Helping Families Belong

04/09/2013

Children are the best audience: they are curious, enthusiastic, impulsive, generous, and pleased by simple joys. They laugh easily at the ridiculous and are willing to believe the absurd. Children are not ironic, disillusioned, or indifferent, but hopeful, open-minded, and open-hearted, with a voracious hunger for pictures and stories.
Eric Rohmann

"Whenever and however you first meet the children and families who will become your children and families, you have the opportunity to help them feel welcome," notes Donna King in her article "Helping Children and Families Develop a Sense of Belonging," in the new Beginnings Professional Development Workshop, "Senses." She asks...

Do you have a system for matching incoming families with ‘buddy families’ for play dates before school begins?
At program open houses, are there plenty of teachers and parents with smiles, handshakes, and greetings?
When you host visitors, is their presence announced on your morning message board?
Do you let current families know who is coming, so they will be prepared to introduce themselves?

"When you orient new families, do you focus on things you want them to do: finish the paperwork, send extra clothes, sign in and out? Or do you use this opportunity to launch the profound work of seeing that child and family with clarity and appreciation?

"This is the time to ask families about their hopes and dreams, their challenges and vulnerabilities, their fierce beliefs and their deep questions. You are setting the tone for a new relationship of meaningful collaboration."

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