Wendy Cave - Observing and Interacting with Families of the Children in Your Setting

This past week, I have had the opportunity to meet and talk with some parents of the PreK Program where I have been observing and working in. The program had their monthly parent meeting and I was invited to come and speak with them about their child's PreK experience. There were four families in attendance and I was able to ask them questions such as:

1. Please share with me and positive or negative experiences that you may have had while in the program.
2. Do you feel that your child and family benefited from the program and how?
3. What options would or do you have it this PreK classroom was not available for your child and your family?

I then shared with them some of the budget concerns and what that could mean to many programs in the area as well as the community as a whole. Most of the parents shared that they chose this program because they wanted an educational program for their child and did not want their child just sitting at a babysitters watching television or playing video games. One parent actually shared that if she did not have this program, she would have to quit working to stay home with her child because her family could not afford to pay for all day child care.

When we were done with the meeting, I suggested that they could help by calling their local Representatives in Congress to share their stories and how this funding cut would impact them as a family as well as the community. I also shared that they should continue to work with their child's school to make sure that they are satisfied with the services provided and that even in elementary school, they should keep the communication lines open with the teacher and the administration staff to make sure that their child gets the education they deserve.