Tracy: Welcoming Families From Around the World

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Welcoming Families From Around the World

A child from China will be joining my child care center in the next couple of weeks. This will be our first child from a different country and am very excited for the opportunity. I am hoping it will be an easy transition for this family and this individual child into our country, community and school. As the child's teacher it would be important to make the environment ready for the new student. I would hope that my classroom was already culturally appropriate and little would need to be done, but if that was not the case I would prepare in the following ways:

I would consult with the family first. I would want to know their expectations for their child and what I could do in the clasroom to integrate their child's culture. They might want a lot of materials and photographs and books of their home in the classroom or they might want to leave that behind and let their child experience an "American" classroom. Either way we will keep the lines of communication open in the event that they are uncomfortable with how things are going.
Research the Chinese culture. Look into resources within my community and other teaching that would be availble to translate and help me know as much as possible about where this family is coming from. Provide a translator for the child and the family. Put the names of toys and other objects on labels under the picture and english version of the word,
Invite family, including extended family, to visit the classroom whenever they can.
Prepare food from their homeland. Invite families to do come in and visit but also prepare with children as much as possible. Contact food service staff of the school to see if they would be interested in preparing an authentic Chinese meal for the whole school.
Research holidays and festivals and have current unit of study include posters, activities, and songs that reflect these things. I would also obtain ficiton and non-fiction books about celebrations, festivals, landscape, and housing.

I hope that with these preparations the child and the whole family will feel welcomed and included in the school and classroom. I am hoping that the family will feel comfortable to talk with me about concerns they are having with their child' transition to preschool. I want them to not feel overwhelmed by the American culture. Most importantly, I want the child to make friends and be able to learn in my environment. I want her/him to be equally ready for school emotionally, socially and academically with her classmates. I also hope her classmates learn from having their culture a part of our environment.

2 comments:

TeriFebruary 18, 2012 at 7:35 PM
Tracy,

It sounds as if your classroom would be more than ready for the new family! You raise the point of the parents possibly wanting their child to experience an "American classroom". My experience with international families has been that they really want their children to speak English instead of their home language. I would work to help the parent understand that children must be proficient in their home language before tackling the complexities of English. I would also want to make sure my teachers understood this.

Thanks for a great post!

Teri
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousFebruary 18, 2012 at 8:06 PM
Tracy:

During our Effective Programs and Practices class, I visited a center in my area that draws a lot of international families because it is a college town. The teachers in this center had the families visit and help make lists of words such as greetings, colors, and foods from the languages spoken at home. The lists were then posted around the room, near an area appropriate for the list. For example, the list of colors in other languages was posted in the art area. I thought this was a great way to incorporate the different languages of all the children, provide the children a learning experience, and build family engagement.

You've provided a wonderful post as always. Thank you.
LouAnn
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

"My Connections to Play"

Two quotes:

Vygotsky - "Children use private speech in play to regulate behavior"

"Creative play is a central activity in the lives of healthy children."
Almon, K. (2002) The vital role of play in early childhood
education. Gateways, 43.

My family, especially my mom, was very supportive of play. She recognized its importance. My sister and I loved to play with our friends. She would take us to the community pool and parks and we would play all day. When we got a little older we got a trampoline and jumped on it for much of the day. We had a playroom above our garage in Tennessee and we played there for many hours even though it got very hot at times. My sister and I loved to play with dolls. My mom always said she would be my best friend and as we got older did not encourage many outside friendships. I think that hurt our social skills a little. Now we talk every once in a while, have very different lives and see each other about 2-3 times per year. Even though we are still very close and had many years of play as children, we have drifted apart. My dad was really good at playing with us also. He took us on our boat all the time and encouraged more of the rough and tumble type of play. Both my mom and taught us to be resourceful and take care of ourselves, almost to a fault.

As I attempt to write my blog assignement I feel play has changed a great deal since when we were younger. We would go all day without seeing the inside of our house and find things to play with. All three of my boys are sitting around my table asking me questions and saying they are bored. I live about 2 blocks from one of the most beautiful lakes and beaches in the country and 1 block from an elementary school playground. There are children all over this neighborhood to play with and they are asking me what they can do. Where have I gone wrong in this scenario? They have come to rely on me as their "social director" and I have probably enabled that. Play is very different. I am going to cancel cable and hide the playstation and nintendo ds's for the summer. My kids are older and possibly beyond help. I hope that young children will be pulled away from the computers, tv and other electronic devices. I hope they will be in a safe place to be able to venture out and make friends. Parents need to be more confident in their childrens ability and need to become independent players. I think sometimes parents protect their children and don't let them make mistakes at an early age.

I have included pictures of my boys below at the beach. This is what we love to do these days. This was on a spring break vacation. My youngest sons favorite toy was a palm branch he found the first day. Again, an item from nature that I didn't have to purchase that entertained him. Nice!!