Parents as partners in the early years

Good teaching practice in the early years is guided by partnership with families, as advocated by the early childhood curricula of New Zealand and Australia specifically. Yes, families should be part of their children's learning and development. I always try to include them in the assessment and evaluation process, as they have a wealth of information and understandings regarding their child. In terms of planning, when I recognise some interests are emerging, I will solicit parental inputs into the topics of investigation or interest.

First and foremost, all aspects of the kindergarten environment should be designed to encourage parent participation in the programme.  The environment needs to be welcoming. Think about furniture...are there chairs and tables which are at adult heights? They should feel comfortable to hang around a bit. It's an attitude of respect for the parents. In my kindy, parents are often seen sitting on a couch, reading a book with their child or enjoying their child's folder/ portfolio.

Communication is definitely critical for effective partnership. The drop off and pick up times provide opportunities for the teacher to talk with the parent about their child's interests; sharing information about what the child enjoys doing while he is not at kindergarten etc..

In addition, observations and records should be part of two-way communication that strengthens the partnership between the early childhood setting and families. While the teacher is trying to learn about each child to plan for the teaching programme, parents need to be aware of the teaching that goes on in the kindergarten.

In my centre, there are plenty of documentation on the walls to communicate with parents about the children's experiences. Documentation may include photos of children learning, samples of children's work/ creation, and text describing some aspect of what the children are doing.  In addition, the documentation boards should explain the teacher's planning, which will facilitate dialogue and exchange of ideas with parents. Ideally, the teacher will have time to update a daily journal, in which the teachers will communicate to parents how the children spend time during the day, areas where children spent most of the time, and some text reflecting on what children said they were thinking about specific topics. In partnership with parents, teachers will be better informed when they try to make sense of the topics of emergent interest.

It certainly is very demanding to update a daily journal everyday at the end of the session. I usually do it first thing after a session and put it out before the next session. It will help children revisit what they have done in the previous session, while the parents are informed of the current learning happening at kindy. Instead of a daily journal, I am aware that one kindy takes advantage of ICT and creates a daily slideshow for parents with photos of children working and learning in the day. At pick up time, parents are welcomed to watch the show with the children, while teachers are on the side making comments, sharing ideas, and answering questions.

Both parents and teachers are the contributors to the child's capacity to learn. In the learning story I write for each child, I will reserve some space to seek parents' feedback. I will use
prompting questions to encourage them to write something in return. For example, "Have your child told you about this?" or "Does your child like to do drawing at home too?" or " Your child seems to have a lot of knowledge about ....Do you know where he learns that from?"

Finally, parents are valuable resource persons with many talents. I have invited parents coming to kindergarten to cook and bake with children; demonstrating the Japanese craft of origami; running show and tell sessions about their profession; leading music and movement activities; and even constructing a cockpit for the children.

Hope you enjoy working with the parents at your kindergarten too!