Parents

PARENT CONNECTION

The Parent Connection is a group of parents who assist the staff at Children's TLC in the organization of workshops, social activities and group fund-raisers. This organization is open to all parents of children at Children's TLC. Parents may choose to participate, as they desire. Families participate in activities such as: Back to School Night, December Holiday Party, Summer Picnic and several annual fund-raisers and Educational Workshops. A parent from the Parent Connection serves on the Children's TLC board.

 

Parent and Community Education

Children's TLC is committed to working with parents and community members through parent workshops, social events, conferences, family support groups, and parent-teacher communication.

 

Parent Workshops

Recently, Children's TLC has offered a number of workshops to family members about topics including: positive parenting, discipline and behavior, easy IEP and transition process, learning responsibility, childcare issues, community resources, sign language, toys around the house and transition at age 3 and 5. These workshops and others are offered to all families at Children's TLC. Childcare is provided as well as snacks. Focus groups on specific topics are formed as needed to address one-time issues.

 

Social Events

Opportunities to meet and talk with other parents are very important especially when a child in the family has special needs. Children's TLC hosts several social activities throughout the year for all families. These include: Back to School night, December holiday party and the summer picnic. Families have an opportunity to watch their children perform, meet other families and enjoy good food.

 

Conferences

Children's TLC periodically hosts conferences and training for professionals and parents within the community. Recent topics included: play based assessment, aquatic therapy, issues in early childhood intervention and "A Day in the Life". In addition, Children's TLC hosted a Regional conference November 9 & 10, 2001.

 

Parent-Teacher Communication

Children's TLC has many ways to communicate with families. These include monthly bulletins and calendars of activities, semi-annual parent conferences, daily progress notes, quarterly updates of goals and objectives and agency newsletters. Additional opportunities for communication are scheduled as needed. Children's TLC has observation rooms for each classroom where parents can observe teachers and therapists working with their child as well as meet other parents.

 

December Holiday Party

Families gather to celebrate the December holidays with staff from Children's TLC. This is a fun evening filled with entertainment by the children, holiday foods, meeting new and old friends and seasonal merriment.

 

Back to School

The annual Back to School night kicks off the new school year. Families are invited to come to the Center, meet their children's teacher and therapists and see their child's classroom. This is an opportunity to meet other parents in an informal setting. Working family members can come by the school for an after hours activity. Classroom teams can share with parents class activities and discuss upcoming learning opportunities.

 

Summer Picnic

The school year ends with a summer picnic. Families gather at Loose Park to celebrate the end of the school year. The Parent Connection provides the meat and drinks for this wonderful pot-luck evening. Entertainment and activities are provided and the evening concludes with the children singing and performing. The first gathering of the Alumni Group will be at the July 2002 picnic.

 

Fund-Raising

The Parent Connection collects Best Choice labels for which Children's TLC receives cash for every 1,000 labels collected.