KinderJam offers a two day Parents Empowerment Workshop that will teach military spouses techniques that will enable them to effectively serve as their child’s primary educator while incorporating KinderJam’s fun upbeat teaching techniques. Additionally, we seek to prepare parents to serve as their child’s advocate by introducing parents to methods of tracking their child’s growth and development and communicating their child needs to service providers.
KinderJam is a fun, new, exciting, and high-energy Early Childhood Education program that emphasizes the kinesthetic and tactile learning of preschool skills and concepts. KinderJam has developed a curriculum aligned with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) framework and guidelines of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP). Our activities are designed to engage children raging from 1 to 5 years old (younger siblings are always welcome). Our program helps children and parents prepare for future academic and social success in school. It's fun but it isn't simply recreational.
Parents Empowerment Workshop Structure
KinderJam will offer a private workshop for the parents participating in the Family Advocacy Program.
Day One: (child care needed for participating parents)
- 2 ½ hour Morning Session (Becoming Your Child’s Primary Educator)
- 30 minute Lunch Break
- 2 ½ hour Afternoon Session (Becoming Your Child’s Advocate)
- 30 min Evaluation and Wrap Up Session
Day Two: (requires parent and child participation)
- 45 minute KinderJam Parent Interaction Class (opportunity for parent to apply KinderJam’s unique and highly proven techniques to teach their children in a fun upbeat manner.)
- 30 minute Questions and Answers and Wrap Up
Workshop Descriptions
Becoming Your Child’s Primary Educator (2 ½ hour)
This interactive workshop helps parent to visualize their home and the world around them as their child’s first classroom. Parents will learn the benefits and methods of serving as their child’s first teacher from birth to five years old. The workshop will:
- Expose parents to Early Childhood benchmarks and milestones and provide a practical view and example of each
- Practice simple activities that can be executed with every day household or during daily errands that can enhance the cognitive and social development of their child.
- Learn to use KinderJam manipulatives to conduct kinesthetic and tactile lesson and activities that will help develop fine and gross motor skill as well as introduce and reinforce essential pre-academic skills.
- Provide each participant with a resource binder to include all concept and activities discussed during the workshop.
- Allow parents the opportunity to ask questions and express concerns related to their role as assistant to their child’s social growth and development
Becoming Your Child’s Advocate (2 ½ hour)
Now that parents are familiar with methods of teaching their children at home and in daily life, this workshop seeks to show parents how to turn their observations into usable data. Military parents especially need to know their children’s strengths and the area they difficulties as well as have the ability to effectively communicate their child’s needs to service providers (e.i doctors, teachers, case workers). The frequent moves of military families prevent our children from establishing an ongoing relationship with one service provider for a long duration of time. Therefore it is essential for a military parent to track the growth and development of their child and be able to speak accurately on behalf of their child when establishing new relationships and maintaining effective working relationships with their child’s service providers. This workshop seeks to teach parents how to develop skills and strategies that will allow them to become the “expert” on their children. The workshop will:
- Demonstrate to parents how to take quick anecdotal notes on their child’s growth and development and provide parents with a template suitable to accompany them to doctor’s appointment and teacher conferences.
- Expose parents to terms and phrases that would help effective communicate their concerns or observations when meeting with service providers.
- Provide a list of resources that will keep parents abreast of trends in Early Childhood Education
- Discuss methods of productive parent involvement in Early Childhood facilities such as the Child Development Center.
- Provide parents with hard copies if the concepts discussed in class to insert in their resource binder.
- Allow parents the opportunity to ask questions and express concerns related to their role as their child’s voice and advocate.
KinderJam Parent Participation Class (Day Two: AM, 1 ½ hour )
KinderJam Founder, El Brown will conduct a 45 minute KinderJam session with the workshop participants and their children The class will give the parents an opportunity to apply first hand the methods taught in the Becoming Your Child’s Primary Educator component of the KinderJam Parent Empowerment Workshop. Following the workshop the participants will have the opportunity to ask quest and speak candidly with El.
Playgroup Facilitator Training and Structured Playgroup Curriculum (optional)
In effort to extend the benefit of the KinderJam Parent Empowerment Workshop, we will provide selected individual(s) with a three (3) week on-line interactive Playgroup Facilitator Training on KinderJam.org, our procedure and curriculum training site and KinderJamCentral.com, KinderJam’s Virtual Training and Support Network.
Additionally KinderJam will provide weekly developmentally appropriate lesson plans that will serve to provide your Family Advocacy program with a structured, cohesive playgroup that is designed to align with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) framework and guidelines of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP). The Playgroup Facilitator Training and Structured Playgroup Curriculum will provide:
- Training for selected individual(s) on your installation for properly facilitating an Early Childhood Playgroup
- Weekly lesson plans that provide activities in the areas of art, music, pre-literacy, pre-math, social development, and developmentally play.
- Weekly parent discussion topics and facilitator talking points.
- Handouts to promote daily life learning experience such as KinderJam’s Commissary Hunt pre-literacy activity.
- Ongoing facilitator support and consultation from the KinderJam Support Staff via KinderJam Central.
Contact KinderJam to add this exciting parent workshop to your program!
Meet Your KinderJam Facilitator!
