Promoting Family Involvement in Pre-school
For young children, a pre-school is a magical break where they let their imaginations run riot. Pre-school participation is an essential element for meeting the development goals of tomorrow’s children. When young kids are taught through the means of play, activities, songs, and so on, they develop socially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually.
It is obvious that the involvement of families in the lives of their little ones is crucial to their balanced physical and mental growth. Taking that further, the best pre-schools are designed to engage families in a deeper and more meaningful way with their child. Parents and siblings are encouraged to participate in events, competitions, and celebrations of important occasions that are thoughtfully organised by their tiny tot’s pre-school.
Why should parents be involved?
Almost every person who has gone to school would remember the absolute terror of being separated from her/his parents on the first day of nursery. Humans are their most impressionable and vulnerable selves at the age when they go to pre-school. The separation it causes is tough for both the child and the parents. In such a situation, the involvement of the family in the child’s pre-school life helps the child transition into the out-of-home learning environment smoothly.
When parents are involved in the pre-school experience of their children, it leads to many beneficial outcomes, such as the ones mentioned below.
Relationship building
Relationships are fostered when people do things together and communicate with each other. When parents join their children and the teachers of their pre-school in making things, celebrating events, doing activities together, they build a stronger bond with their children as well as with the teachers, in whose able hands they leave their child to learn.
Respect for differences
Differences are everywhere, but they are not necessarily bad. Nature loves diversity. Guided by the teachers, when parents and children interact and collaborate with other parents and children, they learn to understand and respect differences. They also learn how to work around differences and deliveraresult that is good for everybody.
Transparency
Transparency is an essential component of trust-building. When there is transparency between people, they trust each other more and are happy to collaborate. Parents’involvement in the pre-school activities helps build trust between them and the teacher as well as with their child. Moreover, parents get the true picture of the values and efforts that the pre-school is applying to the development of their child.
Shared roles
Children join a pre-school at an incredibly young age, sometimes as early as two years old. So, quite early in a child’s life, the pre-school takes up a major role in the physical, emotional, and intellectual development of the child. Parents’ engagement in the pre-school helps them contribute in a more significant way to the development of their child, that too in a different environment and exciting ways.
Happy memories
Happy childhood memories are cherished forever. And parents can help their children create beautiful, loving, and inspirational memories by joining them in activities and events in their pre-school. When a child celebrates a festival or an achievement with her/his parents, and in the company of other people, she/he builds stronger and happier memories of childhood.
The Beansprouts Way
At Beansprouts Pre-school, we believe that love is the catalyst that ignites learning. We put in a lot of love, experience, and effort into building a nurturing learning environment for our children.
We encourage parents to engage with us and to partner with us in the development of their child in the following ways:
Shared activities
We design exciting activities around child development milestones, where parents and their children work together to make things, such as candles, greeting cards, candies, or even solve puzzles. These activities not only develop the motor skills and mental faculties of the child, but they also strengthen the bond between the parent and the child. Children learn to trust their parents more, and parents understand the uniqueness of their children better.
Open House
Beansprouts Pre-school regularly holds Open Houses, where parents get an opportunity to interact with the teachers and ask questions on issues that affect their children. We also include group and parent-child activities on the Open House day so that no opportunity is lost to reinforce the parent-child bond.At the moment, Open House is being held virtually
Performance reviews
We regularly organise one-on-one performance reviews, which are a must for both the teachers and the parents to design personalised interventions for the child. Sometimes issues reveal themselves at these reviews. And if a child needs extra help at home or the pre-school, appropriate measures can be designed in these reviews.
Celebrations
Diwali or Christmas, Father’s Day or Mother’s Day, we celebrate them all with our children and their parents. Gifts are exchanged, songs are sung, and there is delicious—but healthy—food, and even games and dances! With love, care, and effort, we shape beautiful memories that your child will cherish forever, and, we are sure, so will you!