Parents can help the child realize the value of education through their love and support, and most importantly, through their encouragement, thus playing an important role in educational success. From being a child's moral support to being counselors, parents are capable of being a good resource not just for the child, but also for the schools and the teachers associated with their child's development. Involving parents in their child's educational program will help develop a positive and healthy homeschool environment, which is an essential factor when it comes to successfully implementing what you feel is best for the child's educational growth. What makes this a great idea is the fact that the parent will be more involved in the child's work, which will ensure a smooth sailing of classroom activities including completed assignments and projects. What's more, a relaxed class would mean, you would have to deal with lesser behavioral and adjustment problems (academic). Now if that's a sure shot way of getting rid of unwanted tension, then it makes perfect sense to make the most of the voluntary help for the educational concerns of their child. Using the Help of Parent Volunteers Among the foremost things that you can involve parent volunteers in are: keeping records, helping with activities, projects, organizing field trips; besides, their help can be taken to organize a number of classroom activities. Parent volunteers are more or less equivalent to having someone assist you in your classroom activities. Ask them to help out with teaching arts and crafts to preschoolers and children in Grades 1-3. Asking parents to share their talents and impart knowledge on the subject they love, is a good way to involve the parents in their child's education. Having someone on call to help you with the cutting and gluing during a craft class will ensure a less daunting job for you. Another good idea is to ask them to help the children assigned to them with their projects and assignments. Parents who are tech-geeks can assist children with online research and projects. You can even employ them to teach and train students to use technology effectively. The parent volunteers can even help in making handouts, make copies of worksheets and design or develop interesting models for the class. The volunteers can assist in completing the work of those lagging behind. Having parent volunteers around, especially when conducting activities and funfairs for children is definitely a boon. Your burden of organizing the event is relatively lessened; besides, taking their help will ensure the smooth flow of the event being organized. Having parents around to help with the makeup, especially during the annual day gathering works wonders for you and the impatient children. You can even ask them to cater to the needs of the children, especially where refreshments are concerned. Organizing field trips, outings, community service, expeditions, camps, etc., can be a daunting task when you are the sole member responsible to cater to the needs of a large group of children. At such times, asking parent volunteers to help out with the basic requirements makes perfect sense. You can even ask them to accompany the students on camping and field trips or even help out with community service. Activities that will allow them to mix freely with the children will help them understand the needs of the children better. Asking parent volunteers to keep records of classroom activities, the resources used and exhausted, etc., is a good way of making optimum use of them. Ask them to help out with restocking the resources/material needed for arts and crafts. You can even use their assistance to tune musical instruments, organize the library and the children's artwork. Make sure they are comfortable doing the work assigned to them though; you wouldn't want to offend their feelings. School is considered as a second home, and there is a constant need to conduct research and surveys to find out if the child is comfortable in his/her school. What's a better way than to do this by employing parent volunteers to the task. Ultimately, the goal of research and survey is to make the child's school environment-friendly and home-like; so, it makes sense to conduct research and survey with the help of parent volunteers. Along with all the work the teacher has to do, he/she has to cater to the mental and moral conditioning of the child too. Children in their preteens and teens need constant assurance and moreover, a friend to confide in. Owing to the hectic school schedule, organizing talks with counselors might be pretty taxing for teachers. Asking parent volunteers to organize such sessions will only aid them to get more involved with their child's development. Also, you can even ask them to be counselors to children of their child's age group; this will help them know what ails their child and why their child behaves the way he/she does. You will be helping them strengthen the parent-child bond. It goes without saying that you ought to thank the parent volunteers for all the help that they give out to you. To conclude, I agree with Margaret Mead who says, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."