Competency Four: To establish positive and productive relationships with families.
“It takes an entire village to raise a single child.” This African phrase says so much for me as I constantly engage with every family to assist in the positive growth of their child. During my time in the Early Childhood Education program, I witness the importance of the family in the young child’s education and the early childhood curriculum. I encourage family involvement by sending weekly or monthly newsletters, parent and teacher conferencing, volunteer opportunities in the classroom, field trips with parent involvement, and kindergarten readiness preparation inside and outside of the classroom. I am capable of communicating and working with families to also promote the establishment of positive and productive relationships with families. Between the discussions with various families, I am aware of the family significance and how it affects our early learners.
Families, like classrooms, run on busy schedules. With that being said, it is important to collaborate together to establish a foundation on how their child learns and develops the best. To start, it is important to look through handbooks that include developmental milestones. Handbooks are great because they lay out information in sequential order or in an organized manner to describe milestones and developmental standards in a thorough way. Looking through these handbooks can give parents and teachers a great mind set on how to enhance the teaching of their child and the correct developmental milestones their reaching. Another great tool to reference when discussing the development of a preschool would be kindergarten readiness checklists. These checklists are simple statements and stages of development that are encouraged to be completed before starting kindergarten. Checklists can include fine and gross motor development, cognitive development, social and emotio...
