Course Outline Parents

Course Outline: by Jacqueline Donald

Course Title: Parents

Program: Early Childhood Education

Course Description: The participant will recognize the importance of establishing and maintaining an open, cooperative partnership with each child’s family that supports the family in meeting their responsibilities for the child.

General Learning Outcomes:
1. Recognize the importance of home and family.
2. Know the aspects of family that have significance to the child’s development.
3. Know ways of involving parents in the early childhood setting.
4. Understand the communication techniques that are effective in working with parents.
5. Recognize strategies that will establish and maintain an open, cooperative partnership with each child’s family that supports the family in meeting their responsibilities for the child.




Specific Learning Outcomes:

1. Recognize the importance of home and family
a. Identify strategies that can be incorporated into the child care setting that demonstrates to families a respect for their position as the child’s primary caregiver and creating opportunities for families to feel comfortable expressing their wishes and needs;
b. Identify methods of providing families with accessible information about service philosophy, policies, approaches and procedures before the child begins attending the children care setting and on an on-going basis;

2. Know the aspects of family that have significance to the child’s development.
a. Discuss a variety of approaches to encourage families to share information about the child on a regular basis, including the child’s likes, dislikes, and schedule and familial preferences regarding child-rearing practices, diet and dress;

3. Know ways of involving parents in the early childhood setting.
a. Identify a variety of user-friendly strategies that assist families to be involved in program activities to the extent that they wish and to participate in programming decisions;
b. Identify a variety of user-friendly strategies that assist families to participate in policy decision-making;

4. Understand the communication techniques that are effective in working with parents.
a. Identify strategies that assist the family members to feel welcome at any time that the child is present;
b. Practice a variety of negotiation and positive problem-solving strategies to find solutions to differences of opinion or difficulties.

5. Recognize strategies that will establish and maintain an open, cooperative partnership with each child’s family that supports the family in meeting their responsibilities for the child.
a. Identify a variety of strategies of working cooperatively with families to develop and implement program activities and care giving routines that reflect children’s cultural and religious backgrounds and the lifestyles of the children’s families;
b. Recognize that keeping family enquires conversations with families, and children’s records confidential are essential.

Course Resources:
Textbooks: Shimoni, Rena and Joanne Baxter. Working With Families. Dona Mills: Addison Wesely Publishers

Magazines:
Child Care Exchange
· The Single Parent
· Parents Magazine
· Young Children
· Childhood Education
· Day Care and Early Childhood Education
· Child Care Information Exchange
· Child Welfare
· Empathic Parenting


Videos:
Building a Partnership with Parents. Bloomington, Ind.: Agency for Instructional Technology, 1991. (HV 851 B842)

Children Die, Too. Princeton, N. J.: Films For The Humanities & Sciences, 1990. (BF 575 G7 C55 1990)

Meeting the needs of children. Video. CA: Milan Herzog & Associates, SA Films, Inc., 1992. (HQ 769 M43)

Partnerships with Parents. Washington, D.C.: N.A.E.Y.C., 1989.
(HV 851 P37)

Silent Partners: Parents of Children in Three Types of Day Care. Ottawa: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 1996. (HV851 P452)

Understanding Partnership With Parents. Winnipeg: Family Day Care Association of Manitoba, 1993. (HV 851 U53 1993)