I'm excited to share a new series: Fresh on Friday, Free Til Monday. When I have new products in my store, I will post an update here on Friday and leave the item FREE until Monday. Today I'm here to share 2 new resources over on my TPT store for reaching out to parents!
Door Hangers
One of the principals I work with gave me the idea of creating door hangers to leave on family's doors when they are not home for a home visit. I really love home visits, I think it gives me a chance to really connect with a family. I have frequently been to apartments and houses that look like good places to live that have not a single stick of furniture inside. You can't always judge a book by it's cover so here are a few things I look for in a home visit:
I often get asked if I make unannounced or scheduled home visits. I do both. If I have a family who doesn't have a car, I might drive out to their house to deliver resources or bring a paper that needs to be signed. If a child misses a lot of school or they are sick and we can't reach anyone, I will make unannounced home visits. Of course, even with scheduled home visits we find no one home when we arrive. To leave a friendly message, I created these door hangers in English and Spanish.
The purpose of home visits is to make a connection with the family. I am careful to follow their norms in their home: take off shoes if they do, accept water or a snack, be polite. It's a blessing to be invited into someone's home and we should honor that.
- Is there food visible? If the kitchen looks really bare, the family made be food-insecure.
- Is there bedding in the living room? I have had many kids who sleep on the living room couch because they don't have a bed. This might explain why they're often tired at school.
- How do the adults interact? How do the adults interact with the children? How do the children interact?
I often get asked if I make unannounced or scheduled home visits. I do both. If I have a family who doesn't have a car, I might drive out to their house to deliver resources or bring a paper that needs to be signed. If a child misses a lot of school or they are sick and we can't reach anyone, I will make unannounced home visits. Of course, even with scheduled home visits we find no one home when we arrive. To leave a friendly message, I created these door hangers in English and Spanish.
The purpose of home visits is to make a connection with the family. I am careful to follow their norms in their home: take off shoes if they do, accept water or a snack, be polite. It's a blessing to be invited into someone's home and we should honor that.
Book Clubs
I've written a lot about my book clubs for parents. You can check it all out here. One of the biggest barriers to starting a new parent book club is reading the book and creating the discussion guide. I can't read the book for you but I have created a powerpoint discussion guide for The Whole Brain Child by Daniel Siegel. This is a wonderful book and the discussion guide would work for both parent and staff book clubs or even a professional development. I think you could easily lead the discussion for people who have not read the book (but you will need to!). You can get the 27 page powerpoint in my TPT store.
Free til Monday!
Both of these products will be free on TPT until Monday, April 20th. If you download the freebie, please leave feedback. Thanks for your support!
