From Parents to Partners: Building a Family-Centered Early Childhood Program

by Janis Keyser

With effective communication as its theme, From Parent to Partner explores the reasons and basis for developing ongoing partnerships with parents and families of children in childcare settings and provides the tools and strategies to build the support network within which these partnerships thrive.

155 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Tony Laplume · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I’ve been reading material that’s been sitting in the training room, and it’s been a mixed bag. This is another one that was basically a waste of time.

Too often books and/or material like this are too clinical. The sample conversations, for instance, in how conversations can go productively, in the real world, would elicit very different results. People can generally tell when you’re being phony, following a script (I had a job for a few months following terrible scripts, I should know). Most of it feels like it’s a bad essay some college kid filled with filler, having no idea how else to complete the assignment.

Some of my criticism isn’t really to do with the book itself, but its selection for my particular setting. It’s the kind of book that tries desperately to be applicable to all possible settings and ages, which makes it less valuable when paired with a particular setting and specific expectations. But these books are mostly props in the training room, that I never see the trainers recommend much less read by anyone, which is half the reason I set out to explore them in recent months (I just started a fourth one, which is less about settings and more on an actual topic, which was what made the first one so valuable), to see if there was anything worth reading there.

But to the book’s failings are added the omission of the chief obstacles I’ve certainly encountered, which is the coworker variable, whether their very presence (if they elicit different conversations with parents that aren’t always shared) affects results or if they choose to behave irresponsibly (whether by design or accident).

The clinical world Keyser inhabits doesn’t have much more than established talking points inhabiting it, very little of practical applications to the real world. Bizarrely it backtracks, at the end, by finally introducing such irrelevant topics as introductions between teacher and parent.

Anyway, if you can get past any of that, it’s of course a relatively decent reminder at how crucial this work is in understanding the scope of this business, that you’re taking on the whole family, not just the child.

I think it could be better summarized thusly: You can’t force good relationships, but surely it’s better to try, in everyone’s best interests, and be honest about it. Fake will get you in the door, but it’ll produce the opposite results in the long run. Being professional doesn’t sound so good if that’s where it leads. Just try to be human.

[Etney Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for school and really enjoyed it. I read the second edition which takes inspiration from Reggio Emilia and it really opened my eyes in terms of effective communication with parents and families. I learned a lot from reading this book and am planning to share it with my school’s director in the hopes of implementing a more family-based practice!

[olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this for my ECE class on communicating with families. this was sooo helpful, not even just as a future educator but as a current nanny/babysitter.

if you struggle in general with communicating with the caretakers of the child under your care, this book provides a lot of insight and help into how to create a positive relationship between you and them.

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reminders about how parents are partners with teachers.