Welcoming Families From Around the World

Working in an Early Childhood Setting I'm informed that I will have a new member in our class, a little girls that just arrived to the United States coming from "Morocco", a country that I know nothing about. Luckily I have the opportunity to research as much as possible about their culture before the child come to my classroom, the first thing I would do is to meet with the staff of my center that did that first contact with the family. They can share as much information as possible with me in order for me to understand the situation of the family. Since I ignore all aspects of the Morocco culture I will start by researching the superficial aspect of the culture such as food, traditions, clothing and language, language would be one the most important aspects that I need to consider. communication is the key element and I would need to know the basic language spoken, in order to create a list of words that I could use to communicate with the child and their parents.

Once I have a more clear understanding thanks to the support of these resources I would arrange a home visit just as any other child coming to my classroom, in order to establish our initial contact, during this visit I will share with the parents a little about myself and  then ask them to share a little about themselves. With this I would get a better picture of their experiences in their country as well as their needs, goals and fears.

Then with the information I obtained from my research as well as the information the parents shared  I can actually put all these pieces together to get a better understanding of their culture and find ways to engage, support and welcome the child and the family to our program just as I do with all the children and families I serve. By creating an atmosphere where they can feel represented and valued just as any other, by having materials such as books or pictures is another way of making them feel welcomed ad represented in our classroom. I hope with this to be able to engage not only with the child, but with the parent as well, to make them feel welcomed and appreciated. To learn and share from our differences as a way of growing in knowledge with the main purpose or goal as to help their child grow and develop to their fullest potential.