Room parents - give me some tips!

[Momit]

Apparently, in a starry eyed "I can't believe my kid is in kindergarten!" moment I volunteered for this, and I just found out that I was chosen to be one of two room parents in DS's class. He is our only, so I have no previous experience with school stuff.

So... What is a room parent? What will I have to do? Any tips for making it go smoothly would be much appreciated. In our case, not sure if this is true across the board, room parents are part of the PTA organization and are separate from classroom volunteers.

Thanks!

[ZeeBaby]

I was DD1's room parent for K and I am again for 1st. Ask the teacher for an email list for all parents. It is really the best way to communicate information quickly. I would communicate with the teacher to determine what their expectations are of the room parents. DD1's current teacher has an activity planned for the kids each month. I do not plan to do any additional activities, but will assist with the activities that have already been scheduled. I plan to send emails to parents asking for help and organize contributions for a Holiday gift for the teacher and an end of year gift or Teacher Appreciation week gift for the teacher. I will follow this thread for additional ideas. I joined the PTA/HSC this year, but with work and the room parent activities, I have decided to just be a member and not participate in helping organize events.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I have been the organizer of our school's room parent for many years now (I'd gladly relinquish it but they all want me to keep doing it- no one else wants to ). I have been a room parent many times too. From posts on here, I gather the responsibilities are very unique from school to school. My school asks room parents to:
have email lists of families.
plan parties (at the teacher's discretion and using the teacher's preferences)
coordinate holiday and/ or year round gifts
arrange for something at teacher appreciation week
help rally volunteers as needed

Basically, my room parents are the communication liaison, volunteer coordinators and party planners for their rooms. They are expected to meet with me a few times a year, be responsive to emails and be accessible to their class.

A very nice thing you can do as a k room parent would be to 1. get the email list and 2. email out to your class an invite for a casual playground playdate so you can all get to know each other. I recommend a weekend or evening so you don't alienate parents who work during the day.

A great room parent goes the extra mile to building community in their classrooms.

[anonomom]

In our school, the kindy room moms are really important because the teachers need/use so much parental support. Our room mom in Kindergarten was awesome -- just totally on top of things. She was in charge of recruiting and organizing parent volunteers for center time, holiday workshop, PE testing and field trips.

One thing she did that I thought was great was that, for Christmas and end of year gifts, she sent home an envelope with each kid, with the room mom's name on it and a note about the suggested contribution. All the parents had to do was put whatever amount they wanted to contribute in that envelope and return it to school. It was so easy.

[belovedgandp]

Varies by school, but I'm a veteran of more room parent responsibilities than I care to remember.

The school should have a person/coordinator for all the room parents. Meaning you will have at least some kind of meeting to get basic guidelines about what is expected. I'd also suggest trying to meet up with either other K class room parents and/or the room parent for your teacher from last year. To work together or get a better feel for how the teacher likes to work.

Our key responsibilities were:
1 - gift giving - I try to only hit families up once; making it clear that the money will be used for the teacher's holiday, birthday and appreciation week gifts. Our school has a preference sheet for each teacher which aids in buying useful things. And a newer thing is the coordinator asking each class to shave a % off this gift money to pool together for the PE, Music Etc teachers. Explaining all that means I can usually get 10-20 per kid when I ask in October.
2- party planning - school wide policy with times set aside for Halloween, Winter and Valentine's. That's when you hit up the class for help with food, supplies and man power. I liked working with at least another person so we could each take a party or two and run with it and then sit out for the other one/two.

[arivecchi]

plan parties (at the teacher's discretion and using the teacher's preferences)
coordinate holiday and/ or year round gifts
arrange for something at teacher appreciation week
help rally volunteers as needed

I actually volunteered to be room parent for both DS1 and DS2 and got both - on top of my crazy FT job and all of our activities. What was I thinking?!

[Momit]

I actually volunteered to be room parent for both DS1 and DS2 and got both - on top of my crazy FT job and all of our activities. What was I thinking?!

Oh boy!

[mom2binsd]

I would not send an envelope home with suggested contribution... Let them know they can send in a contribution and tell them to put your sons name on the envelope.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[SnuggleBuggles]

I would not send an envelope home with suggested contribution... Let them know they can send in a contribution and tell them to put your sons name on the envelope.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

I usually send an envelope home but I ask for things like drawings or card and/or money. The envelope is an eye catcher, which is totally necessary as they get older and less reliable about bringing stuff home.

[mom2binsd]

I only mentioned not sending home an envelope as we are not allowed to specifically ask, we get a room parent handbook that very clearly outlines what you need to do and what you can and can't do. OP, does your school have a room parent coordinator, it's helpful to follow established practices.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2