Recently, we received feedback from parents that they’d like to include dads in their child’s preschool life. We wholeheartedly agreed, so we gave a 2-week period, during which the dads were welcome to drop in and take part in a hand painting exercise with their child (painting each others’ hands), which we later turned into a father’s day present.  The exercise only took 10 minutes, so busy dads could make it in at any point during the two weeks. For those that couldn’t make it, we sent paint home for them and they returned the dried hand prints to us.

We had a great response; we were flexible and so were our Dads. We allowed them all to participate and ensured those that couldn’t had an alternative so they didn’t feel guilty.  This led to further conversations with the fathers about what they did for a living and allowed the children to learn more (one dad brought his tip truck in and let the kids climb all around and over it).

I think it’s important to remember that as preschool teachers we aren’t alone – the parents really love to get involved and help the children’s education and are really generous with their time and effort if you simply ask. After all, it is for the children. This was a really fantastic exercise for us, but it would never have happened if we hadn’t put out the survey in the beginning.