Parental Involvement In Early Education

My Own Experience

My mom was always involved in my public education. That being said, she herself is a teacher and still going strong at 84 years of age, teaching computer skills to seniors! She made sure to separate her professional life from her personal as she would make and keep an appointment for parent-teacher conferences.

It felt good to know that my mom took the time to do this as it provided me with a greater sense of connection between home and school and how the two work extremely well together.

Parent-Teacher Relationships

Today, I enjoy meeting my students’ parents and having the students show their parents their learning. It gives the students a sense of autonomy and accomplishment that they themselves can teach their parents what they are learning in school and what is of interest to them.

This home-to-school connection is empowering for my students as they start to realize that there are more adults in their lives who truly care for their well-being and success in life.  

Unfortunately, I do not get to see all of my parents and students during these appointments. Generally, I see mostly the ones who are doing very well academically and socially. The students who struggle with academic concepts and social/emotional skill development often do not come to these conferences with their parents. As such, these students are not afforded a greater sense of connection between home and school.

Research confirms that students who have a greater home-to-school connection do better academically and socially as they mature. They develop better relationships with others, problem-solving skills and critical thought processes.

The Solutions Are Within Reach

Those who do not experience this connection between home and school continue to view the two as separate entities of indeterminate values. There are best practices that can foster parent-teacher collaboration and can be initiated by either the teacher or the parent.

Parents and teachers can always email each other when they have a question and/or concern. This is a quick and easy way to communicate that does not interrupt the flow of a typical day at school.

Yet, when it comes to meeting in person, there are likely many variables as to why a parent may not attend parent-teacher conferences with their child and/or reach out to the teacher.

Knowing this, teachers can make parents feel more comfortable by offering options such as a virtual meeting, a telephone conference and or a questionnaire to complete and return. If the student is not present during these options, the teacher can then verbally summarize the meeting during a discussion with the student, explaining all the wonderful things their parents discussed about the student’s learning. Hearing these words of parental praise, in any form, is more conducive to making a connection between home and school than not hearing any conversation at all.

Another way to strengthen the connection between home and school is to provide remedial or enrichment learning activities that would benefit the student’s conceptual and skill development, which parents and their children could use as a connection time with school, but in their own home. This is one of the reasons why we created the Education Rocks K-6 Learning Library. 

How We’re Here To Help

The unit and lesson plans in our K-6 Learning Library can help your K-6 child or students develop confidence and proficiency in both English Language Arts & Literature and Mathematics in a straightforward and engaging way. They are designed to foster self-efficacy as one option is to utilize them in a self-instructed fashion. The best part is that you can edit these resources so that your child or students can focus on what they can do right now and build on it, rather than internalize that they are not performing at grade level.

All of our resources include engaging instructional videos, audio functions, and high-definition images. These resources can be used both digitally and non-digitally at home or at school.

If you want to fully preview all unit and lesson plans, you can do so on our Teachers Pay Teachers page!

If you have any questions about any of our products, then you can email me at hello@educationrocks.ca.

Thank you for reading this blog post on the importance of parent involvement in education. I wish you and your child(ren) or students all the best during this interesting time!