Interview with Dr. Rebecca Palacios

The importance of a preschool education

It's important for parents to know that a preschool education is very important because children need to be with their friends to learn different languages. When we have children in a learning environment in the classroom, the children can explore, create things, and think about things they had never thought about before — because the teacher has the opportunity to use activities in the classroom, such as learning centers, books, different kinds of math and science, and social studies, which all help the children in their education.

A preschool education offers an advantage to children because they come to school when they are small, three and four years. It gives them an opportunity to learn things that other children who don't go to presschool miss. It gives them so many advantages in the skills they learn before arriving in kindergarten and beginning to learn many subjects: to read and learn about music and art, and also all of the academic subjects that children at home won't experience. And this is something parents can do — help their children's teachers with education of the children in the school.

Learning at home

Families at home can do many things to help their children learn. They can do basic things like talk with them, sing with them, and go to the library and check out books to read. They can do simple things like take them outside, play in the garden, look at the grass, look at animals that are growing, and look at things in the natural environment liked the sun, rain, and water. Talking and having conversations is one of the most important things, because what I see as a teacher is that many families say things like, "No! Sit down, be quiet, don't talk, I don't have time now." These things don't help children. And this is an advantage that families give to their children — talking with them, giving them affection, love, and time, which they need because they are learning while they are small.

Families can also go to the grocery store and use that as a lesson: "What do I have here? What are you buying?" The child can imagine: "I am going to the circus." "What can you see at the circus? I see an elephant, what do you see?" When you play with children, this can help the child with reading because when he arrives at kindergarten and first grade, when he is learning to read, he's going to remember what happened first, second, things in order, the characters of a story, the setting of the story, things like that that are very important for reading and to have success as a reader.

Reading at home

When they are at home, parents can help their children with reading, or pre-reading, helping them with the names of the letters, singing the alphabet, singing different stories with them, or telling stories that are told aloud that you learned at home with your families, and giving children the opportunity to retell what you just told them — this develops the memory of the children. Songs can also be used, for example with characters that come out of stories. "Who are they? What happened? Why do you think that happened? What would happened if you were in this story?" Questions about the stories, questions about original stories — these are things that they can also tell you.

Some families say, "Well, I have no education, I didn't go to school, I didn't have a chance to read, but talking with children, singing with the them, looking around, and simply having conversations — it's very important because the more vocabulary they have, the more success they will have in reading programs. They can also use the library, check out free books, and bring them to school to learn with them. Learning with your child at the same time is very important. There are many resources in the schools — they often give classes at school that are free for many families. There are many opportunities at the school to learn with computers, to learn and develop the same language, and to learn reading in a way that will help their children. There are many advantages that the families have that they can use.

One activity families can do is look for books that are very basic. They can see the pictures that are there, they can look and talk about the drawings that are part of the books, and they can look for books that have CDs, and touch and turn the page when they hear the sound for turning the page. They can talk about the book when it is finished, because we know that children need to talk about what they learned, what they saw first, second, third, etc.

The library

One of the most important resources in the community is the library, which has free books. Families simply go and get a card with their name, and they can check out books for children that they can use at home and then return in one or two weeks. And depending on the library and the rules of the library, which you can learn by using it and going there, they have people to read books to children. You can take your child to these activities that the library has that are free and see what more there is for the community, things that the children can see, maybe school activities, learning nights, and you can also participate in the school library, because they are also have resources for parents. For more information, ask your school director — the library is so important!

Math at home

At home there are many things that you can do to help your child learn math. There are calendars, clocks, telephone numbers, and the chance to count things at home. "How many windows are there? We are going to count them. How many cats have we seen pass the house?" Sometimes there are zero. Learning numbers, talking about them, counting, number sequences — you can count the fingers on your hands and sing nursery rhymes, which is important for children. There are many things in the environment of the house that they use numbers for as well: paying the bills of the house — looking at money, dollars, coins. "What they are named? How much they are worth?" You can do these kinds of activities with children at home.

Getting to know your child's teacher

Having a relationship with the teacher is very important for families. The families need the opportunity to ask questions that are important for their family and the teacher, and to help the teacher. Sometimes it's not just a question of what you can learn from the teacher — but things that you can also help the teacher understand: "My child does this at home. Did you know this?" The teacher has to know things like this, because using it what happens at home in the classroom is important for the teacher, to help the child grow in what he is learning. If he is interested in animals at the zoo, the teacher should know so that she uses activities including zoo animals to interest the child and give him an opportunity to grow more as a reader and in his learning.

Sometimes parents have questions about the children if they aren't advancing in their reading or in their language, and they have lots of questions. You always have to go to talk with their teacher. The teacher is the person that knows and sometimes in bilingual programs, there are two teachers. It depends on the program, and if there is a bilingual program, the person that helps your child should be bilingual, but in case the program is totally in English, and the teacher doesn't speak your language, it is important to have someone there that can help you, and someone you trust: a director, assistant, other teacher, someone in your family, someone you trust, a nurse, someone who will help you because sometimes there are serious things that happen at home, and you don't know want everyone to know. So go with someone that you trust and you can be comfortable so they will help you.

Parent-teacher conferences

One of the most important events on the school calendar are the parent-teacher conferences; sometimes you have to go and ask, "Can you talk with me after school? I have something to share with you." It's very important to attend these conferences if you want the conference or if the teacher wants the conference. It's very important that the family goes, that the parents attend this meeting because they are going to share something that is important that you need to know to help your child. That's why this is important and they need you to be there.

Sometimes the family goes and wants information from the teacher, and the children help translate. This isn't a good idea because the children sometimes change the story a little bit and say things that aren't quite accurate so they don't get in trouble. It's important to get the right information from the teacher or an assistant that can help translate important information related to the topic.

Families, when they arrive at school, can be afraid; they are scared of going to the school and they don't feel good about going to the school. I want to tell parents to go to your child's school with confidence — this is something you have to do for your children. If you are present in your child's school, if you are active, if you help them and you see the teacher and school as a team, your child is going to have a lot more success if you are involved. And this something important that you have to remember.

The advangtages of being bilingual

Many families say, "When I am here in the U.S., I only want my children to learn English." This is important for them to learn English, it's an important goal — but they shouldn't forget Spanish or the language at home, because they have to communicate with their family, with their grandparents who maintain the native language. It's very important to maintain the language at home, what they are learning and with English at the same time.

In many places in this country, there are bilingual/dual-language programs, and many families have to look for these programs because there aren't as many as there used to be, but many are excellent and these programs have instruction in 2 languages, for example, in English and Spanish and children are learning in 2 languages. It's very important that the families look for these programs because they can help children; research says that these programs are successful because children can learn in their native language and then begin to learn English at the same time. This is very important to see when they are looking for programs for children.