Meet an EOCF family whose involvement in Early Head Start and engagement opportunities strengthened their lifelong bonds, thanks to EOCF’s preschool programs and family support services.
Resources & Reliability
“This family has had two children in the program, when I first met them in 2021 through the home based program, their daughter Valeska was experiencing big emotions and Mom and Dad didn’t know how to manage them. I shared social emotional resources and helped Mom to understand more about child development and what is normal for 2 1/2. Together we came up with ideas to help their day to day struggles and prepare Valeska for preschool that fall. A year later, I got baby Ian on my caseload. Being in the program earlier has allowed Mom to learn all about child development from the start and Ian is growing up curious and surpassing his milestones.
With our weekly focus of bringing books in Spanish, and Mom’s engaging reading style, we have instilled a love of books in 10 month old Ian. He lets his Mom know that he wants to sit in her lap and read stories. He listens and interacts for as many stories as Mom will read. Mom and Dad make sure the home/school connection is present by attending our events and group socializations. Mom comes home with new activity ideas, recipes and tips for how to help her children learn. Mom participates in planning meetings, gave PC a try and recently volunteered to talk to our federal reviewers on the strengths of EOCF.
When Valeska comes home wanting to sing a song she learned at school, Mom asks the staff for a list of all the songs they sing, so she can learn them and they can do it together at home. Mom says that because of EOCF they are better parents then they used to be. They love that we promote family values and give opportunities to have fun together as a family. Mom likes it when I share community resources and happenings. They have attended things in the community they didn’t know existed until the resources were shared with them.”
Story Shared By: Jess Brown, EHS Home-Based Child & Family Educator