Welcoming Families From Around the World

Welcoming families from other countries into a child care center is both exciting and intimidating.
Not knowing a lot about different countries  can feel intimidating due to the lack of knowledge. However, the excitement  alone of  learning something new brings rich conversation for the teacher , child and parent.

As an example I picked the country Yugoslavia. I thought about how I would conduct the  orientation to the center and how I would implement diversity.  For an effective quality program we want parents to share their talents, interest and occupations with our small citizens.

I have a few ways  of culture responses to the families that I would demonstrate are ( not necessarily in this order).  

1.Inviting parents to serve on the Center's Support group meeting. The design will allow reflection  to meet needs of families.
2. Social and educational gathers annually  to encourage interaction between staff and families.
3. Become familiar with basic language and have words printed in areas of the room with pictures as a description, even an alphabet book available for children in the book area
4.Invite parents  to cook with children and explain their countries favorite food.
5. Get to know the parent child-rearing style and have conferences outside of daily talks/reports.
6. Last ( while always more) ask for information on sports that the country enjoys and Holidays that are celebrated.

Having parent surveys completed regularly will  make staff aware of  concerns or praise of follow up.
All of  my thoughts are to help the families have a positive experience while our staff grows in knowledge and the center as a whole grows in quality, effective care.