Family Interaction

Appreciating Family Diversity

We appreciate the uniqueness that each family brings to our program. We ourselves are a family that is very blended, with a mixture of birth, adopted, step and foster children coming from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.

We encourage all families to share with us things that are important to them and to their culture so that we can better encourage and appreciate each child's uniqueness.

Communication

We make time each day to greet all parents and children and obtain any information needed for the child each day. We have daily notes that we send home if there is a need to communicate something that happened that day or a need your child may have.

We email weekly Activity Reports to parents to encourage dialogue about what the children have been doing at school during the week. It helps children to open up and tell parents about their day, rather than just saying, "I don't know."

We have monthly newsletters to keep the communication open between families and school and occasional "Mini-new" when something comes up in the middle of a month.

We set two formal conferences each year with parents. One in January and one in May. We have an open door policy where a family can come at any time and spend some or all of a day with their child.

We call parents anytime we have a concern about their child and encourage parents to call us anytime they also have a concern.

If you have communication needs in another language, please let us know and we will try and have our materials translated for you if you do not have a translator in your home.

We invite two-way conversations/communication. Feel free to email any questions/concerns to us. You can bring things up at drop off or pick up time, and we will find a time to discuss any concerns by phone or in a face-to-face meeting. We believe that open communication is critical to our relationship and ability to care for your child(ren).

Involvment

We have a "Wishing Tree" section at the bottom of this page where we post things that the families can help us with. This may be watching out for certain toys or equipment at garage sales or it may be a need we have for the families to help like installing some new equipment or setting up some of the summer area things.

We also encourage parents to come and talk to the children about their jobs or something from their culture when it fits into a unit we are studying, or just anytime they can fit it into their schedule.

We hold 4 family events per year. A Christmas party for the children in care and their siblings as a gift to the parents so you can shop for a night without children, a Christmas musical concert or play, a Graduation ceremony and family pot luck in May and an end of the summer program for the families in summer care. (All families are invited to attend.)

Special Concerns

Families who are entering a new child care situation are clearly under stress making such an important decision about their child's life. We encourage parents to come and see our program along with their child prior to choosing to enter our program. They can come multiple times and stay as long as they like.

We encourage new families to call our current families and discuss their concerns with them. References are very important in helping a new family feel comfortable.

When a new child has separation issues, we encourage the parent to call back in an hour or so and check on how their child is feeling. Some strong emotions can be a part of separation, but if their child relaxes and enjoys the routine after the separation, the parent can know that their child is learning the new skills of separation and autonomy.

For Community Resources for families, please see the ParentAware.org website at

Challenging Situations

When a family in our care experiences the stress of a crisis in their lives, we want them to know that we are here to support them. We are open to taking children early, keeping children late and even overnight in emergencies. We want to know if a family is going through a crisis situation, because the child will show stress and we will be able to support the child if we are aware of the situation. We are open to children with disabilities and welcome you to discuss your child's needs with us. We bring concerns to you, as the parents, when we observe a child who is developing differently from the "standard norms" of child development. We welcome professional observations in our classroom to help us help children with special needs.

We follow the advice of Tina Feigal, M.S., Ed., Parent Coach and Trainer and highly recommend her book "The Pocket Coach for Parents". Her techniques are based on the Nurtured Heart Approach to children. Her website is: www.parentingmojo.com You can sign up for monthly e-mails to encourage you in your parenting skills. She also offers Parent Coaching. She has an office in Roseville, MN.

We also highly recommend the Love and Logic approach to parenting. We have DVDs and many CD's to help you learn the system. Both Love and Logic and the Nurtured Heart approach will be applied to discipline needs here at the daycare/preschool. Please ask to check out these very helpful materials if you are feeling challenged by parenting. And believe me, you are not alone! We all need help at different stages and ages. We also have a very good library of parenting books that are available for you to check out at any time.

For children who have experience trauma in their lives (whether it be from a medical emergency, a family crisis, or any number of things), we recommend looking into the Trauma Based Relational Intervention Program (TBRI). The link is: http://child.tcu.edu/