ACTIONN VOICES

                                                           Parent Believer in Home Visits

                                                        Harmony Mcquade Tells Her Story

     I am a proud mother of two wonderful children. My daughter,Danae, is 16 and a junior in high school and my son is 5 yrs old and is in kindergarten.

     Last year was exciting  for us because my son started school for the first time at Kate Smith Elementary. We are a very close family and spend lots of time together . 

     I was a stay at home mom since the day David was born so I was not sure how David was going to react to our separation when school started, but I was hoping for the best! On the first day we were both excited and a little scared all at once. I think I probably stayed for at least an hour on that first day and had to pry David's little fingers from mine when it was time for me to leave. 

     Unfortunately that became a daily struggle for us. It was extremely frustrating and a little embarrassing for me . I would always think  "I wonder what his teacher thinks ? David is so different at home I wish she could see the independent outgoing little boy that I know so well." 

     This went on for about two months. David would come home from school happy and excited to tell me about his day so I knew he was having fun and liked school . I was not sure what to do.

        

     Then his teacher, Ms. Kelly, approached me and asked  if I would be interested in a home visit . I had no idea what a home visit was but I said yes.

     I was not sure why a teacher wanted to come to our home ? Did we do something wrong ? But she assured me that she just wanted to come by to get to know our family better.

     I told David every day leading up to the visit that his teachers were going to come to our house and he was very excited . When Ms. Kelly arrived David was in the front of our house building a bike ramp so that he could show her how he can "get some air" on his scooter. She was so surprised to see how brave and outgoing David was. 

    She came in and to my surprise she just started asking us about our family (what we liked to do for fun on the weekends, our hopes and dreams for David's future etc.) And we talked about me being from Hawaii. She asked if I would be interested in coming to the class to share something about our culture. I always wanted to volunteer but I was not sure how go about it . She made me feel like I was needed and welcomed me to be a volunteer in David's class . By the end of our visit I really felt like we had made a great connection.

       

     When David went to school the next day he seemed so much more comfortable . From that point on he stopped crying when I would drop him off and really became the outgoing kid that I knew he was.

 

    As a parent I think I always kind of assumed that it is the teachers job to teach at school and the parents job to teach at home . And I was a little intimidated by the "Teacher" title . But through the Parent Teacher Home Visit I have learned that teachers are human and that their hopes and dreams are the same as ours. They really just want to teach our children to be smart, happy, confident individuals. And that is pretty AWESOME !!