All training offers a certificate. Those trainings that offer CEUs will be notated in the training Title 

(3 sessions/bundle) Participants are required to complete all sessions of this Module to receive a certificate

Course Overview:

This month-long session explores building meaningful family connections through holiday traditions and celebrations. This course aims to reach educators at all levels of experience and expertise from beginner, intermediate, and advanced.  The course will progress through beginner, intermediate, and advanced stages, offering practical strategies to engage families, create inclusive traditions, and foster lasting holistic development and memories for providers, children and their families. 

Learning Objectives:

• explore ways to celebrate diversity,
• learn how to strengthen family ties
• create a deeper understanding of how the holiday season can become a time for connection and joy.

Theoretical Framework for this session: Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems (Micro and Macrosystems)/ Mead & Blumer’s Symbolic Interactions

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems (Micro and Macrosystems): Microsystem (immediate relationships, such as family)

• Mesosystem (interactions between different microsystems, like family-school connections)
• Ecosystem (external influences affecting family life, like workplace demands)
• Macrosystem (cultural and societal values, including traditions and holidays)
• Chronosystem (how these systems change over time)

Symbolic Interactions: Mead & Blumer’s theory focuses on how individuals create and interpret meaning through social interactions.

• Holiday rituals/traditions how and what they symbolize within the family structure
• Creating meaning through social interactions
• Identity and social roles within the family order/structure
• Adaptations and Flexibility in family traditions, rituals, and cultural ideas

Week 1: Foundations of Family Engagement (Beginner Level) December 14 @ 11am-1p

Week 2: Building Inclusive Traditions (Intermediate Level)  December 17 @ 8pm ET

Week 3 & 4: Mastering Holiday Connections (Advanced Level) January 11 @ 11a-1p