Home / Educators / Professional Development (3 - 5 YEARS) / Getting Families Involved
- Introduction
- Build Relationships with Families
- Help Families Extend the Learning
- Try It
- Wrap Up
- Standards
- instructional coherence: the experience learners have when messages that come from different sources (families and educators, for example) are the same or build on each other
- cognitive development: the process of knowing, thinking, reasoning, and remembering
- language development: the process of developing language skills to understand and engage in conversation
- self-regulate: the ability to regulate or control one’s emotions, thoughts, and behavior
- social development: the ability to use appropriate social skills to communicate and interact with others
Try It
It’s time to practice what you’ve learned. In this activity, you’ll apply the strategies and techniques you’ve learned to your program’s learning environment.
Building a Bridge Between Educators and Families
How can you get families involved in your early childhood program? Download and print the Building a Bridge (PDF).
Read the “bridge” activities and answer the question(s) that follow.
Bridge #1
Design a Family Resource Center with materials on topics that are of interest to families. What items will you include?
Bridge #2
Create a Parent Information Board to build relationships with families. What information will you include?
Bridge #3
Strategize a plan to maintain regular communication with families. What methods of communication will you use? How frequently will you use them?
Bridge #4
Consider some obstacles that might prevent families from being more involved. What are they? How will you address them?