Building a Brighter Future
Ready for School program helps parents take an active role
in their child’s learning process.

A child’s learning starts at home, long before he or she ever sets foot in a classroom. Parents can help prepare their little ones for the structured school environment by participating in activities with their children, from imaginary role playing to games with rules to simple conversation and storytelling. However, parents from South and Central America and Mexico grew up in cultures that don’t promote many parent-guided activities like these.

Wilmington Park Elementary School, where 1,150 students fill classes from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade, has been working with Little Company of Mary Community Health and the Ready for School program for three years in an effort to address the problem from the start and increase active participation from the parents.

Alina Bueno Nadsady, who manages the program’s promotoras (community health promoters), explains that the goal is to “help parents realize that they are their kids’ first teachers and need to be more actively involved in preparing them for school.” Increased parental involvement, plus a greater familiarization with cultural expectations and the English language, will enable our youngest students to be better prepared to handle the academic challenges from the start.

 
The five promotoras assist with many aspects of a family’s home environment and the child’s readiness for school: case management; home visits; health care insurance enrollment assistance; social services; nutrition; safety; discipline; prenatal care; the importance of creative and structured play; ESL classes for the parents; and reading groups for the kids.   Continue »

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