Making the Most of Your Work With Families

1
Making the Most of Your Work With Families

• Shirley Campas
• August 2005

2
Getting To Know Families

• Recognize differences in families and make the
  most of initial contacts to learn about each
  family.
• First Impressions LAST and LAST.and LAST

3
Making Families Welcomed

• Create a welcoming environment,
• Introduce families to your program,
• Build trust, and
• Reach out to all members of a childs family.

4
How To Convey Positive Messages

• Make the entrance way attractive, and inviting.
  Keep it clean and uncluttered.
• Maintain a Bulletin Board with current events and
  information.
• Provide places for family members to hang their
  coats.

5
How To Convey Positive Messages

• Display books and pictures that reflect the
  diversity of your center. Ask parents to share
  cultural or family traditions.
• Offer resources that parents can read and check
  out.

6
Communicating with families

• Take advantage of every opportunity to
  communicate and share information with families
• informal daily exchanges
• formal methods

7
Partnering with families on childrens learning

• Offer a variety of ways for families to
  contribute.
• Involve families in program operations,
• Conduct conferences to discuss childrens
  progress,
• Plan together.

8
Teachers Gain by Partnering With Parents By

• Obtaining a richer, more accurate assessment of a
  childs development by exchanging observations
  with families
• You gain valuable insights about a childs
  culture, background, interests, and temperament
  that will aid you in planning appropriate
  experiences.

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Benefits of Partnering with Parents

• You have a shared vision of a childs strengths
  and challenges.
• You agree on what objectives and teaching
  strategies are important.
• You have shared expectations for a childs growth
  and development.
• Education becomes a team effort.

10
Responding to challenging situations

• Recognize that families that are experiencing
  stress,
• Misunderstandings must be addressed, and
• Sensitivity is necessary to handle differences
  that are based on strongly held philosophical and
  cultural beliefs

11

• BUT REMEMBER.. THE ONLY PROBLEMS YOU CAN
  SOLVE ARE YOUR OWN!!
• THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO IS LISTEN.

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Your Relationships depend on your ATTITUDE how
you treat others

• Parents are capable of making a contribution to
  the program
• Parents are competent
• Parents views are valuable and they have a role
  to play
• Parents care and want to understand what is
  happening in their childs classroom
• PARENTS ARE THE CUSTOMER!!!