Engaging the Whole Family in the Educative Process

When your child attends preschool, the teachers, administrators and room parents often work together as a team to keep parents informed and engaged. When you home school, this picture is painted a bit differently. As the parent and teacher, I am holding the reins and driving my son's education forward with our curriculum and day to day activities. So it may seem like family engagement wouldn't play a role in our education style, but it does.

If you've kept up with our family over the last year, you know that we use and love a prepackaged curriculum called Mother Goose Time. The program includes all of the lesson plans, adaptive strategies, manipulatives and creative work needed to educate your toddler or preschool at home, in a more traditional preschool setting or in a daycare setting. This includes newsletters, information and questions that a teacher would send home to parents to help them not only understand what their child is learning, but ask informed questions that start meaningful conversations, after school is done for the day.

As a homeschooler of an only child, I don't want these tools to go to waste, so we use them to create conversations with other family members. When Dad gets home from work he checks out the questions on the newsletter or invitation to create to start a conversation at dinner. When my son goes to his grandparents house, he is often sent with the daily topic poster, an artistic activity and a book all from Mother Goose Time.

There are also weekends where Dad takes over completely. My husband, lover of animals, has rescued turtles, snakes and more over the years. Some have been kept as pets and others donated to a local wildlife sanctuary. This week with Mother Goose Time we have been talking about the many animals that live in the rain forest. When I noticed our snake had shed (I get that that's not an every household occurrence) I asked my husband to run the show and take over home school on that Sunday afternoon. My husband and son discussed sizes, patterns, and used bubble wrap and the snake shed to create a beautiful painting. You will be surprise how the random knowledge or expertise from a spouse or grandparent will come in handy one day!

Being read to and taught by different adults helps build a child's comprehension and ability to engage in dialogue. So while my husband can't be at home for lunch to help my son with pattern puzzles, he can read my son his monthly Mother Goose Time book and ask him questions that might be different than mine.

Whether you are a homeschooler, or parent hoping to broaden your child's vocabulary, perspective and reasoning skills, I encourage you to reach out to family and friends and get them involved you your child's learning. We have been lucky to receive this month's proram in exchange for our experiences. Also, check out Mother Goose Time, their program makes an excellent, creative supplement to young learning, that will also guide you as the parent along the way.