Teaching Parents?

On Friday, several of the behavior management techniques came into use. I tried the technique of just being quiet until the kids noticed, and started to pay attention again. Making eye contact with them, when they start looking around seemed to be helpful. The one thing that I was glad about, that despite the difficulty of always trying to work at getting their attention. I really enjoyed the day, I was energized by being with the children.

The one thing, that in retrospect made me ponder about the day and wonder what to do next time, was the way that one of the parents gave answers to their child. I am not sure how long the parent was doing this, I became aware of it about half way through the stations. I didn't address the issue, and I just moved on to the next thing. I am still not certain how I could of/should of addressed it. Laura, I am certain was referencing this incident in her e-mail to all of us. Her suggestion was to ask parents to not answer up front. This would certainly solve the problem, however, I do want parent involvement in behavior management. I don't want any of them to feel that they are not welcomed to participate, that their isn't anyway in which they can contribute to the learning process of the day. How then do we keep in mind, that while our focus is on the children, we are environmental educators. Perhaps I am an idealist, I believe that we can utilize tools to help to teach parents as well, I am just not sure that I have figured out what those tools exactly are yet.