13.5: Engaging Families

Engaging Families

Teachers can use the following strategies to help families to develop their children’s health habits:

• Provide families with concise, accurate information about ways to promote and develop good health habits in children. The information should be presented in English and the families' home languages.
• Share written and visual safety messages with families through newsletters, brochures, bulletin boards, web pages, and take-home activities in English and home languages. Emphasize safety issues related to your program and community.
• Provide individualized and general health information to all families. Provide safety information, especially for those at higher risk in specific communities (e.g., water safety, gun safety, or lead poisoning). Share information through daily contact, workshops, and parent meetings. Ensure workshops and meetings are offered at various times and provide child care.
• During family conferences, find out what messages family members would like reinforced at school. Safety rules and supervision may differ at home.
• Post emergency plans on family bulletin boards and provide families with a written copy of the program’s emergency plans.
• Encourage families to plan and practice emergency drills for fires, earthquakes, floods, violent encounters, or other emergencies that might occur in their homes and communities.
• As you introduce health routines (e.g., handwashing and toothbrushing), invite family members to participate and model.
• Encourage families to contribute ideas or materials to interest areas that reflect diverse health habits at home.
• Invite family members to help children learn about people who can help in emergencies (firefighters, paramedics, construction workers, electricians, meteorologists, cleaning businesses, etc.)
• Be sensitive and respectful of different values or beliefs and varying levels of access to health products and services.
• Gather information on available and accessible health, safety, and nutrition resources in the community, including those for children with special needs, and provide this information to all families, translated into their home languages.
• Provide families with weekly or monthly menus in their home languages.
• Recognize that families have the most information about their children’s food preferences, serving styles, and restrictions on eating habits.
• Offer workshops and information on nutritious and economical meals based on the families’ cultural, ethnic, and personal food preferences.
• Encourage families to use available community resources for meal planning.
• Provide lists of foods or simple recipes for various nutrient-dense foods, low in fat, sodium, and sugar, and that look and taste great. Include foods that reflect cultural preferences and are available locally.
• Encourage families to involve children in food preparation.
• Invite families to share their favorite family recipes.
• Invite families to visit the classroom, sit with children during mealtimes, and participate in nutrition-related activities.
• Include families in planning the menu and meal-service routines.
• Provide all families with information on nutrition, child growth and development, nutrition risk factors, and community resources.
• Encourage families to ask questions and provide information about their children’s eating habits or nutritional concerns.[16]

Figure 14.10: Information can be shared with parents formally, like in this workshop, or more informally.[17]

Pause

Pause to Reflect

Hygiene and nutrition are heavily influenced by culture. What do educators need to remember when working with families whose culture relates to these things might be very different from their own?

to Reflect

References

[16] The California Preschool Curriculum Framework, Volume 2 by the California Department of Education is used with permission

[17] Image is in the public domain