Last year my daughter began her first year of formal schooling as a Kindergartner at a local public school. I say formal schooling because she had been learning at home long before that. Ever since she was a baby (actually even while in the womb), my husband and I had been reading to her. Once she learned the alphabet, we expanded and began to teach her how to read.

We’ve never been ones to think that school will take care of our children’s education. We know there is plenty of information that is not included in a school curriculum that will require us to supplement their education at home with life and cultural experiences, extracurricular activities, and conversations. We are constantly asking questions, creating hypothetical scenarios, and encouraging her to think further and wonder. “Ask questions,” we tell her just about every day.

The same goes for us. We ask questions when we aren’t clear on something they’re doing at school. We ask questions when we meet the teacher at the beginning of the school year. We ask questions at any given point during the school year to be sure we know and understand what our daughter is working on in the classroom and how she’s doing. We want to know how we can help her be a good student and enjoy her school experience.

Sadly, there are many parents who don’t realize they can be their child’s advocate. They don’t believe they can do much to change a particular situation. I realized this as I spoke to a parent at my daughter’s school last year regarding an issue in the classroom. I simply asked, “What do you think about what’s going on?” The answer was a shrug of the shoulders with “Well, what can we do, right?” I thought about the many things we could indeed do and that some of us were already in the process of doing at that point. What worried me more was that our conversation was in Spanish and I wondered if that played a factor into the situation. Was a cultural difference affecting what these parents felt they could do or say?

As parents, I think we can’t sit back and trust that all will go well with our children’s education. We need to be involved and be proactive. If we sense something is wrong, we should ask questions – of our children and their teachers. Likewise, we can show an interest in our child’s education by keeping an open line of communication with our children’s teacher(s). If we show our children’s teachers that we’re truly interested in working together for the benefit of our children, then nothing bad can come of it.

To promote being active in our children’s education and empower parents, Univision began the Es el Momento (This is the Moment) initiative, which includes special programming, videos, and resources on the TV network and their online platforms. To learn more and find educational resources (mostly in Spanish), visit Es el Momento or connect with them on Facebook.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post as part of a campaign to raise awareness about the Es el Momento initiative. As always, all stories and views are my own.

Photo: www.audio-luci-store.it/Flickr