I really enjoyed a recent article shared by NAEYC and even found a broader use within the context. The article was titled “Engaging Families of Multilingual Learners: Using Families Stories to Link Classroom Content with Children’s Funds of Knowledge”.
No spoiler alert as I won’t walk through the entire article, but the essence was captured well in this passage; “Technology is a helpful tool for learning about families and making home-to-school
connections (Hall & Bierman 2015). Given our experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic and the ways in which technology is so present in our lives, it seems a missed opportunity not to tap commonly used devices (such as cell phones) to creatively and responsively seek and incorporate families’ funds of knowledge. Moreover, creating social and cultural links to everyday lessons is key to building on interests and background knowledge and to achieving language goals for multilingual learners (Méndez et al. 2015).”
While it was specific to multilingual learners, the content works as well in almost any setting. Using technology to connect children – families – learning. Such as a simple short video showing how your family spends time together. We have had recent opportunities with our grandchildren (6 & 2) such as playing 9 holes of golf, my wife took our 6-year-old grandson geocaching, or just a weekend family gathering with all of us together playing, laughing and eating great food.
This is definitely something we want to incorporate into our center’s activities. You can read the full article, “Engaging Families of Multilingual Learners: Using Families Stories to Link Classroom Content with Children’s Funds of Knowledge”. here.
Matt – aka PopPop