Engaging Parents in Their Child's Education

It is very important for parents to be active in their child's education. Their participation is actually the moral support for their child. We teachers can teach, inspire and be the role model for our students. But the biggest influence actually comes from home.

Unfortunately, many parents now are working and have very little to no time to accompany their child and follow up on their education. 

I have tried giving my pupils a task to do with their mum or dad. They are required to hand in pictured evidence to me for this activity. I gave them as much time as they wanted (but did remind them every day for the picture, not in a forceful or pushy way)

These are actually my Year 1 pupils doing salad with their family members. Some teachers did the salad with the pupils in the classroom which they enjoyed it. But, I was thinking of doing something different this time round: - getting the parents involved in their child's task.

From the store to the bowl

Happy time making salad with mummy!

Steps:

1. Teaching the topic (about vegetables).

2. Teaching process and procedure of making a salad (according to the textbook).

3. Teacher explains the task to pupils:

     i) Make a bowl of salad with mummy or daddy for dinner.

     ii) Take pictures of the process or selfie with mummy or daddy~ ^^

     iii) Print out the picture on a A4 paper. If mummy or daddy can bring it to the shop to develop the photo, then it will be good too!~

4. When pupils bring the photo to school, have a show-and-tell session where they will use their photos as stimuli as they share back their experiences on making the salad.

At first, I thought that it wouldn't work out as pupils gave me the 'sad' and 'worried' look; saying that their parents are busy and have no time to cook. But, after 2 weeks, I was surprised to receive the pictures! And I can see through their eyes glitters of joy because they were able to do things together with their family members - something which they seldom get the chance to do so.

Let's give it a try~ Who knows what wonders will work out of it~

Aren't they beautiful? ^_^