Family engagement and family literacy are two of the most important or components for building a strong foundation for children's academic success. Family engagement is about spending quality time with children every day by talking, playing, and asking questions, which builds bonds and promotes language development. Family literacy supports…

Family engagement is essential to high quality services for all children in early childhood care and education. From the beginning of life, families nurture their children and the capacities they will need to be ready for school. The Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (PFCE) Framework for Early Childhood Systems is a guide to understanding…

Parents are generally less involved in their children's science education (as compared to reading and mathematics) due to low self-efficacy and a lack of home-school communication. This study examined parental interest and attitudes in science as well as the nature of parent-to-child questioning during an interactive home, school, and community…

In a family meeting all members participate equally and try to solve problems that affect each member individually and as a whole. Ground rules for starting a weekly meeting are offered. (DF)

Presents actions that parents can take to help children prepare to return to school after summer vacation. Ideas highlight reading, writing, vocabulary, computers, family night, television, video games, communicating, music, study habits, encouragement, decision making, behavior, setting limits, modeling, grooming, nagging, toys, equality, school…

This brochure presents ideas for creating a special place for a family's reading materials--a"family library"--and for helping children build their own personal collections. The brochure offers a sampling of activities that will help families display and keep track of a growing collection of newspapers, magazines, and books. The brochure…

Students who drop out of school face a difficult future. For students with disabilities, the risks are intensified. Their dropout rate is about 40 percent--more than twice that of their peers without disabilities. However, families can play an important role in making sure their student with or without disabilities graduates. This brief provides…

This brochure discusses why and when to tell stories and tales and where to find them and offers hints on how to tell them well. The brochure also describes storytelling activities that are especially fun for the whole family and others that spin off into reading and writing. (KEH)

The 180 reading tips described in this school calendar are intended for parents to help their children at home. The calendar presents tips for Monday through Friday and for September through May. Among the suggested exercises are the following: (1) sing the ABC song, (2) write five words that begin with B, (3) play a game of Hangman, (4) discuss…

Presents activities for parents to help their children achieve in school. The first activity involves having children create a comfortably furnished space of their own at home for studying. The second involves teaching children to better manage large home and school projects by working through necessary steps. (SM)

This pamphlet provides guidelines for parents in encouraging their daughters to participate in and enjoy athletic activities. Brief discussions are presented on: (1) the value of sport; (2) girls' needs at different age levels; (3) guidelines for supportive behavior; (4) special needs of the female athlete; (5) parent/child/coach relationship; (6)…

This book offers suggestions on what role parents should assume from the time their youngster starts youth sports through recruitment by college coaches. It offers suggestions not only to the parents of gifted athletes but also to parents who have children of average athletic ability. It provides helpful information about parenting young athletes…

Maintaining that working with one's family to decide on purposes, visions, values, and a focus on the future will be a parent's most important leadership activity, these audiotapes and learning guide provide the tools for developing a family mission statement. Tape 1, side A introduces the urgency of a family mission statement, and provides an…

This handbook, developed from the authors' experience working with parents and children in a family literacy program in Niagra Falls, Canada, presents ideas and activities that help family members work together to learn why reading and writing are important and how children learn about literacy. It provides parents with step-by-step instructions…

This packet contains 12 family literacy activities to encourage parents in adult literacy classes in Alberta, Canada to help their children learn to read and write. Each one-page activity provides tips for conducting the activity and information for parents. The following activities are included: (1) read aloud; (2) encourage family activities;…