ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

At the beginning of each preschool year, we host what we call "Dinner Nights." The families are invited to join our staff for dinner, during which we serve a meal from our lunch menu. Afterward, the children gather with the teacher and sing a few songs or participate in some fingerplays or games that they've learned during the first six weeks of preschool. We then have the parents join us in a musical game with the boys and girls. Afterward, we encourage the parents to join their children while completing some hands-on activities that have been placed on the tables during our "circle time" together. We make sure that we have math, science, early literacy, art and music activities represented. By the time the families leave to go home, the parents have experienced, in a very true sense, precisely what their children do during the day. We have found that people who don't have the opportunity to work with groups of young children cannot imagine what kind of learning goes on during a long day. the whole "Dinner Night" process takes about two hours...we've defined it to an art form. We have found that the relationships developed between the parents themselves, oour staff, and even observing how families interact withi each other is a great kickoff for everyone involved!

Each month we invite the parents to a Visit With Me where the parents and children partcicpate in a hands-on activity. This is done at drop-off or pick-up time to accomodate working schedules. Parents loveit and learn about age appropriate activities for preschoolers!

At the beginning of the year the parents of my 2 fours classes asked to fill out a form listing ways they would like to help in our classroom. It can be demonstrating hobbies, careers, reading books, singing, helping with Holiday Celebrations, donating needed classroom materials, etc....plus their own ideas. The first month of preschool each child's family is asked to make a family poster with pictures of special events in the child's life and a family member helps share this poster on the child's first Show & Share day. The next month, the parents are encouraged to share other areas of interest on their child's day or whenever they feel they have something special to offer that will enhance our curriculum themes. We also like to include grandparents and favorite friends or cousins of the children. Each year our response varies...Last year we had tremendous participation where most days if a family member was not present, special friends of the family came for Show & Share time. We had a variety of pets, favorite books, hobbies, and special careers shared with the class from these special people in the children's lives...and many were fathers and uncles! It was a great way to enrich our curriculum!

I am a home child care provider. We had our first annual Art Exposition. For about three months we did not send any artwork home. We did many different art projects, including art to wear, painting with tree branchs, painting with our feet and many others. We then sent out invitations to parents, also grandparents (sometimes grandparents are left out). The artwork was placed on the fence of our outdoor play area. The parents were amazed at our projects and spent about 2 hours asking their children how they did their special projects. There was a lot of conversation and all the parents became better aquainted.

What I do is have the parents' come into my home once a month for a luncheon with their child. This makes the parents feel welcome and a part of their childs' life in daycare. The children really enjoy having Mom and Dad part of their routine.

I also use the phone as a resource for the children and parents. When a child feels sad or upset about something I make a call to the parents and they talk to their child. This makes both the child and parent happy. The parent feels that they are still the ones in control of their children, while it makes the child feel secure about his environment.

1. Our parents and other day-time volunteers easily run center activities and projects because the teachers prepare trays of materials and instructions/guidelines for each volunteer. While the children are in circle, the volunteer looks over the materials & guidelines & is ready to help out.
2. Our kindergarteners help prepare special activities for parent-teacher conferences. Following each conference, the child takes her parent(s) back to the classroom and introduces them to a few activities which they do together -- paint a picture, follow a picture recipe for a simple snack, listen to books on tape, or play a math game together, for instance. The kids enjoy showing their parents a bit of their world, and the parents who can't drop in during the day get a taste of what goes on.

The Ounce Scale, an observational assessment for caregivers and teachers of children from birth to 3 1/2 has eight family Albums for the stages of an infants/toddlers development. Parents can observe and do activities with their children similar to those being done at the center and family visitor's can work with parents using the same Family Albums.

1. To help our parents and other day-time volunteers easily supervise activity centers and projects, the teachers prepare trays of materials and a sheet of instructions for the volunteers. While the children are in circle time, the volunteer looks over the instructions and materials and is ready to help.

2. Our kindergarten teachers help kids prepare special activities for parent-teacher conferences. After each conference, the child takes her parent(s) to the classroom and introduces them to two or three activities that they can do together: follow a picture recipe to make a simple snack, play a math game together, paint a picture or listen to books in the listening center, for example. The kids really enjoy showing their parents "their" world, and the parents who cannot drop by during the day get a taste of what their kids do.

At conference time, our kindergarten teachers work with the kids to prepare some special parent-child activities. After each conference, the child takes her parent(s) to the classroom and can choose some activities to do together -- play a math game, paint together, follow a simple recipe to make a snack, listen to a book at the listening center, and so forth. At the end, both parent and child check off what they did and give the activities "smiley face" ratings &/or comments. This is a source of pride for the kids and a fun chance for busy parents to step into their kids' shoes for a while.

On a daily basis, our teachers entrust parent volunteers to run center activities. Parents arrive during circle time and pick up a tray of materials and instructions for their center. While the children are in circle, the parents have time to learn about the activity or area they will supervise, and how to do so in developmentally appropriate ways.

We do many of the same activities-barbeques, fundraising, library, classroom volunteers, parent-child learning days, etc. The most unique event is Parents' Day. Most of the staff go to a conference and the parents plan the morning program from 9am to 1pm. They select a theme and create activities for the kids to rotate to. Our school has about 200 students and we have about 60-70 parents who work on the event. Everyone has a great time and the parents come away with increased appreciation of early educators. This is a yearly event.

We have two events scheduled during the evenings so all parents can attend. We hold them from 6:30 to 8:30 so most people can get there and it won't be too late for the children. We call them Mom or Special Friend Night and Dad or Special Friend Night. Parents come with their child and have a mini preschool experience. We offer play time, then have our circle time with the usual experience we have during our opening at school. Greeting, songs and fingerplays as well as a story. We usually pick a book that parents will enjoy as well as the children. After that the parents break out and do a craft. We have been making picture frames and take instant photos of the parnet or friend and the child. This way they have a memory of that evening to hang at home or work. We do have several classes of children doing this event together so we ask dads to help for Mom's Night and moms to help on Dad's Night. At the end of the evening we finish with a snack and a goodbye song.

Don't feel that we do anything that is unique--the usual--come in and read a story or write down a child's story; share your interests with your child's class; helping with jobs around the center; leading a center-wide "round table" about topics that parents want to talk about(this might be somewhat unique); helping with the book fair and with social events.

Diane Williams Clifton Park, New York, United States
1. We have a "parent forum" where parents decide how they want to be involved in the center. One of their major efforts each year involves staff appreciation events. 2. We have a major parent/family picnic (family day) each year. Parents and staff work together to plan the event. 3. We have a Thanksgiving breakfast the week before Thanksgiving from 7:00-9:30. It is a buffet style breakfast held in our school age room, which is not in use in the morning. Parents come and have breakfast with their children before going to work. This is especially effective because they can do it on their own schedule, dads feel more comfortable than they do at a major event in the classroom, and children whose parents aren't able to attend don't feel left out.

We have the parents divide themselves up into 5-6 parent committees, each with its own function. Over the years, these have included Fundraising, Event Planning, Anti-bias, Photography, Music, Creative Arts, Parent Support, Outreach, Building Maintainence etc. The parents feel empowered. Their work feels important. They are very involved.

We celebrate when they reach personal mile stones such as finishing a course toward their GED, graduate from a training class or get their first job

Since we have listening centers in 3 of our 4 classrooms, we ask parents to dictate stories or even the child's favorite story on tape. Then we put it in their child's classroom. It is a very special way for parents, who do not have a lot of time to do other volunteering things, to do something unique for the school. The children love to listen to their parents tapes.

Once a year we have parent recognition at each of our child care centers. Staff provide coffee and cookies for parents in the morning when they drop their children off.

We create a float for our city's annual festival parade and invite parents to join their children and our staff in the event. Some parents ride the float, some walk along side passing out leaflets about our center, some push babies in strollers or roller blade along the route. Everyone who participates gets a t-shirt with our logo that they wear for the parade then get to keep. It provides a family activity, gets our center out in the public eye, and advertises for our center every time the children or parents wear the t-shirt later.

Parents volunteer to help with office work, typing of newsletter, menus, reading stories, parent committee. serve as references for new families

We have a lending library in the office with books and some toys available for borrowing. This is very informal but catches the child's eye and with the parents permission they may borrow a book or toy to bring back when finished.

I believe that from the first day of contact the personal daily conversations with parents creates the most positive partnership. With over 23 years as an owner of two centres every parent talks not about the activites we did but the time I took for each family. Through these conversations our team of educators gained daily insight into the family parenting style and the trials and tribluations they were facing each day. It allowed us to lend and ear or offer advice - in turn they learned how we treasured their child. To this day when I meet former clients we share these memories.

We have a Parent Advisory Board (PAB) at each center. It is the director's responsibility to keep the board active. They meet monthly and discuss general center issues. We disucss additions and or changes to our program. It helps to get the parents point of view before we finalize our thoughts. There are panel discussions with guest speakers (often parents and teachers). Topics range from toileting, to getting your child into the right elementary school (we are located in NYC), to single parenting techniques.

Nurtury Parents: *SERVE ON OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS *ARE IN CHARGE OF FUNDRAISING AND KEEPING US FISCALLY STRONG *ARRANGE BIRTHDAY PARTIES FOR TEACHERS *TAKE TURNS DOING WEEKLY NURTURY LAUNDRY *HELP WITH AFTERNOON BREAKS 3-4 PM ONE AFTERNOON A WEEK (2 PARENTS A DAY) THIS ALLOWS EACH PAIR OF TEACHERS TO HAVE SOME RELEASE TIME EACH MONTH. *ARRANGE FOR STAFF APPRECIATION LUNCH ONCE A YEAR. *THEY RUN A FRIDAY LUNCH PROGRAM/ SPAGETTI ONE FRIDAY, PIZZA THE NEXT @ 13 DOLLARSA MONTH - THEY ONLY PURCHASE THE PIZZA EVERYTHING ELSE IS DONATED - MONEY IS USED FOR STAFF BONUSES IN JUNE EACH YEAR. *RIGHT NOW I HAVE A PARENT WHO IS OFF ON MONDAYS WHO DOES OUR SNACK SHOPPING. * WE RECENTLY HAD A COMMITTEE WHO MET WITH OUR CITY COUNCIL PEOPLE TO GET US MORE PASSENGER LOADING AND UNLOADING 15 MINUTE SPACES IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH WHERE WE RENT SPACE.

Parents are the best advocates for the program. They can get businesses to support projects or get donations of materials from their contacts. Parents have been willing speakers at community service groups such as Rotary or Kiwanis to promote the program. We encourage parents to share their culture with all the children. Parents have brought food, taught dances and songs and created art with the children. They have made displays and talked to the children about their homelands and have read or created books with the children about their homeland.

Focus groups, sometimes with a guest expert or panel. e.g. bilingual families, adoptive families, dads Tea with the Director: Monthly open ended discussion with cookies made by the children.

we have bring a dish dinners, grandparent day tea and a monthly gathering to involve any and all parents to get to know one another

Parents do most of our fund raising. They do teacher appreciation week. They watch the children while we have our weekly staff meetings. They volunteer in the classrooms. They planned an event ( a gala dinner dance) honoring the director for 25 years of service. They do all the advertising copy for magazines and newspapers. They rotate coming into the classrooms during career days....

Dinners, field trips, an active Parent Advisory Board that meets bi-monthly to discuss pertinent issues going on in the community and they Center.

We have several "family night" activities throughout the year from Thanksgiving Feast to Summer picnics, we include articles from parents in our monthly newsletters, and we use parents to help review policies for updating purposes.

We have agreements with families. We find that families are willing to be involved if a relationship is positive with the family. Parent meetings are a great way to create a bond and providing food and child care are essential to eliminate barriers for families attending parent meetings.

Parent involvement can be little things. For example, our center policy indicates that at leat one anecdotal note must be written each week on each child and sent home. These notes are overwhelmingly positive, and include the child's accomplishments, something interesting, cute or funny that she said or did, a new freind s/he made, etc. Often these notes are conversation starters that enhance communication between parent and teacher - a key to further involvement and an important element of the parent being involved in his/her child's life. The notes also go in the child's file as a record of activities and progress.

To help build our float for the Santa Claus Parade, fall Clean up Bees, Soliciting donations and gifts and discounts for staff appreciation events.

As a college lab school, we involve parents in many ways. they are required to enroll in a parenting class each semester; they can participate in the classroom for for units and/or a tuition discount. They are encouraged to drop by at any time and participate on the level at which they feel comfortable (within legal limits).

One of our teachers involves parents by having them make play dough and other materials at home. It allows them to be involved without being at school. We also invovle our parents by providing all of them with detailed "All About My Day" reports every day.

On occassion, our program will hold "Parent Project Days". After carefuly planning, I invite parents to assist us in a particular project for our child care program. Participation is strickly optional, but it serves as a wonderful opportunity for parents to get to know each other better, and to work side by side for the betterment of their child's environment. Past projects have included: the building of a sand box, a club house, and set up of a swing area. We provide the beverages and sandwiches and are grateful for the parents' participation.

Tracking and reporting to parents on participation hours, providing entertainment (themselves or contacting others) for family events - e.g. taiko drummers were solicited to perform and show children some of the drumming techniques.

At the beginning of each school year, parents have an opportunity to tell us how they would like to volunteer. We have a "Stay-and-visit" morning when parents remain during centers and first circle. During that time a Volunteer sign-up sheet is available with needs on it and a section that says, "You didn't ask, but I'd like to..." We've had some wonderful offers of help we would never have thought to ask about. It gives an opportunity for parents (and grandparents) to share their talents and passions with us.

1. All families must attend an Orientation prior to admittance to better understand what we do, what their rights and responsibilities are, and what our expectations are. 2. All families volunteer three (3) hours per month of school (can be any adult family member). 3. We provide semi-monthly family workshops. 4. We have monthly parent advisory committee meetings where families have input into decision-making. Parents control all of the fund-raising monies. If staff want something for their class, they make a presentation to the parents (who always give them what they ask for). This creates a balance of power and privilege. 5. Family Celebrations and special events in the classrooms 6. At the families request, we provide an adult English (Speaking, Reading, and Writing) class. 7. Link families to resources needed in the community 8. Benevolence 9. Weekly calendars with menu and monthly preview of upcoming events 10. Semi-monthly newsletters

Parents are invited to serve on our board, volunteer in the classroom, go on field trips, work on newsletters, serve on committees, & participate in the selection process when hiring new directors.

We organise seminars by eminent paediatricians, Various doctors visits, amovie show for the entire famliy, various day celebrations viz. Grandparents day, Mothers day, teachers week celebrationon account of teachers day,Sense booth, etc.

Open houses with refreshments Summer family picnic with catered lunch Written evaluations

We have a parent library in our "Gathering Room". We ask that if they have a comment or "review" of a book they have borrowed and read, that they share that with us in writing and we post those comments around the book shelves.

Christams Tree cutting for the classrooms; Asking them to specifically do a home activity that theier child can bring into the clkassroom, i.e., making a gingerbread house at home, and then decorating it with the kids at school.

Since we are on-site at the medical center, classrooms walk over to the cafeteria to have lunch with their parents. We do a "Friday night date night" every month for parents where they can leave their child with our staff and go out with each other. Each classroom does a dinner each year where the children make all the food and then we invite the parents for dinner. don't know if these are that unique....

We do the basics. Potlucks are always a hit.Workparties are fun.Brown bag lunches with a speaker work well for parents who can't get back in the evening. Parents can earn a slight reduction in tuition for helping at lunch, making materials and taking overr the scholastic book orders.

Have them help with maintenance, send things home with them that they can do - sewing, cutting out things, speaking or greeting guests at events.

We do invite parents to attend field trips and share their talents in the classroom. The pre-kindergarten class has a guest reader program. Each family has a turn supplying a reader. We have had parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and older siblings! All the kids and their families love this!

Star of Week: when child is star, parent or important person in child's life comes into school for 1/2 day to share and spend time.

Upon enrolment we ask parents what special talents, interests and stories they have and whether they would like to share those with the children in a format tht is open to them.

It is critical that parents understand the importance of learning through play. We conduct a mock class with parents where 1/2 learn about Kiwis with a field trip (to the tree in the hall): smelling, feeling, tasting kiwis. They also discuss how they can use kiwis in other areas of learning (if they were really in a class). The other 1/2 of the parents learn about kiwis with a coloring sheet and a brown and green crayon - ugh. It doesn't take long for them to understand the benefits of learning by doing and having fun at the same time.

It is wonderful to be able to involve Dads in preschool programs. Over the years we have invited Dads to share your professions or specialities with the children. A heart surgeon came in his scrubs and brought a model of a heart. A children's dentist brought his guitar and taught the children songs about brushing your teeth. A firefighter brought his equipment and talked about fire safety. These were exciting visits for all of us.

Invite parents to nominate staff for going "beyond the call of duty". The parent writes something positive about the teacher and at the beginning of staff meeting it is read in front of the staff. This public and specific recognition is a great way to involve parents in boosting staff morale. If the budget allows, the center might reward the staff with something tangible like a gift certificate for movie tickets.

Allowing parents to assist with center laundry (take it home), grocery shopping, sewing for the center (from home), gathering preparing art materials for the classroom and assisting the center cook.

The parent idea on how they want to participate is the "unique" way. for example, one parent wanted to come in and provide a fall lunch ofr childre. She decorated and used childrens artwork. Another parent (who is an artist) came in to wwork with the children using paints. He wore his painters apron. A parent from the Carribbean wanted to come in and share island music and movement with the children.

Each semester we have a sign up list for "Special Parent Fridays". We ask the parents to sign up for a Friday that they would like to come for 1/2 hour during the day and share something unique with the class. It may be a hobby, talent, unique skill. For instance we have had parents do; quilt making, dancing, chemistry, shearing sheep, and building pretend highways. The parents are always a bit nervous at first, but they end up loving it as do the children!

We have a fundraising committee, a grounds & building committee, a feed the teachers committee (parent ideas and exchange info. group). They meet once every couple of months or more often if needed, and we always make sure to have food, and a craft project. These committees help us get the other parents involved. We have bi-monthly pot luck suppers with entertainment, sometimes for the whole family, other times for the kids, so we can have parent-staff time.

Each year we have a school wide Thanksgiving Play and Feast. We feed 550 people over two days. We have parents volunteer to help prepare for and cook the foods for the feast. It is a great family time with parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, neighbors, etc. enjoying a time together.

We provide coffee and rolls for parents when they drop their child off in the morning. It is always "to go" so it is a nice way to show them how much we appreciate them.

We have just begun an alumni association - - Forever Friends - - which is led by alum parents.

Field Trips, Classroom activities, sharing thier occupation, hobby, craft with the children. Assisting in classroom activities. We also use families as references and mentors to new families enrolling in our center.

A family "Reading Night." Inviting them to attend, bringing books to share, having an on-site book fair, and providing them with a simple, sit-down dinner made by staff.