TUNG WAH COLLEGE

SCHOOL OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES

Bachelor of Education (Honors) in Early Childhood Education

ECE 1008 L03 Involvement with Parents in Early Childhood Settings

Instructor: Li Sau Man Jackie

 Name: Chui Cheuk Nga

Student No: 18000489

Email: 18000489@twc.edu.hk

Contact No.: 69383470

Submission Date: 16/7/2019

The program “Story and Craft” is proposed to parents. Both mother and father are welcomed to join.

They will be invited to come to the kindergarten, storytelling and make DIY or do some interesting

science experiment with children as a volunteer. The objectives of the program are to facilitate the

relationship between parents and children. Also, to develop children’s communication skills.

Through organizing an parents-school involved activity in long term, it can cultivate parent’s support

towards school’s learning. It is an annual program, parents only need to participate the activity twice

a month which is not a heavy job to dual-career parents. The program planned is targeted at K3

children and their parents. The venue will be in the classroom when parents tell the stories and DIY

with children. Moreover, the venue will be outdoor at the playground if they need to do some science

experiments, such as wind and water. The school will give $400 each month for the budget of buying

story books (if needed), DIY and experiment materials.

Ice breaking will be carried out at the beginning of the activity. Assume the theme of October is set

as “Autumn is arrived”. Teacher will encourage children to sing songs (about autumn) that they have

learnt in class to the parents. Parents are suggested to appreciate children’s performances so that they

can gain confident to learn actively and share their experiences to parents. Children can teach their
parents, invite them to sing the songs and to do different dancing movement together. This section

will be around 10 minutes. This steps not only can build up the trust between parents and their kids,

but also their fellow classmates. According to Erik Erikson, the base of psychosocial development is

trust. Children must first trust the environment and parents so that they can build up intimacy and

autonomy while they grow up (Mcleod, n.d.). When children are more familiar with the adults, they

are more willing to interact.

After that, parents will introduce the puppets to children as their common friend. Teacher can advice

parents try to facilitate communication. For examples, when they use puppets, they can use different

voice and tone to pretend the characters to gain attention and interest from children or using body

gestures and giving eye contact to children when telling story. Through using the puppets to chat

around, children are guided to discuss on autumn, such as they can barbecue and hiking in autumn or

the changes of nature in autumn etc. After the chatting, parents can lead into the story “Golder carpet

of Autumn” (秋天的黃金毯子) by using the puppets. In this process, parents are suggested to ask

open-ended and probing questions, for examples, what will happen next and why the character would

do so to let children guess and develop points. It takes about 15 minutes for storytelling part.

Parents will introduce the materials needed to make a kite after the end of the story, such as glue,

scissors, yellow leaves and ropes. Children are divided into groups with their parents and make the

kite together. The crafting time last for about 15 minutes. Parents are proposed that they should not

restrict children to use any materials and equipments such as scissors, but to assist them when they
meet difficulties. Children’s creativity will be improved when they create their own kite. Then, there

are 10 minutes for children to share their feelings and ideas towards their masterpieces to their

classmates and teachers. Lastly, the school can provide the outdoor playground for them and try to

fly their kite.

Teachers being a stage manager, the need to prepare the venues, classroom decorations and order of

classroom. Also, teacher will sit next to parent to give guidance, assistance and to observe, children’s

learning ability and development in order to give individual learning assistance if needed. Moreover,

the most important job is to observe the relationship between children and their parents so that

teachers can understand each child’s family backgrounds and their ways of getting along.

How does the program contribute to home-school cooperation? According to Joyce Epstein “Big

Six” theory, the program is a school’s work to recruit families as volunteer and audience to support

children and school program. There are totally 6 levels model of home-school cooperation (Ng,

2003). To facilitate the program, school and parents must maintain a bilateral and close

communication. Parents need teachers to tell them the learning ability and theme so that they can

choose a suitable storybooks or experiment. There are many ways to communicate, for instance, by

discussing on Whatsapp group, on telephone or meeting. Therefore, parents can be clearer to the

purpose of the program. Next, this program can also fulfill the level 4 involvement, which is

assisting in school operation. After parents tried to “teach” children and lead the activity, parents can

find out the inadequate of the classroom and the curriculum. Then, parent’s opinions and suggestions
can help school to regulate and adjust both facilities and policies in order to satisfy children’s needs.

For examples, parents realize that children are lack of safety awareness when they use the scissors,

parents can suggest teacher tell teach emphasized on safety issues in art lessons.

There are two main ways to evaluate the effectiveness of the program which are observation of

children’s development and parent-school meetings. If the program is successful, adults can see a big

change of children such as better learning motivation, better academic, improved moral

development. Parents can observe the changes of children at home and teachers will be observing in

school. For the parent-school meetings, both parents and teachers can share their feelings towards the

activity and the learning atmosphere of school. It the majority gives a positive respond, it means that

the home-school activity is successful. The evaluation meeting can be held once every two months so

that parents and teacher can keep in touch and keep track on the development of children.
 Reference list

Mcleod, S. (n.d.). Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development. Retrieved from

https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html

吳迅榮(2003)，家庭與學校合作：理念與革新, http://www.acei-hkm.org.hk/Publication/2003-
10/NNN18.pdf