Parent-Child Education
“The teachers at Avance-Dallas
told me that I should read to my baby at least three times a week. At first I
felt silly reading to a little baby; now a year later it has become our special
time. She comes over to me with a book in her hand and says ‘book, Mommy,
book.’ My son didn’t start talking until he was almost three. I realize now
that it’s because I hardly ever spoke to him and never read to him. At 18
months, my daughter talks all the time. She is much more curious and will be
much better prepared when she goes to school.”
~ Maria Laura, Avance-Dallas
mother
"I very quickly learned how to read because Avance told my mom she should read to me
a lot. She read to me every day, and I wanted to learn how. Now my mom says
that I eat books because I read all the time. I’m going to go to a magnet
school for my second year at Sydney Lanier. I want you to understand that part
of my grades is because of Avance.
They told me things to help me read (which helped a lot!) and encouraged me to
learn. My mommy advanced with me, and my daddy did too. Avance is my heart!”
~ Andrea Roman, Avance-Dallas
child graduate
Avance-Dallas
is so successful with at-risk families for at least two key reasons.
The first key to our success is whole-family
education. The home environment wields a powerful influence that can nurture
learning and prepare children to succeed in school and in life.
Our two-generational model works with children and
parents together to make the difference in children last. The parent is the
most important and influential teacher at this stage of the child’s life. By
training parents how to stimulate their child’s development, we impact the
child all day every day in the home. That makes the learning stick.
The second key to Avance-Dallas’s
success is our focus on children age three and under. Remedial education is
necessary in the current state of education in America, but that doesn’t mean
it’s the most effective method. Research indicates that it fails to deliver
anything near the results that can be achieved through early childhood
education.
Avance-Dallas
makes a strategic impact by working with children during the moldable years of
birth to age three, when the brain experiences its greatest growth and when
children absorb so much learning. Focusing on this early stage of development
prevents problems from taking root in the first place and prepares children to
start their first day of kindergarten ready to succeed.
We offer the Parent-Child Program at 23 sites in
the low-income neighborhoods of Bachman Lake, East Dallas, Love Field, Oak
Cliff, Pleasant Grove, West Dallas, and Vickery Meadow, where our target
population lives. Avance-Dallas holds
classes on Dallas Independent School District elementary school campuses,
connecting families with their local school.
In the 2008–2009 program year, we served 864
children and 775 parents in our Parent-Child Education Program.
Our Parent-Child Education Program is our core
program. Through this model, parents are transforming their homes into lifelong
learning labs, and at-risk children are beating the odds against them in
school. Avance-Dallas is tangibly
advancing children and parents together today.