Training in Early Years Development for Parents

[aliwalmsley]

Hi All

I am a qualified Primary School Teacher and an Early Years Specialist. I taught a Reception class for five years and am now working in a Children's Centre.

One part of my new job that I love is working with parents delivering training sessions on things like, brain development of young children, managing 2 yr olds behaviour, tummy time for babies etc. And giving parents practical ways that they can support their child's development within part of everyday life, for example, making shopping lists together before the weekly shop to promote early writing,
I would really like to go further down this route as all parents have been so grateful and have really enjoyed the courses. I would however like some opinions on how busy parents might want to receive this, for example,
*workshops where they come with the children in the local church or community hall

• Lecture style sessions with no children
• Websites
• Book/parenting advice manual/top tips?
• delivered through local nursery as part of parent partnership

Any opinions/advice would be gratefully received... this is also my first post.. let me know how I did! :-)

Ideally through the children's centres and their outreach network to local community venues. Most parents of young children prefer to have them with them or possibly use a crèche onsite. You need to think about how these topics fit together. Are they standalone sessions from which parents/carers can pick and choose or do you intend to have series of say 4 weekly sessions. You may find attendance erratic if you go for a block, particularly if free.

thanks LIZS, yes children centres would be the ideal place, which is where we run them now, I have previously done both, blocks and one of sessions, but I do find that parents find it difficult to commit to more than one session, I am not sure it is something that many parents would actually be interested in attending, I find lots of parents still have the attitude that they are only little and just playing unfortunately, :-(. I am just so passionate in getting the message out there that it has been proven time and time again the first five yrs are the most important with regards to education and development and a little bit of theoretical knowledge and a load of practical tips could be really helpful!!!

Maybe I am a little over passionate! lol!

How about approaching local primary schools and offering a series of workshops over the summer term?
School readiness is a biggie at the moment, but everyone seems to have different ideas of what it actually means. For me, I'm a nursery manager and an EYP, it means being emotionally ready, being eager and excited to learn.
For some parents, it means reading and writing and knowing the alphabet
In discussions with health visitors and our local children's centre, I know that there care issues with children not being toilet trained, not being able to make friends and with children's communication skills.
If you ran workshops once the places have been allocated then you gwtvgwt together with the teachers and let parents know what school readiness really means.
Some might say its a little late but better late than never. If you incite local nurseries as well then they would be able to better prepare the children from a younger age and work with parents also

I think that sounds great - as a parent, I find that kind of information so interesting and useful.

• Workshops where parents come with the children sounds fantastic if you can make it work. Ml , although I find that even a conversation (which you can stop-start) is tricky with a toddler who wants your attention and occasional intervention - let alone concentrating on a talk or workshop.
• l probably wouldn't attend lectures without children, despite being very interested in the subject. During the day it simply isn't possible, and in the evenings I'm tired and not keen to go out
• websites are a great, easy to access source of information. There's quite a lot out there, so think about what you're providing that's different. You mentioned lectures - haven't seen that format much for parenting stuff online, that might be good (TED talk type of thing)
• again, there are a lot of books out there already. And HVs etc provide short leaflets on various things.
• Through nursery would be great. That's perhaps a bit late for the topics you're suggesting, since many children don't go to nursery until 3. But some do - so definitely worthwhile.

I think it's fantastic you are so passionate about this. I agree that the pre-school age is so critical, and there is so much to know and understand as a parent. The information is out there, but it's a huge challenge to get it and understand the practical application in a short time when there already aren't enough hours in the day.

Sorry about the typo - MI doesn't mean anything mysterious - I added it (predictive text) and posted by mistake!

Think how to broaden the appeal. The people who are interested in that sort of stuff are probably aware of most of it, and will be there for interest. However there will be some people who would really henifit from info like that, but not chose to go if its just on a list of classes. How are you going to encourage them to come?
Are babies going to be welcome? What about older children?

I was going to suggest talking to your local schools too. They may be able to invite parents of dc in Reception and Nursery classes, which, statistically will also be parents of pre-schoolers too.

You DO need some kind of creche in place though.

You also need to tempt them in, in the first place, with something more appealing than a list of classes