To support and enhance family engagement, providers can consider the following:

  • Creating a welcoming family child care environment by greeting families during hellos and goodbyes, hanging welcome signs on the door, posting caregiver photos and information, hanging a board to post information about community and program events
  • Providing a comfortable space in your program for families to observe or participate with their children while in your program
  • Ways to get involved in the community and learn about different cultural backgrounds of the children and families they support
  • Asking families how they prefer to receive information and consider different ways to communicate with families on a regular basis and prepare written materials in the home languages of families they support
  • Ways to gather information from families and learn about what is important to them, such as using surveys or creating a question-and-answer section on a program website
  • Opportunities for families to be involved in decision-making and voice their opinions
  • Opportunities for families to volunteer and spend time in the family child-care setting:
    • Share a favorite family song or dance
    • Read a favorite family story in their home language
    • Create a family fun area in the care setting where families can spend time playing and learning with their children
  • Supporting a family meeting or family night by suggesting:
    • 家庭聚集在一个常规的基础nce a month or quarter
    • Meeting or session topics (learning a new language class, stress management for adults, first aid, infant and toddler safe sleep)
    • Community members or speakers to help with topics
    • A space where these meetings can take place, if outside your program is preferred
    • Possibly including families from other family child-care programs in the meetings
  • Providing families with activities and materials to use at home or in the community; consider recording routines and interactions during the day within the family child-care that families can watch, learn about, and use at home