Welcoming Families From Around the World

Welcoming a Swedish Family 

Scenario: I am a new early childhood director and I have received word that a family from Sweden will be joining our center this family has two children one that is 2-year-old two years old and one that is five years old. since I know nothing about Sweden and neither do the teachers at my childcare, we will have to research ways in welcoming this family and making them feel safe and secure in our facility and in the community in which they will reside. because the family reached out to us for childcare, for this scenario, I am choosing to say that at least one of the parents can speak fluent English. But both children do not speak English and all they speak is Swedish at home.

To make them feel welcomed at our center since one of the parents speak English, I will be giving them a survey to fill out about their family, their beliefs, nicknames they may use for their children, their nap time, and feeding schedules. I would have the parents bring in items that make the children feel as if they were at home and they are safe. A special blanket or stuffed animals, books from home, pictures of mom and dad and the family. Maybe make an “all about me” poster so we can talk about it with the other children in the classrooms. I would also have the parent that can speak English come in and go around the classroom and talk with their children and with the other children to get them to feel comfortable and safe in this new environment. I would ask the parents if they would like us to put Swedish words around the classroom, have Swedish books, have the chef make some meals that the children are used to eating at home, and have Swedish naptime music or free play music that they're used to hearing that represents their home and their language. As a class, we can talk about all our countries and make flags and dress in cultural clothing from our heritages. Add staff we can get together and write down helpful places they can go in the nearby community. Places like the closest grocery stores to their home or the closest park for the children. We can also tell our childcare families that we are expecting a new family to come from Sweden and we are asking anyone that speaks Swedish to step up and welcome them with their own home language.

With the teaching staff and I researched different ways to welcome the Swedish family into our program it will help us start biased views and it will help the family feel safe and secure in their new environment. Asking the families all about their children and having them bring in things from their culture and from their home will help children feel like they belong to the classroom and the childcare community. Enriching the classroom environment with different cultural materials will help the other children in the class become knowledgeable about Sweden and the music and books that will be in Swedish will help the children learn a different language. Hopefully, this will help the Swedish children learn English in the English-speaking children learn some Swedish so they can communicate and become friends faster.