I am so glad so many of you were able to make it to the Back to School Potluck this week. What a wonderful opportunity to make new connections with families and share summer time memories. Informal opportunities like these are enriching to our community in a very particular way. Our School Home Partnership Night on October 1st is a slightly more formal opportunity to get to know other families in the school. School Home Partnership Night is a time to gather tools and resources that will help you in supporting your child’s academic success. In some cases, these tools and resources are directly from the teacher—curriculum information, basic facts about the routines of school, etc. In other cases these tools and resources may come from other parents through discussions and brainstorms. And finally, these tools and resources may come from workshops that teachers are offering on topics that can meet your specific needs as a parent. For example, we will have a workshop that focuses on easing transitions. Some of you will feel this workshop is JUST what you need. Other parents know their children are transitioning just fine, but are more interested in understanding our habits of mind and the role they play in teaching and learning. Most importantly, the night is all about building and sustaining partnerships with you. Look for a flyer next week for more information.
We do provide childcare for this very important evening. Full disclosure—due to the large numbers of children and small amount of space, this childcare includes watching a movie. Of course children can opt out of this, but they will all be together in the cafeteria for the evening. Also, we can only provide childcare for school-aged children.
One way we count on you to support your child’s academic progress is with daily reading. Common sense, backed up by research, strongly indicates that children who read more find greater academic success. If you want your child to meet with academic success, one essential is daily reading. I cannot stress this enough. Reading aloud, reading with your child, talking about what you’re reading—these are all ways to build that reading habit and culture of reading at home. I am committed to having every child in our school have the experience of getting so engrossed in a book that they can’t put it down. If you are not sure how to get this to happen, talk to someone. Talk to a friend, talk to a teacher, talk to a librarian, come to a workshop at School Home Partnership Night. Please—partner with me to nurture a school where every child experiences joy and satisfaction from reading. Every day.
–Katie