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Chapter 11d: Engaging Families Experience It
Joanny: And we ourselves were surprised, because we have other families that are just dying to get in. We've had families we've transferred to center-based that want to go back into the home, and so we tried to really analyze that and say, "What's going on here? What about it, more than just the work is really letting them feel like this is something that they want for themselves?" And I think it's just the fact of the relationship, coming into your home, the natural feel of it, the way they can learn how to, that their home is a learning environment, that they can use the things that they bring to the table to also help their child.
It's like a partnership. We try to let them know that what they're -- that they're the first teachers, that what they're doing in the home, we just try to enhance it. And so it makes them feel like they're the teacher, as well and it brings the other family members to get involved in it as well. I think that's something that sometimes in center-based can get a little lost. But when you have, especially working with immigrant communities, whole families, different generations living together; you know, Grandma's seeing what's going on; Dad is seeing what's going on, and so, the mom is not on her own, trying to say, "I have these new ideas. I have these I have these new ways of thinking of ways to, you know, play with the baby and the other family members listen to it, too, because, you know, a child is raised, we think, by a village. So, in the home-based, you can reach the entire family, I think, in a really broader way.
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