Learning at home: What preschool children’s parents do and what they want to learn from their children’s teachers

Abstract

This study investigated the beliefs parents of preschoolers ( N = 126) have for facilitating their children’s reading and mathematics development. The study used an online survey distributed via social media to examine parents’ views of their children’s home-based reading and mathematics engagement, parents’ confidence to support their children’s reading and mathematics development, and the information they received and would like to receive from their children’s teachers. The results demonstrated three patterns: (1) parents prioritized children’s reading over their mathematics development, (2) the difference in children’s reported engagement in such activities may come from parents lacking confidence in how to foster their children’s mathematics skills, and (3) almost two/thirds of the parents wanted to receive more information from their children’s teachers, typically about children’s progress and activities and apps to do with their children at home. Preschool teachers play an important role in supporting home learning of reading and mathematics. Preschool teachers and parents need to collaborate on home-based activities that support such learning. We have demonstrated that even highly educated parents may lack the confidence to support their young children’s academic growth, particularly in mathematics, and so the support teachers provide to parents is critical.

U.S. Parents’ Reports of Assisting Their Children with Distance Learning during COVID-19

“…These challenges appear to be compounded when distance learning is involved. These results are consistent with results with preschool age children [5].…”

“…Although most parents view it as important to have their children do literacy and mathematics activities at home and to assist their children with these, they focus more on literacy than mathematics [23]. Perhaps relatedly, parents feel more confident to assist their children with literacy than mathematics activities [5,24].…”

“…Studies investigating aspects of the home learning environment during COVID-19 have focused primarily on children in preschool and the first few years of school [3][4][5][6]. However, the demands and expectations of schooling change as children age.…”

Elementary School Children’s Home Learning Environments: Mathematics, Reading, Science, and Written Language

“…However, we know very little about how confident parents feel about their ability to socialize their children's academic skills (cf. [22][23][24]).…”

“…Research on parents' socialization of children's early literacy development has included documentation of parents' beliefs, children's relevant activities, and related development. Participation in reading-related activities at home is positively related to the development of early reading skills (e.g., [3][4][5][6]11,16,24,26,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]). Most studies that have documented the frequency of children's engagement in activities have considered the number of times a child does an activity but not for how long.…”