National Parents as Teachers Day 👩🏻‍🏫🧔🏻👩🏻‍🦱

National Parents as Teachers Day was started by the Parents as Teachers National Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The organization declared the first Parents as Teachers Day in 2001. It was decided that the day would be celebrated by offering support to the community by spreading awareness about early childhood programs. National Parents as Teachers Day encourages Parent Teachers Organizations and parents to come together to support children in their educational and well-being endeavors. Parents as Teachers Organizations offer educational services to parents of young children across the country. The concept for Parents as Teachers developed in the 1970s in Missouri. The educators noted that children were beginning kindergarten with varying levels of school readiness, which impacted their classroom performance. Research showed that greater parent involvement is a crucial link in the child’s development and ability to learn new skills, such as reading and writing. National Parents as Teachers Day provides tools, resources, and support to parents to efficiently guide them and their children. Parents as Teachers National Center is dedicated to taking a holistic approach to strengthening families. In some cases, they have provided their services to pregnant women and families with children from birth through kindergarten. The broad goal of the day is to prevent child abuse and neglect, increase parental knowledge of early childhood development, improve parenting practices, increase children’s school readiness and success, and help states develop and implement home visiting programs that improve the health and well-being of families with young children. Simply put, the day hopes to raise a generation of happy and healthy children.