Parents are their child’s first and most important teacher. However, some parents are uncertain or lack confidence in their role as their child’s primary teacher. Hosting planned, playful, and purposeful family events are an excellent way to prepare parents to be successful home educators and engage as partners in their child’s educational support team. This type of active family engagement has been shown to positively impact student achievement levels and educational aspirations.
Teaching Together: Learning through Collaboration
The Children’s Learning Institute, in partnership with the Children’s Museum of Houston, has created six themed workshops to encourage literacy development with young learners. During a 60-minute workshop, families are presented with two specific strategies that encourage early literacy skills. Children and families engage in an interactive learning experience through a shared book reading, followed by visits to hands-on activity stations. In addition, families also receive an informational handout with practical ideas of how to apply the learned strategies. The workshops are delivered to meet the school’s and families’ needs. They can be offered in sequential order or by theme, and can be delivered over a series of weeks or months. What is exceptionally different about the workshop is that we are not isolating the parents from the child, but are using the interactions between the child and the parent as a component of the workshop to encourage learning. Click the links below to review and download the workshop materials.
Facilitator Workshop Manual
Building Trust and Cooperation | Talking Is Teaching | Making Books Come Alive
Playing with Letters and Sounds | Building Your Child’s Vocabulary | Writing Together
Supporting Sprouts
Supporting Sprouts is a series of presentations that can be delivered at family events to increase parent understanding of specific developmental areas important for infants and toddlers. The presentations can be downloaded in PowerPoint format using the links below. Please give these files several minutes to download, as they include multiple videos.
Social and Emotional Learning: Download English Version | Download Spanish Version
Language Development: Download English Version | Download Spanish Version
Managing Behaviors: Download English Version | Download Spanish Version
Early Literacy Development: Download English Version | Download Spanish Version
View related programs: Play and Learning Strategies (ePALS) | Strategies for Early Education and Developmental Success (SEEDS)
Teacher Toolkit:
Family Event Preparation Checklist: Download English | Download Spanish
The checklist helps teachers track key tasks for family event planning starting one month out, as well as recording specific activities and materials needed.
Related Professional Development:
Professional Learning Session: Hosting Family Events
Return to Family Engagement Resources