Parents as Teachers

  There is infinite amounts of information and resources available on the Parents as Teachers website and through the organization.

Looking under the RESOURCES tab on the website, there was one avenue that I had not explored: The Federal Home Visiting Program. The program is designed to strengthen and improve programs and coordination of services for at-risk communities and to improve outcomes for those families. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) see home visiting as one of several strategies embedded in a quality early childhood system that promotes maternal, infant and early childhood health, safety and development, as well as strong parent-child relationships.
 
The website and organization offer trainings and curriculum to assist parents in being able to better teach and guide their children. Leading early childhood education and child development organizations and professionals seek out Parents as Teachers curricula and training because it easily integrates into other services they may be providing, which allows them to tailor information to the specific needs of any family and provide practical, hands-on application for parents in real-world situations.
 
I do not receive any newsletters from Parents as Teachers, but they do send out letters for support and donation advocacy as well as for interested groups to enroll in their provided training.
  
  On the website there is a fact sheet and additional information about how Parents as Teachers assisted in the implementation of Indian Head Start. I feel that this creation is a clear push towards care and educational equity. In the letter and fact sheet, it is stated multiple times that all children have the right to premium education; which to me represents the basic foundation to constructing a pathway to equity in the early childhood care and educational systems, especially for such an extreme minority group as Native American Indians.

On the homepage of the website there was a news flash of new trainings and programs available to teen parents. More and more, especially in my community, there are teen parents struggle to provide quality care and education. This latest revision of this program, offered through the Knowledge Studio, is a giant step forward in the work with teen parents. Enhancements to the curriculum include more focus on:

Ø  Supporting adolescents in their development of life skills as they approach adulthood

Ø  Building family well-being capacity in areas like education, employment, and finances

Ø  Examining the mutual influences and potential impacts of the parallel development needs of adolescents and young children

Ø  Teaching parent-child interaction using a four-part technique

Ø  Emphasizing the important role of the father, whether or not he is living with the mother

I feel this Parents as Teachers is not only an organization, but could become a movement if more parents knew about the resources it provides. Some of programs and trainings could definitely assist not only parents, but also teachers and child care professionals. We as educators and some as parents have to responsibility to seek out programs and organizations such as Parents as Teachers to improve our knowledge, which would improve other areas of our personal and professional lives.