Parent Empowerment Workshops

 

KinderJam offers a series of Parent Empowerment Workshops designed to teach parents strategies that enable parents to effectively serve as their child’s primary educator while incorporating KinderJam’s fun, upbeat, and research based teaching techniques. Additionally, the series empowers parents with the knowledge and skills needed to serve as their child’s soundest advocate and productively communicate and build partnerships with their child’s service providers (i.e. doctors, teachers, case workers).

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The Parent Teacher: Becoming Your Child’s Primary Educator 

This interactive workshop helps parents visualize their home and the world around them as their child’s first classroom. Parents discover the benefits and apply methods of serving as their child’s first and most constant teacher.

 

The workshop participants will:

 

• Discuss and identify Early Childhood benchmarks and milestones and describe a practical example of each.

• Demonstrate simple activities that can be executed with everyday household items or during daily errands to enhance the cognitive and social development of their child.

• Use KinderJam manipulatives to conduct kinesthetic and tactile lessons and activities that will help develop fine and gross motor skill as well as introduce and reinforce essential early learning skills and concepts.

• Design a learning activity for their child and identify the skills addressed in the activity.

 

Mama Bear/Papa Bear: Becoming Your Child’s Advocate 

After parents acquire the tools to serve as The Parent Teacher, the Mama Bear/Papa Bear workshop assists parents in turning their experience and observations into usable data. As The Parent Teacher, a parent becomes familiar with their child’s strengths and the areas in which their child would benefit from additional assistance. This knowledge strengthens a parent’s ability to communicate their child’s needs to service providers. Effective communication assists in the establishment strong and productive parent/service provider relationships. KinderJam recognizes parents as the experts on their child and supports parents in developing skills and learning strategies that will allow parents to collaborate with service providers and work together to ensure their child maximizes his/her personal potential.

 

The workshop participants will:

 

• Practice taking quick anecdotal notes on their child’s growth and development that can be shared during doctor’s appointments and service provider conferences.

• Engage in role play exercises to practice the use of terms and phrases that assist in the effective communication of their concerns or observations when meeting with their child’s service providers.

• Examine the difference between parent involvement and parent engagement. 

• Develop one measurable goal for their child.

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