We support parents with workshops on how to keep their children healthy, safe, and ready to start school with the cognitive, social, and emotional skills needed to learn. Parenting programmes that, like ours, empower caregivers with skills for warm, positive parenting are shown to be effective at reducing risk and allowing children to thrive (click here to access the research).

What we do

Our current Parent Education Workshops, aimed at (parents of) children aged 3-6 years, are delivered by the qualified teachers of ILM and raise topics such as stimulation in the home, Waste4Toys training, early literacy, health and hygiene and positive parenting.

The goals of the workshops are to:

  • Integrate with existing family support and educational systems;
  • Target caregivers of younger and disadvantaged children;
  • Provide high quality and meaningful information to caregivers;
  • Blend traditional child-rearing practices and cultural beliefs with evidence-based approaches;
  • Provide parents with education and support to promote caregiving behaviours – e.g. role play to improve parent – child interactions.

Our Parent Workshops focus on two key areas; understanding their child’s development and appropriate responses and life skills that while they may not seem directly related, can enhance the parent’s ability to parent.

What we’ve achieved so far

The workshops typically achieve over 50% attendance, which is high for the area, and in turn, we see improved school attendance of their children.

My granddaughter is at Ikhaya Labantwana Montesorri (ILM), I sent my first three children to ILM so that their brains can be open. My wish is for my children to get to where I could not get in terms of education. At ILM, they have parents workshops where the parents are taught not to tell children what to do but to let them do things of their own will. The independence that the children learn at ILM teaches them freedom of choice and [to] not let parents choose for them. I wish that the Montessori people can teach the local people the new ways of doing things and stop doing them the way they used to be in the olden days.

Gloria: parent and grandparent at Ikhaya Labantwana Montesorri

We still want to…

We would like to expand this to facilitate other pre-schools to deliver similar workshops.

Why we do what we do

  • If children are to develop to their full potential, ongoing parental support is essential.
  • Parents worldwide face tremendous obstacles and often do not have the skills, knowledge or resources to raise children to their full potential.

Source: UNICEF

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