-
Provide one or two examples of new ways you might include parents by allowing them to use their skill sets.
-
Rather than just using parents for what they can offer to assist the school, I think we should be looking for ways to get them to be more intentional in the discipleship of their children. One way to do this is to have real-time communication with them regarding their relationship to the local church. Families who remain tethered and involved in the local church almost always make for better partners than ones who do not. I would make faithful attendance and involvement in a local church a condition of enrollment.
-
Including parents by allowing them to work with small groups in the classroom, lunch duty, coming to read or volunteer in the classroom are ways to get parents involved with the schools (very inclusive).
-
I have recently returned to being an elementary librarian. I did this for 15 years in the public schools. Of course, things are quite different in many ways in our Christian school library. Even though I did censor materials for my public school elementary library, that part of my job is much more rigorous. This is applicable for adding materials to the collection, as well as for our Book Fair. Prior our Fall Book Fair, I found that there was a couple who were very knowledgable about finding appropriate and enriching materials for students. They came in while we were setting up the fair and helped to identify questionable books. In the next month, I will be calling upon them and other of my volunteers to form a committee to select a new vendor for next year’s Book Fair.
-
One example: In February, my co-teacher and I are planning a “Galentines” party for the girls in our courses. We will also try to invite their moms to come along and hang out or cook with us, etc. that day.
-
We encourage parents to use their skill sets when our school does its annual fundraiser. It is amazing to see the projects the parents create and donate and the results from our community to so graciously invest their moneys to purchase them and support our school.