the day to check on their children.

Mrs. Mary has made connections with community helpers and they come to visit the center often –

dentists come and talk to the preschoolers about brushing their teeth, police and fire fighters come and

let the children look at their vehicles when the classrooms are talking about vehicles or community

helpers. There was a time when the library bus would come by and let the Pre-K class check out books,

but that lost funding. Some summers, the School Age students will take trips to the library that isn’t too

far from the center and read the books they get in the afternoons.

There isn’t a parent advisory board at KidExplorers, Mrs. Mary says that she takes suggestions from

parents if they have issues with anything that is happening in the center. Every once in awhile, she will

email all of the parents and let them know if something is changing like teachers in the classroom or

once, they had to stop using one of the playgrounds so that they could get a new climbing structure. If

there is an emergency in the center, Mrs. Mary said that they follow their Emergency Preparedness

Response plan, which says that parents will be called by the classroom teachers and asked to pick their

children up, unless they are on lock-down. If they are on lock-down, families will be told where their

children are (if they move locations) and will be called when its safe to pick the children up. She

mentioned that one other person in the center has been trained on the EPR plan and has been here for

years, Ms. Michelle. Mrs. Mary said that she would be happy to get some ideas on other ways to involve

families in the center – she stated that she wasn’t sure how families would take new practices, but she

would listen to them when I shared them with her.