Ten Reasons to Get Involved with Your Local Parent-Teacher Group
This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.
Yup, I’m talking about the dreaded PTA. Or maybe it’s called Home and School at your child’s school (it is at mine). When Ethan started Kindergarten, I wanted to find ways to be involved in the school. As a former school district employee, I wanted to know what was going on in the schools. If there was a problem, I wanted to know and I wanted to be a part of the solution.
But PTA moms often get a bad rap as being busy, know-it-all housewives who just want any reason to throw a party or host a fundraiser. And let me tell you, it’s far from that. Sure, you may run into a few here and there. But trust me, we are all not like that.
There are plenty of benefits to both you and your child by you getting involved in their school. Keeping up to date with their teacher is simply not enough. There is a lot going on in the schools that you might not even realize. That it is until you join the PTA.
Ten Reasons Why You Should Get Involved in the PTA
1. Parent involvement in school is proven to make children much more successful in school. Going to school events is great, but working closely with teachers and administrators in the school helps tremendously on so many levels in making your child successful at school.
2. You will make connections. Working closely with the parents of the kids your child is going to school with, you’ll get to know them better and build relationships. You’ll also build relationships with the teachers in the school. You’ll get to know not only your child’s teacher, but also teachers he or she might have in the future. This might help you decide which teacher you would like your child to be placed with because you know who will work well with your child.
3. The PTA/PTO often offer parenting programs and other resources which may be beneficial to you, dealing with all of the struggles of being a parent. It can help in understanding a particular math program that is being used or just ways in dealing with being a single parent. So many resources are made available through your local PTA/PTO which can be such a great help.
4. Networking. Okay, so it’s not really a business transaction. Or is it? Building a rapport with the people whose job it is to provide your child with an education will make communicating with these people so much easier. You will know the administration and they will know you. You’ll know the parents. You’ll build relationships with people who can help you out when you really need it.
5. You will grow. By volunteering with your local parent group, you are putting your skills and hobbies to good use for a great cause. If you like to bake, volunteer to coordinate the bake sales. Maybe your have a knack at getting donations. Put your hobbies to good use!
6. Give yourself a voice. Are you concerned about the lunches being served in your school? Well, your parent group might be able to address this. You might find multiple other parents agree that the lunch selection is poor and you can work with this group of parents to improve school lunches, using your voice to invoke change.
7. You’ll be part of the solution. Being a part of your local parent/teacher group, you are raising money and making a difference in the lives of students. Your school has needs, whether it’s a new playground that is safe or a special computer program to help with learning. You get to help provide that for the children.
8. You are being a role model for your child. Being involved in the school you are showing your child how important education is to you. You are at the school by choice and showing your child that he or she should want to choose to be there as well.
9. Often times your local parent organization will offer special discounts to its members on things.
10. You’ll always be the first one to know what’s happening in the school. Your child comes home with fliers about an activity and you’ll already know about it. Anything that happens in the school you’ll know about, because you’re there.
Want more incentives to volunteer? Check out !
is a site where you log your volunteer hours and keep a record of all the good you are doing! And by logging your hours, you can win prizes! Sounds like a win win situation to me! Help your school and earn points to win prizes! You can even earn prizes for your organization.
School hasn’t even started yet but I am already logging in volunteer hours. It’s super simple to use and it also helps provide information about volunteering opportunities in your area. So if your local PTA needs more volunteers, this is a great way to get the word out. Your organization can also benefit by registered and having volunteers log their hours. I set one up for our PTA as a motivator to get more volunteers!
So what are you waiting for? Are you going to get involved in your local parent/teacher group this year?