As it pertains to a child, family involvement refers to the participation of families in their children’s education or any other activities in the community. The motivations for family involvement include: first, the feeling that parents have an obligation to do what is necessary to support their children. Naturally, parents and older siblings often feel that they have to guide their children or younger siblings through the early stages of life.
This usually extends to all aspects of life, education included. The second motivation for family involvement comes from the perception that their children and teachers want and expect them to participate. The third motivation comes from the need for higher self-esteem by the parents. A parent is motivated to guide his/her child to academic prosperity in order to boost their self-esteem by being part of that success and this is achieved by setting high standards for their children. The models for family involvement may include the following: first, it may come through the creation of family routines.
Such routines may include the provision of time for studies, household chores, and bedtime among others. This model is motivated by the idea that the parents are required to ensure order through the allocation of time for different family activities. The second model can be done through monitoring of the child’s out-of-school activities. This may be achieved through setting limits to activities such as watching television.
And through the provision of supervised care. The third model is realized through family demonstration that hard work and self-discipline pays. This way the children get to know the value of learning and this acts as a motivating factor for them to work harder. These models for the family have more are less the same underlying idea which is to provide direction for family members.
Joyce Epstein has identified six types of family involvement. For the purpose of this assignment, details will be given on how the learning at home involvement is achieved. This involvement seeks to provide families with ideas on how to assist children at home with their homework and other activities associated with education. This can be achieved by: providing the families with information about the various skills needed by the learners at different grades and for different subjects taught. Giving appropriate information on how they should assist students with their homework in a constructive way. And lastly by getting the family to be fully involved in the planning and achievement of goals for the students or learners.
It is often believed that if proper training is provided to a child early in life then chances are that the child will hold onto it for much better than one that is offered later when he/she is older. Early childhood programs such as child development, family development, staff development, and community development collectively lead to the following outcomes: Increased motivation; better school attendance; fewer instances of the child’s involvement in violent behavior; better grades; better self-esteem. Thus the early childhood programs are often lead to higher academic success and predictive socio-economic status for the family.
The local school located in my area is achieving increased parental involvement by conduction the following: Requirement of parents to attend major school functions; rewarding of parents whose children have shown exemplary performance; Communicating with the parents regularly to inform them on the progress and other future activities such as workshops and training. I would consider taking a holistic approach in an early childhood setting. This implies that I will take into consideration the different parental backgrounds and bring them on board in order to iron out the biggest obstacle which is often related to parents’ income.