Defense for Course Outline for 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.

The General Outcomes are the important beginning elements for the course. They will be broken down into to more specific skills next.
The specific skills will be measurable and achievable.

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.

The Early childhood educator must work in partnership with the parents to provide a positive environment for the child to grow and learn.
The child must observe a positive relationship between the Early Childhood Educator and their parent to reach optimal development.
Parents need to be involved in their child’s care to feel valued and have a positive self esteem.

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;
The Early Childhood Educator must be respectful to parents at all times.
The Early Childhood Educator needs information that only the parent can provide to provide individual quality care for the child.
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;
The Early Childhood Educator must develop skills that encourage parents to share information important to their child’s care on a daily basis.
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;
The Early Childhood Educator must develop strategies to include parents in the Early childhood program.
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.
The Early Childhood Educator must develop a trusting relationship with parents and possess tactful skills of communication to handle difficult situations.
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.
The Early Childhood Educator must respect the individual family’s lifestyles and keep all information confidential.

The specific Outcomes were chosen to give direction and lesson planning guidance from the general outcomes.
They will be the goal outcome for the lesson plan.

Method of Evaluation

Assignments 20%

Project 35%

Tests 35%

Participation 10%

Motivation comes from the the desire to acomplish and finish someting that we have started to show that we can do this. If we get a good mark we are rewarded by feeling good about ourself.
Money and praise are also the external motivators.

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)