Holding an open house at your child care center allows parents and families to explore their child's space and learn about some of the activities their child does during the day. Provide several different open house opportunities for families, such as an evening open house where parents come to the center without their child or a daytime open house where children are present. This allows parents to see their children at work. Parents who know what goes on during their child's day are able to communicate with their child about specific things that happened at child care.
Offering workshops to parents that focus on tips and techniques to help their child learn and develop helps keep parents involved. Some workshop ideas include reading activities with young children, healthy eating as a family, math for young children, or any other ideas that focus on the curriculum at your center. The NCPIE explains on its website that workshops providing parents the opportunity to improve their own knowledge base, such as GED classes, adult education and job training are another useful way to get families engaged with your child care center.
"Communication is the foundation of effective partnerships," states the NCPIE website. Ensuring daily communication between your child care center and the children's homes is an excellent strategy to support family engagement. Some ideas for home-school communication include daily notes home about a child's day, parent-teacher conferences, child care center newsletters, e-mail updates and center handbooks. The NCPIE website explains that personal contact is the most effective way of building and promoting communication.
Hanging a friendly sign on the door of your child care center and welcoming each family with a smile are two simple ways to help families feel welcome, explains NCPIE. Parents who feel welcome at your child care center are more likely to become engaged and involved. Allowing parents and families opportunities to volunteer in their child's classroom and at the child care center is another way to promote family engagement. Use parents as classroom volunteers to work with the children or to get supplies ready, in the front office, as lunch or snack-time helpers, or as field trip chaperones and special-event organizers.