How To Have Excellent Parent Communications In Less Time

Introduction

Katie McLain, a teacher with 20 years of experience in early childhood education, established her home-based classroom two years ago at the start of the pandemic. Many parents, especially first responders and critical care professionals sought her support for full-time, quality care.

Challenge

State regulations require Katie to be the sole provider on-site. With six children in her care, she has a ton of information about food, health, and education to share with parents. She wrote six notes on paper each day just for food. It was time-consuming for one person to share relevant details with parents manually.

Solution


Katie joined Wonderschool through a pilot program with the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE). She uses the Wonderschool app to photograph what the kids eat. It helps her describe mealtime without losing any details. She also uses the app to log and photograph the children's activities and care needs (i.e., bug spray, play clothes).

‍

Wonderschool is an excellent tool for a provider who works out of their home alone. It condenses everything you need into one app. You can easily loop in families about what children are eating and learning at your program in a matter of minutes.-Katie McLain Program Director, Thrive Early Childhood Family Child Care 
(West Monroe, LA)

Outcome


Katie is now saving hours per week by consolidating her messaging into a single app. TEC parents can see real-time messaging about their children and communicate with Katie in less time without losing any information. TEC has grown in popularity, with an excellent reputation for high-quality care and parent responsiveness.

Director Tips On How To Improve Parent Teacher Communication

1. Use Wonderschool child care management software. This will help you to save time by automatically sending messages about meal time, curriculum, and more.
2. Empathize with the parent and teacher. Parents naturally want to know what is happening in the day, and teachers might need time to send messages as they are busy with the little ones. It's crucial to develop a good communication process for both parties that aims for the ultimate goal of understanding one another.
3. Prioritize types of communications. Some communications are relevant to the day. For example, it's essential each day that parents know what children are eating. But for more in-depth communications, such as long responses or curriculum questions, it might be better to wait a day or two so that teachers and parents can form well-thought-out answers.
4. Let pictures and videos do the talking. Sometimes a photo or video with a short caption is enough to communicate what is happening. Use the power of visuals to do the talking.
5. Never assume a vital message was received. If either parent or teacher has to give an important notice about a child or school policy, it's best to ensure the reader gets the message if possible. Don't be scared to send a follow-up message if need be.
6. Respond even when you don't have the answer. If a teacher or parent has asked a question where the answer is unknown, it's best to respond that 'the message was received', and the recipient will get back to that person.

Wonderschool Technology Benefits

• Communicate with parents more effectively
• Free up time so you can focus on quality and care
• Streamline photos and messages in one app

Improve child care communication in one click

Interested in learning more about how Wonderschool child care management software can help you or your organization? Contact us at www.wonderschool.com/start.

‍