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Today’s parents are more involved than they’ve ever been with their children’s development.
Except, it seems, when it comes to preschool.
Many parents drop their kids off in the morning while the teachers take over, and then pick them up at the end of the day without giving their learning much thought.
To get the true benefits from early childhood education, parents need to consider how they can support what their children are learning throughout the day.
The benefits of parent involvement
Some of a child’s most important cognitive development happens during their preschool years. By taking an active role in the early childhood education process, parents can help ensure that their child has all the support they need to develop to their full potential.
Parent involvement helps extend teaching outside the classroom, creates a more positive experience for children and helps children perform better when they are in school.
It is essential for parents to support the learning that happens in preschool settings at home as well. Parents who are in tune with what is happening in their child’s preschool classroom or child care facility are better able to establish a connection between what is learned at school and what takes place in the home. This connection is a key component of a child’s development and supporting further learning.
Not only does family or parental involvement help extend teaching outside the classroom; it creates a more positive experience for children and helps children perform better when they are in school. Having a parent communication app such as HiMama can help with ensuring parent’s are kept up to date with the learning outcomes and milestones being reached in their children’s classroom.
What Role Can Parents Play in Early Childhood Education?
Parent involvement in early childhood education can extend the experiences that a child has in the classroom to real-world activities that happen in the home. A parent who understands what their child is working on at preschool has a better sense of their child’s competency and which areas they need to work on to improve confidence and ability.
One of the most difficult challenges for early childhood educators is figuring out how to better engage parents in their child’s learning. By establishing good lines of communication between your childcare center and parents, as well as making a strong effort to involve parents as an important partner in their child’s education, you can make a positive impact on their learning ability.
Tips For Encouraging Parent Involvement
Invite parents to learn more about you, your staff and how your childcare center operates.
Making families more comfortable with your center and the educators who work there will go a long way in making them feel at ease and more likely to be involved. Ensure teachers are always greeting and interacting with parents, whether in person or through a daycare management app.
Ask parents if they’d be interested in participating in your classroom.
Do they have a special talent that they would like to share with the class? Would they be interested in volunteering to help in an art project or read a story?
Ask parents if there are any topics they would like to see incorporated into your curriculum.
Once they are aware that they can have a say in what is taught in the classroom, parents may want to help shape what their child learns throughout the day.
Create a daily report or journal for each child.
Use these daily reports to outline their individual progress and offer a way for parents and educators to communicate and give feedback. Need help with observations? Download our free ebook!
Make useful resources available to parents.
These can be in relation to developing motor skills, language development, behavior management and more. These resources can offer additional guidance that parents can use at home to cultivate further skills and talents in their children.
Recommend complementary activities that a parent and child can complete at home.
These activities can extend your curriculum beyond the classroom setting and reinforce what you have been teaching. Once parents get firsthand experience teaching new things to their children and seeing the impact, they will be more compelled to take an active role on an ongoing basis.
Thank parents for being involved.
After a parent visits or volunteers at your child care center, write a thank you note to let them know you appreciate their time and assistance.
For more ideas on how to involve parents, see our post on parent involvement activities for preschool.
Parent Involvement in Preschool Research
Studies show that when parents are actively involved with their childs’ early childhood education, they are more likely to stay involved when their child enters elementary school. By encouraging parent participation in your childcare center, you can help support children beyond their early years and make their families an important part of their education well into the future.
Related Posts
- How HiMama Engages Parents in a More Meaningful Way than Facebook
- 5 Steps for More Effective Communication With Parents
- Examples of Parent Communication From Teachers
- 7 Ways to Make Parents Actually Read Notices
- How to Add Digital Parent Communications to Your Child Care Center
- How to Create a Parent Handbook for Daycares
- Parent Involvement Activities for Preschool
- What to Expect as a Pre-K Parent Volunteer
- Talking to Your Toddler About Their Preschool Experience
- The Value of a Parent Satisfaction Survey for Child Care Providers
- Guide to Effective Parent-Teacher Conferences (With Free Form)
- Daycare Supplies List for Parents
Stay connected with your families with HiMama
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This is quite informing informing and educative.
Parent involvement is so much more than this. We need parents to send nutritious meals, stop ripping toys out of children’s hands at the door and leaving us with them crying, not pulling up to school with children on electronics, nurturing their emotional needs at home so that their child is ready to learn and has a full bucket at drop off! Helping us by having children on routines for bedtime and consistent drop off times! Being available for their child at dismissal and not on a phone!
SAY THAT CARA!!! I TOTALLY agree with you. These are the REAL things that make a difference, because when incorporating many of the other ideas listed in this article, there is so much room for distraction, frustration, and confusion. May I also add to please ask children not to hold and pick up children when they drop them off–children should be able to walk independently into school on their own, if they are ambulatory. Also, making sure families turn in required forms on time and also have WORKING phone numbers with WORKING voicemail and email addresses they check regularly, as it can be a huge burden for teachers to check a box on a piece of paper stating whether or not someone pooped or ate. Parents should be more proactive in the process in other ways, too…
I meant to please ask parents not to hold…
Parent involvement is really important and a parent doesn’t realize what impact that they can have on their child at such a young age. When a parent is involved in what their child does at school, it improves a teacher performance and makes their job a lot easier. When a parent actually have a connection with their child’s school, that parent will understand the curriculum a little more that is being taught to their child and it will help on advancing the child to the next level.
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Really it’s very very helpful for a growing teacher. Thank you so much Hi Mama ECE.
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Nice article I found it very helpful,thanks for the article I am very interested
Most of the parents just drop off and go. It seems they don’t realize the learning happening in my toddler classroom. Even though they are young, they are building a very important foundation for future learning. I send notes home to tell parents what we are doing and encourage them to try the song or fingerplay at home or to discuss information shared in my class at home. It can be frustrating when I ask a parent a question on the App we use and never get a response. Due to Covid parents do not come in the building so I do not get to interact with them in person. I am hoping to learn some ways to reach out when options are limited.
An allowance will be your child’s very first exposure to money and all the responsibilities that go along with it.
I like that you talked about how parent involvement will help extend learning outside of the classroom to give positive experiences for their children. With that in mind, I will make sure to look for family events we can go to from time to time once our first child reaches the schooling age. It will probably help our child to be more confident and will be wiser for his age as he grows older aside from having a good relationship with us, his parents.
It is great to know that family involvement in early childhood education will help improve learning outcomes for children. My husband and I want our two kids to excel and develop their skills even at a young age. With this, we will look for a school on Monday that can encourage learning and growth in a safe environment.
I liked it when you shared that it is best for preschools to make a strong effort to ensure that parents are involved in their child’s education. My friend just mentioned the other day that she is planning to send her son to a preschool but she wants to teach him at home as well. I will suggest to her find a reliable one that will make sure that she is involved in his education.
Thanks for the tips. Each and everything you have shared in this blog. Really, it is helpful. I will bookmark your site.
tips on being a good parent
It’s interesting to know that having a strong connection between the facility and the parents of the child can lead to positive results regarding their learning ability. With that in mind, I will make sure that I will find a preschool that I can trust and with a good reputation regarding communication and interaction with parents. It will give me peace of mind that our firstborn will actually be outstanding as he grows older.
The HiMama application really helps with parent involvement!
It’s our duty to get involved when the child is learning new things, so that we can keep an eye on our child and make sure that he/she is learning and growing with a good knowledge. And thanks for sharing this information.
It’s our duty to get involved when the child is learning new things, so that we can keep an eye on our child and make sure that he/she is learning and growing with good knowledge. And thanks for sharing this information.
Parent involvement is very important in all years of life, especially early childhood education.
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Thanks for this informative article. The article highlights the importance of a strong partnership between parents and teachers in supporting children’s learning and development during their early years.