Getting involved

Spend time with your child at the service

Your service will encourage you to spend time there on a regular basis, joining in and just having fun. This helps build your relationship with the service, so you can both work together more effectively to support your child’s learning.

Other ways of spending time at the service are:

• parent evenings
• special events
• staying a few extra minutes whenever you can.

Get to know Te Whāriki

ECE services work with Te Whāriki principles, the early childhood education curriculum.

Becoming familiar with Te Whāriki will help you to:

• better understand your child’s learning and development at their ECE service
• feel confident to ask questions and share your views on your child’s learning and development
• recognise all the learning that is happening at home.

Find out more about Te Whāriki.

Support learning between home and service

Your child will learn best when the learning and experiences they have at home are connected with learning at their ECE service.

Talk to your child’s teachers. There are many ways both you and the teachers can support your child’s learning.
These include:

• sharing news about what has happened at home and at the service
• bringing special treasures/taonga from home to share
• displaying things your child makes at the service at home
• sharing photographs between the ECE service and home – of special people, important events and everyday learning.

Some added benefits are:

• parents learn more about how the ECE service runs
• teachers learn more about the wider families/whānau and communities that are part of your child’s life.

Other ways to get involved

• Sharing information about your child’s family history or whakapapa, your family culture and customs with the teachers.
• Visiting the service to share your skills or knowledge with the children, for example cooking, crafts or gardening.