Engagement
Q. How to better know your child’s school?
Recommendations: Go to school site and obtain more information on the school.
Activities:
• Enter the school building and become familiar with the school setting. If possible, participate in volunteer work at the school.
• Know and understand school rules and principles, and guide your children to follow them.
• Ask about specific teaching methods and materials—are the methods based on evidence about what works best in teaching reading or math? Are the science and history textbooks up to date?
• Ask if the school has a Web site and, if so, get the address. School Web sites can provide you with read access to all kinds of information—schedules of events, names of people to contact, rules and regulations and so forth.
U.S. Department of Education. (2002). Helping Your Child Succeed in School.Retrieved from www.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/hyc.html
Q. How to interact with school teachers, principals and other parents?
• Join parent training/education sessions/meetings provided by school. Raise questions and discuss issues with school teachers, principals and other parents.
Parenting Capacity Building
Q. How to handle challenges in parenting?
Recommendations: Seeking for help from teachers, principles, other parents and educational organizations.
Activities:
• Share with teachers and school principal about the challenges you confront, and ask for possible solutions.
• Talk with other parents who know your children or might have similar experiences and are able to suggest ways of dealing with the challenges.
• Join any parent education organizations and bring up your questions and concerns in conversation with them, they may provide suggestions and guidance from a professional perspective.
Q. What are ways to improve your English literacy?
Recommendations: learn English with your child together, and take ESL courses
Activities:
• Invite your children to read English books and have them clarify any words or contents you don’t understand.
• Attend free English as a second language programs and classes provided by community college or public library, such as North Dallas Shared Ministries (http://www.ndsm.org/adult-esl-classes/) and Dallas County Community College District (https://www.dcccd.edu/cd/special-programs/workreadyu/Pages/esl.aspx).
Q. Which professional organizations help to enhance parenting skills?
•Texas Health and Human Services: this association is committed to provide parents with more opportunities to enhance their parenting capacity.
•Texas Foster Family Association (TFFA): this association aims to help, support, educate, motivate, and train all foster/adoptive/kinship families of Texas.
Q. Which professional organization helps to build network for family education?
•Texas Association of Parent Education (TAPE): this association aims to build a network of professionals and paraprofessionals involved in the fields of parent education, parent involvement, and family support.
Q. Which professional organization helps family/child with special needs?
•Texas Parent to Parent (TxP2P): this organization supports children with disabilities, chronic illness, and other special needs by empowering their families to be advocates for them through peer support, resource referral and public awareness.
Q. What are strategies that can enhance my parenting skills?
Recommendations: guiding children to distinguish between right and wrong, express encouragement to children, and regulate children’s behavior.
Activities:
• Set aside a special time daily to help your child to understand what they did right. Also, it is important for you to help them understand anything they did that might be wrong or unacceptable, and guide them to discover solutions to avoid doing wrong or unacceptable things again in the future. Don’t forget to praise your child on the things they do right .
• When showing your sincere encouragment and love to your child, make your encouraging and affective statement more meaningful. For instance, you can say “You did a good job in class today. You answered Ms./Mr./Mrs. ____ question correctly.”
• Set clear rules with your child. When setting rules, it is suggested that you give your child the reason why you and the child both need to follow those rules. After setting the rules, you and your child both need to follow the rules. If you break a rule and your child challenges you, be calm and patiently explain why you needed to break the rule on this occasion.
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