Capturing The Hearts of New Parents
Kendra Flemming
Big Idea – When parents walk in we want them to sense you had them in mind with everything you do.
Key Thoughts –
Creating the environments
Parents are rarely in your class – Impressions are made by your physical space. Needs to be neat and clean.
If you make a negative impression in preschool they will not leave their kids with you.
Finding the right People
Focus on the kids – You have a chance today to make an impression on each child as to who God is.
Significant events in their lives –
New parents have a lack of confidence about what they are about to face.
Now is the time to capture these parents because they want do parenting right.
Preschool years is the time to help parents because kids are forming habits.
Questions I need to ask myself –
– Am I reaching parents when and how they want to be reached?
– Are the volunteers that work with my preschoolers passionate or are they filling space?
– Do I need to take some things from my Preschool rooms or add them to my preschool rooms to make them more kid focused.
– What are the key events I can tap into and make special in the life of every family.
– What can I do to creatively equip the families in my church?
Good post.
The biggest question I am asking myself right now is – Are the volunteers that work with my preschoolers passionate or are they filling space?
My elementary squad is passionate and loves what they do. The preschool squad needs some work. One thing I have done that has drastically improved that is move preschool teachers to every week duties. I have found the once a month volunteers are filling space, the weekly volunteers are highly passionate.
Josh I couldn’t agree more with the every week opportunity to minister. What a blessing you have given those volunteers. Now, by serving every week, they are truly connecting with each of those children and their parents. With that sort of connection, real partnership can occur. When we raise the bar on the frequency of the serving requirement, that sends a message that serving with our preschoolers is very important. Then as they begin that new commitment, parents see that we value consistency with our volunteers. All of those things benefit the child. Way to go Josh.
Love the post – we’re dealing with the space issue constantly. We’ve just in the last 6 months moved our nursery into the staff office wing and that really challenged us. Having that space ready from the first week though really helped us to maximize the “newness” factor and also put parents at ease. They didn’t see it as offices anymore, they were the new spaces for thier babies. Making parents comfortable is crucial.
What we are needing to focus on now is really the creativly equipping families with what they need. That’s our hurdle.
Thanks for your post Sam!
Josh and Ally
Agreed. I am in the process of getting there as well. Let me ask you this. Don’t you think every week volunteers can be filling space as well. Vision + Frequency = passion
Cathy,
Agreed perception is reality no matter if we like it or not. We need to change perceptions and create reality.
It amazes me how many people who serve in CM but don’t really like kids.
We are looking for people who are passionate about kids and passionate about God.
Can’t go wrong with that combo
I agree – the same passionate people serving every week is the key! If you are facing a team full of 1x a monthers — cast vision for what could be and try to capture the hearts of those you have & slowly replace those who won’t join your vision with the committed, passionate, every weekers. Had to do that 9 years ago at North Point and it was the best thing we ever did!
Joining the conversation late — I’ve been in conference world for the past 2 weeks!