Importance of partnership between parents and caregivers

This research paper will focus on the partnership between the parents and caregiver. Their relationship tends to get more effective when it comes to education and training of the young child in a home daycare. The interaction between each parents was closely monitored during the pick up and drop off time, in the morning and afternoon, between the parents and the daycare staff. The research embraces of five parents who’s children were under two years old (all five were female from different cultures). In the morning conversations were much shorter mostly because they were late to work, but in the afternoon parents wanted to know more about their child’s overall day and one parent said “ there is no concern when I leave my child here, I know she will be in great hands”. Everyone seemed to be satisfied with the quality of care that their kids receive at Nini daycare. The daycare is a home based private child daycare. The cost of attendance is $310 per week for infants to 2 years old and the tuition for children above 2 years old is $290.

First and foremost, while the kids were playing I noticed that even children experience conflict during their childhood. Conflict is more than just having different opinion or having differences (Wood 2013). Since the kids did not know how to deal with their issues the teachers or daycare staff had to get involved whenever there was a conflict between the kids. For instance, when Kaimana (a 14 months old girl) was trying to get a teddy bear out of a box and play with it, Violette (a 21 months old girl) ran over to her and grabbed the teddy bear while saying: “ mine, mine”. Of course Kaimana gave her teddy bear up, but Violette seemed mad even though she got what she wanted. Violette had a passive aggression form of conflict which means acting aggressively while denying acting or feeling aggressive toward something that was done. The less kids that a daycare has the more demand they’ll have from parents.

Secondly, after asking the owner why do you think parents choose your daycare over other daycares? She responded because the number of our kids here are very low (because of having a small child care license) and most parents want their children to go to a small child center for two main reasons; first they wont get sick as often and second their children get more attention from the teachers. Since the daycare consist of 6 children the relationship between parents and caregivers was very close and they were like a big family. In order to maintain a good relationship between parents and caregivers they all go out every few weeks and spend some time together along with the kids. In their meetings teachers would tell parents about any new rules or regulations, policies, or passing informative hand outs and articles. In my opinion keeping a close relationship with the families would help the kids in the long run and make them appreciate how much more care they received in compare to other young children in their age.

In addition, by having a close relationship between the families and caregivers they can minimize any unwanted conflict and be able to resolve them in any situation. One of the three main and unhealthiest approaches of conflict is known as “ lose-lose”, which results in lost for both parties. Usually people try to avoid conflicts at all cost without knowing that conflicts are completely healthy in order to maintain a good relationship. For example, if two kids were fighting over a toy and the teacher decides get involved that might not be the greatest idea, because if she joins the conflict then the kids would not learn anything out of their arguments and they might end up in a fight. behavior management has consistency been a major concern for both teachers and parents (Henry 2000).

On the other hand, if a teacher had already informed the children about having a healthy conflict such as “ win-win” they will know exactly how to resolve an issue in the future without destroying a good relationship. In a “ win-win” conflict situation partners find a third solution for the problem that non of them had thought about in the past and the solution usually gets accepted by both parties. In this completely healthy way of encountering a conflict both partners are committed to their own and other person’s satisfaction. Partnership between parents and care providers is essential for children’s learning outside the classroom especially those with ADHD who need consistent reinforcement of positive behavior and early pre-academic skills (Bennett, Weigel & Martin, 2002).

This also strengthens the work that teachers are doing in the classroom to help with challenging behaviors and school readiness. Consistency across settings can prevent many problem behaviors, increases parent understanding of how child is doing academically and behaviorally, and more importantly when problem arise it is more successful to collaborate and work together to resolves those problems.

Equally important, there has been numerous research that shows when partnership between teachers and parents occurs it has more positive outcomes for the child, such as; higher grades and test score, long term academic achievement, improves attitude about school, and improves behaviors (Greenwood & Hickman 1991, Landerholm & Lowenthal, 1993; Reynolds, 1989, 1992). Overall, meaningful involvement at an early age has the most significant and long lasting effects. At the end of the day when it was time for parents to pick up their child, something inserting caught my eyes, all teachers were required to fill out a card called “ daily behavior report” which explains how each child did that day and what they should be working with them at home. In general keeping a close relationship between both parents and caregivers would encourage the children to do better.

Moreover, the daycare had a very specific routine and schedule that they followed each day. Before starting nay meal during the day and after playing any games or doing activities all kids had to line up and wash their hands. Then each child was ask to do a specific task such as cleaning up the toys that they played with, unpacking their lunch box, and wiping their mouth after eating. There were expectations from kids such as what to do, or where to place specific things. When it comes to expectations from kids adults must be positive, consistent, and patient at all time in order to see results. The learning outcomes that children are achieving are enriched when families are involved. Family engagement looks very different in different cultures, Nini daycare made sure that each child’s need was satisfied by inviting different cultures into daycare to explain their cultures, celebrate their events and festivals, and share their food with them.

In conclusion, most guardians and caregivers were extremely happy with their overall partnership, regardless of whether a considerable lot of them imagined that they knew moderately minimal about their child’s encounters in the childcare or at home, separately. Early in the day for drop off, guardians were most worried about the correspondence between their kid and the daycare staff, and were happy with the schedules at drop-off time if the caregivers acted proactively towards their child. my research show that correspondence between guardians and caregivers does not generally happen amid their day by day gatherings. Some childcare focuses seemed to require both better-actualized correspondence procedures and a staffing system that would improve the nature of day by day collaboration between guardians and daycare staff or teachers. Overall, keeping a close relationship between parents and caregivers have some long run positive effects on kids and both parties must help one another to keep their bond strong for the health of their children and having a healthy people in our society in the future.