Parent Helpers

Parent Helpers are Essential

At Busy Bees Kindergarten, the family is considered an integral part of each child's educational and social development. We encourage and welcome parental participation in the classroom.

Who Benefits and How?

The Children

Having a parent visit the school and spend time with the children makes them feel important. It also shows them that their school must have value to the parents if they make time to attend. Therefore, a child learns from an early age the importance of school. 
Children get more adult attention. The lower adult-to-child ratio means that the students get more conversation time with a variety of adults. This helps to build their confidence and develop their communication skills.
The children gain a greater sense of identity and independence. Young children are discovering their own identity and learning to do things by themselves. Having parents actively involved (not just as observers) helps to create a sense of community. Children come to know adults other than their parents, which helps them learn to interact with more people, males and females from different countries. This broadening experience helps children to become comfortable and confident with a wide range of adults, which will help them tremendously when they go on to primary school.
The students are exposed to, and gain an appreciation for, different cultures. We are lucky to be part of a culturally diverse community. When parents share their culture, language and other information about their country, it broadens the children's horizons. It hopefully instills in them a respect and curiosity about people who are different from them.

The Parents

Parents can see first-hand what their child is doing at school. This gives them a better idea of the school's curriculum and how they can encourage and support their child at home. 
Parents can build up good relationships with the teachers. They can then feel more comfortable approaching them about their children. 
Parents can see how their child participates in the classroom activities. When a parent spends time in the classroom, they gain a greater understanding of the demands school life can have on their child. They can then help their child adapt to school life more easily. 
Parents meet their child's classmates and see how their child interacts with other children at school. When a parent sees how their child socialises, they get a better picture of their child as a whole human being. They come to know the other important people in their child's life, so they can understand their child's development better.

The Teachers

Having extra hands to help during special events, like our Open Day or garage sale, is a big help to our teachers! Some special events would not be possible without the help of our wonderful parent volunteers.
The increased child-to-adult ratio allows the teachers to provide a more diverse range of activities and have more one-on-one time with students. 
The teachers can get to know the child's parents better, which helps them to understand the child as a whole. 
Teachers and parents have more opportunities to communicate with one another and pass on important information.