The final Curricular Element I suggest is the Home Connection.

There’s No Place Like Home – There is little more important in education than the partnership between school and home. Parents must be made to feel comfortable and respected. This partnership makes the learning better, and although it may be difficult on occasion, when it is done well, it makes the teacher’s job easier. A good Early Education program begins with the philosophy that parents cherish their children and that children learn more from parents and family (positively and negatively) than from the school experience.

Mutual esteem for each chid’s parents and family (with complete acceptance and total respect for the ethnicity, culture, faith, gender, or makeup of each child’s family) and parent involvement at every level from Board membership to volunteering to bring paper plates to the class picnic are the key to success with this partnership. Teachers need to make the most of this partnership and ‘assigning’ ACTIVE enjoyable Home Connections on a weekly basis is an easy way to assure the partnership takes place.

Home Sweet Home Connections – The Home Connection is a weekly activity designed for parent and child to do together as a family.  It should be purposeful to the unit of study being presented, it must be developmentally appropriate, it should be enjoyable, and it should be simple. 

Home Connection experiences should not include “homework” assignments that require ditto, worksheet, or academic readiness skill building. Homework will be assigned in ‘big school’. 

Home Connections are activities like going outside at night with a flashlight, taking a walk with Grandma, gathering up things at home that start with the same letter a child’s name starts with, going to Mommy’s office, visiting the local library with Daddy and bringing some books to school.

I urge all teachers to make these connections on an ongoing basis to create a partnership with parents and to continuously and rigorously reinforce key concepts and strengths being gained in your learning community.

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