Program Evaluation

Effects of Pre-Planned Activities with Preschool Aged Children and their Families

By: Rebeckah Anderson

Abstract

Parents are typically faced with challenges that make it hard to spend quality time with their families. Work hours can interfere with day to day operations of family schedules and parents find themselves struggling to come up with different activities to do with their children. The purpose of this study was to determine how much time parents spend with their children and whether pre-planned activities helped to increase their participation with their children. The research for this study was conducted in Central Virginia Head Start programs with families whose children aged 3-5, attended one of the programs. We used a mixed methods analysis where parents were asked multiple open-ended and close-ended questions on a paper and pen survey, that was then distributed to the children to give to their parents by the local Head Start teachers. Qualitative questions where included to see how families felt about the activities. Quantitative questions where used to figure out overall satisfaction with each of the activities and to gain insight into their family dynamics. Through this survey, we had a 52% response rate. We found that parents felt that pre-planned activities allowed them to spend more time together, helped increase their parental involvement with their children, and how these activities allowed them to get the whole family involved. Parents who completed each activity and the survey, showed that these activities are beneficial in staying involved with their children.

Introduction

Parents struggle with busy work schedules that make it challenging to stay involved with their child’s academics. Studies by Patall, Cooper, and Robinson (2008), show that parents can get involved in different ways with their children’s academics, however, not all of these options are always feasible for working families. The purpose of this study was to figure out whether pre-planned activities allowed parents to get more involved with their children. Though we used pen and paper surveys, and had a decent response rate, not all parents completed and returned the survey. This made it challenging to determine if parents who did not complete the survey, completed the activities. It is important to continue research in this area because it would make it easier for schools to help get parents of their students involved more with their child’s academics.

Literature Review

A parent’s involvement in their child’s education has proven to be more beneficial for the child’s academic success, as opposed to parents who do not participate in their child’s academics. By children having the support of their parents through their academic careers, children’s confidence in themselves and their schooling can be higher than those who might not have received the same support. Each family has different ways of supporting their children through their educational achievements, however, those who opt for the more traditional way of parent involvement seem to have higher rates of success. The traditional parent involvement model includes parents who go to parent teacher conferences, have time to volunteer at the school, and even assist their children in homework and projects (Anderson and Minke, 2007). Parent involvement in education has been essential for the success of children in academic settings.

Parent participation in their child’s academic development is essential for the child. Parent involvement takes place in many aspects such as being involved with communicating with the school, volunteering, and helping in making decisions for the school (Patall, Cooper, and Robinson, 2008). According to Stone (2006), there are 3 different types of parent participation. This can include basic development, health and communication needs, and collaboration with the schools. By being involved in these aspects, parents are putting in the effort to help their children succeed (Stone, 2006). Parents who are more inclined in staying active in their child’s academics, helps their children succeed more than parents who don’t participate. DePlanty, Coulter-Kern, and Duchane (2007) agree that parent involvement is important, but also point out that parents who had a more successful and supported academic career, are more likely to help their children out than parents who did not receive a better education, thus potentially creating a cycle of non-participating parents (DePlanty, Kern, and Duchane, 2007). While parent involvement is important, others argue that it is not the determining factor for a child’s success.

According to Izzo, Weissburg, Kasprow, and Fendrich (1999), “Although current research suggests that building more productive collaboration between parents and schools is a promising primary prevention approach for enhancing children’s well-being, many issues still need to be clarified to understand the association between these variables better “(pg. 818). They’re saying that parents and schools need to worktogether in order to achieve the success they’re looking for with their students. They believe that by forming stronger parent-teacher connections, students will achieve more academically, however there are some issues that need to be researched more thoroughly before taking this step. Doucet (2011) also argues that parent involvement has been a key factor to success, but can be seen as overrated. Parent involvement is not the only determining factor for children’s academic success (Doucet, 2011).

Schools like to see parents staying involved in their child’s academics outside of the classroom. Anderson and Minnke (2007) say that “General opportunities and demands are characterized as generic invitations from the child and the school, which indicate that the parent’s involvement is desirable and valued” (pg. 312). Many schools like to see parents remaining involved with the school to show that they are interested in their child’s success in the classroom. In order to help parent’s stay active with the school, many are providing programs to help parents stay involved with their children’s academics. Doreen Mattingly, Radmilla Prislin, Thomas McKenzie, James Rodriguez and Brenda Kayzar (2002) did a study on different involvement programs that they assessed to see how effective they were. They found that these programs had been successful in changing parent behavior towards their child’s academics. Deloatche, Klug, Ogg, Kromrey, and Wheat (2014), did a study at a head-start program where they provided parents with the knowledge of how important it was to read to your child every night (p. 274). They found that by doing so, this helped parents see how important it was to participate in their child’s education and helped foster an active role for the parents (Delatche, Klug, Ogg, Komrey, and Wheat, 2014). Overall these studies found that parents who were educated and helped in understanding and participating in their child’s educations, found higher levels of participation from parents. Parent support in their children’s academics are beneficial in helping their child succeed academically. Each family has different means in being involved with their children’s schooling whether it be by participating in school events, or reading with their child each night. Studies show that participation is helpful in children’s academic success.

Study Design and Sample

Using surveys, we studied 86 families in three rural Southern Virginia counties whose children, aged 3-5, attended the local Head Start program in their area in order to find how parents stay involved in their child’s academic studies. The study contained questions about activities that had been prepared for the family to participate in outside of the child’s classroom. These activities were given to the child from the Head Start teachers to be taken home. There was a total of 5 activities, all age appropriate for pre-school aged children. Though we knew how many families would be participating in the study, we were unsure of who would be completing the surveys making the sample anonymous. These surveys allowed researchers the opportunity to see how families who work long hours engage with their children outside of the classroom based on pre-prepared activities that were sent home. However, the end of the survey did contain questions about demographics and different family characteristics. Our overall response rate was 52%.

Procedure

We attached a $5 gift card as an incentive to complete and return the survey. The survey had both open-ended and close-ended questions, resulting in a mixed methods analysis. The activities to be completed throughout the week were prepared by a group of students and included every material that would be needed to complete the activity. They were then given to each Head Start program involved in the study, and were given out by the teachers to the students to bring home and complete the following week. There was one activity for each day. The surveys were in a paper and pen format, given to the children to bring home to their parents along with the last activity to be completed. Before beginning this study, the researchers received an IRB.

 Survey Measures

In order to gather data to research the question, “Will planned activities given to families with pre-school aged children in the Head Start programs around central Virginia, help assist the interest and involvement of parents in their child’s academic progress?”, researchers created a survey to go along with the activities that had been planned for the families. Some of these questions included close-ended questions about the individual activities such as, “How long did it take you and your child/children to complete the activity?” and “Was the activity effective in engaging your child/children?”, both of which were included in multiple activity questions such as Thankful Turkey activity and were given a set of yes, no, and unsure answers to choose from. To gain individual insight from each family, we included open-ended questions such as “Please explain what your family gained from these activities. How will you use what you gained in the future, and “Do you think that being provided with pre-planned activities increased the amount of fun you got to spend with your family after school? Please explain.”. Both questions were placed with lines underneath them to encourage a response.

Analysis

With an overall response rate of 52%, we were able to enter the data into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 25) to examine the responses of the surveys. Quantitative data included answers from the close-ended questions in order to gain insight onto the actual activities themselves. Themes that trended between each family concluded that families found the pre-planned activities to be helpful when trying to participate with their children. With the open-ended questions, qualitative responses gave more insight into what each family considered to be parent involvement and how much time they could dedicate to their child and their academics.

Qualitative Research Data Analysis

We received and analyzed thirty-five Family Fun Time surveys from different Central Virginia Counties whose child or children, aged 3-5, were attending the local Head Start program. These surveys showed that families between the different counties all shared similar ideas including how important having family fun time was. Many families showed through their responses that by having pre-planned activities to do allowed them to spend more time together, helped increase their parental involvement with their children, and how these activities allowed them to get the whole family involved.

When asked the question on the Family Fun Time survey “Please explain what your family gained from these activities. How will you use what you gained in the future?”, Respondent 5 stated “Our family could bond. We learned that we can learn and have fun at the same time”. Respondent 7 also felt that these activities

provided family time. “We enjoyed sitting down together doing the activity as family. He felt like a big boy doing homework and making something with his own hands. We will allow him to do more activities”. Both

respondents described how the activities allowed them to spend more time together and bond. Another respondent noted that these activities were beneficial and could continue to be used again in the future. Respondent 11 responded to the same question with, “fun learning activities that we can keep playing in the future”. These activities can help continue to promote quality family time in the future which could help increase their involvement with their children and family.

Increasing parental involvement through pre-planned activities could help families who struggle with time to be involved with their children through engaging activities. Question two on the Family Fun Time Surveys asked respondents “Do you think that being provided with pre-planned activities increased the amount of fun time you got to spend with your family after school? Please explain.”. Respondent 11 states that “yes: it was something that we made time for- we don’t always get that chance”. Respondent 13 found that these activities allowed them an easier way to participate and be involved with their child. “Yes, because I didn’t have to look for things to do or go to the store to buy supplies. I don’t have transportation”. These respondents showed that these pre-planned activities allowed parents to be more involved with their children and got the opportunity to spend more time to spend with the family without having to stress about finding something for the family to participate in.

These activities also aimed to involve the entire family.  Respondent 13 answered the question “Please explain what your family gained from these activities. How will you use what you gained in the future?”, by stating that “we were together doing these activities: my brother, me, and my son. We don’t usually do these kinds of things together. I want to continue doing things together. My son was happy and it was fun”. Respondent 19 also had a positive family experience by stating “yes, everyone wanted to participate and help”. These respondents showed that family members other than just the parents and children were involved in the activities. They were able to come together and spend time with each other in order to create a fun family environment.

Families were able to gain more fun time together, get the whole family involved, and helped to increase parental involvement with their children through these activities. Having pre-planned activities were beneficial

to families with children in the Head Start program and allowed them to get more involved with their families as seen through the respondent’s answers. Many similarities show that families enjoyed having pre-planned activities in order to get the family involved.

Quantitative Research Data

Of the 86 Family-Fun time surveys that were sent out, 34 respondents sent back completed or partially completed surveys, for an overall response rate of 39.53%. Of these 34 respondents, the data concluded that many families felt as though these activities benefited their family in some way. Having pre-planned activities allowed more family members to get involved, as well as improve the parent’s relationship with the child.

When asked the question, “During a typical week, how many hours do you work?”, 34 respondent’s answers averaged to 31.2 hours a week. Of the 34 replies, a majority of the parents claimed to work 40-hour work weeks. Many parents work full time jobs during the week which could allow for less family fun time. The hope that the pre-planned activities could help increase family fun time seemed to help improve relationships with their child or children through at least one activity, the Animal Dice activity.

The Animal Dice activity strived to help increase family involvement by creating an activity that allowed parents, children, and other family members to get involved in an educational but fun game. The respondents, if the game had been completed, were asked “On a scale of 0-10, how much did this activity help to improve you and your child’s/children’s relationship? (0= Not at all, 10= Very much)”.  Over 95% of replies showed the parents had circled a 5 or higher. A majority of parents felt that this activity did in some way help increase their relationship with their child.

In terms of pre-planned activities helping to increase family-fun time based off of the Animal Dice activity, parents felt that having this activity did help to improve their parent and child relationships. While most parents worked at least 40 hours a week, they were still able to increase their family-fun time and improve their relationship with their child by participating in this activity.

Overall, data seems to support that by having pre-planned activities to participate in at home, helps to improve parent involvement with their children’s academic studies. At least 8 parents who worked 40 hours a week stated that this activity did help to improve their relationship with their child. Parents work long hours and by giving them activities that are already laid out for them, helps to keep parental involvement steady.

Table 1

The Mean, Median, and Mode of Hour Worked by Participating Parents­­

Note. These are based on 34 Respondents answers.

Table 2

Responses to Increase Parent Relationship from Animal Dice Game

Note. These are based on 34 respondents.

Table 3

Comparing Work Hours of Parents to Pre-Planned Activities in Improving relationship with Child

Note. These are based on 34 respondents.

Conclusion

Overall, we found that parents did see an improvement with being involved in their children’s academic success when given pre-planned activities. Data shows that the amount of work hours compared to how they felt the Animal Dice activity improved their relationship with their child, that higher work hours had a higher improved relationship number. Increasing parental involvement in children’s academics, is important especially in families that work long hours. By creating activities for families to participate in without having to do much preparation, allows families to spend more time with their children while also engaging in academic activities. The purpose of this study was to see if pre-prepared activities helped parents get involved with their children’s academic. By using surveys we were able to gain data straight from the participants themselves to see what worked for them and what didn’t. We found that most parents did enjoy having pre-planned activities to do with their children. It’s important to keep researching how parents stay involved with their children to see what can be done to help improve that relationship for parents who work and have busy schedules. Continuing to involve parents with their children’s academics, can allow for a more successful academic future for that child.

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