Making sure that families have their own voice in activities planned just for them is, first of all, respectful and second, the best way to encourage participation and host successful events. Using a specially designed template, participants will use the ideas presented to plan an event for implementation when they return home. Together we will share our best ideas and learn from one another to create some great take-home strategies. The free template and a curated resource list will be available after the session.
This presentation introduces the pop-up concept to parent education and engagement in early childhood. Are your parents in a hurry? Too busy to attend parent meetings? This concept can help! In efforts to increase parent engagement we share a wide variety of strategies to support parent-child learning at home and parent participation at school. Using curriculum objectives to guide and the element of surprise we have increased parent participation and family engagement in our program, and you can as well! We will walk you step by step through our process from timing, topic selection, presentation, preparation and follow up. Some samples include physical/emotional health and development, cognitive development, and creativity. Participants will have the opportunity to develop their own Pop-Up Parent Meetings to use, increasing participation at their site/center. We will also share some of our proven effective parent activities and some challenges.
This session highlights the critical role of family engagement in fostering young learners' growth and development. Participants will explore the benefits of building strong partnerships with families and discover practical strategies, resources, and activities to actively involve families in the classroom. The training will provide creative, culturally responsive approaches to strengthen communication, promote collaboration, and create a welcoming environment for families to support their child’s learning journey.
