Don’t Stress Over Preschool Parent Teacher Conferences

You’re in the middle of making dinner ready when your phone dings. It’s an email from your preschooler’s teacher. Uh oh… A meeting? What could be wrong? Now your mind is all over the place… and, wait…what’s that smell?

Read these tips to having a stress free parent teacher conference, so the next time your phone dings during dinner, you don’t end up scraping burned spaghetti out of a pan while ordering pizza delivery.

PREPARE QUESTIONS

This is a great opportunity to ask questions about your child’s time in preschool. The more prepared you are, the more you will benefit from a parent teacher conference. Here’s some questions you can ask in order to get a better understanding of how your child’s time in preschool is going.

• How is my child doing socially? Are they interacting with others, sharing, and joining in on games and other activities with classmates?
• How is my child doing emotionally? Do they seem happy during class? Are there any behaviors happening during class that I should know about?
• Does my child have a favorite activity to do during class?
• Does my child follow rules?
• Does my child seem engaged during class?
• Are there any activities my child doesn’t enjoy doing?
• What can I do at home to help strengthen any skills my child needs extra help with?

You may want to talk to your child before your meeting and ask them some questions about how they feel about school to get a better understanding of specific areas to discuss. You can ask your preschooler things like:

• What is your favorite thing about school?
• What do you dislike about school?
• What do you like about your teacher?
• Who is your best friend?
• Is there anyone you don’t like to play with? Why?

HAVE OPEN COMMUNICATION

It’s important to have open communication with your preschooler’s teacher in order to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Provide Information

If your preschooler’s teacher isn’t aware of any situations going on in your child’s life that may make a difference in their usual performance at school, then they can’t help. Knowing what a child is dealing with outside of school can help a teacher understand sudden behavioral changes, and implement the best ways to help your child cope while in school.

You don’t have to go in to details about your personal life, but it may be worth mentioning mentioning big life events such as:

Receive Feedback

It’s equally important to be open to hearing what your child’s teacher has to say, and remember they only want to help. If your preschooler’s teacher brings up any concerns to you, then it’s in the best interest of your child. Remember that your child’s teacher is your teammate in your child’s education, and wants to work with you to ensure your child is getting the most out of their time in school.

Your preschooler’s teacher may point out areas where your child could use improvement, and that’s completely okay! Knowing about any struggles your preschooler is having will give you the opportunity to help find a way to improve their experience in school.

MAKE A PLAN

You and your preschooler’s teacher are able to use this time to come up with a plan that works best for your child. You may find out that your preschooler is bored during class and want to consider advancing him to kindergarten or providing more of a challenge, or you may find out that your preschooler could use some help at home working on a certain skill.

Whatever you and your preschooler’s teacher discuss, it’s important to be on the same page about your child’s development, and how you will both continue to support that development. If your preschooler could benefit from a little extra practice with kindergarten readiness skills, check out our article KINDERGARTEN READINESS ACTIVITIES TO PREPARE YOUR PRESCHOOLER.