“My child’s teacher talked about the importance of being involved in our kids’ education, but nobody told me what ‘being involved’ meant,” says Tea Lomidze, parent of a first grade student at Tbilisi School #133. “I thought that it was enough to review my child’s homework, but when I read the activities in G-PriEd’s card set, I learned ways that I can help my child anytime, anywhere without special equipment or funds.”

In February 2016, USAID’s Georgia Primary Education project (G-PriEd) distributed sets of educational activity cards to the parents of more than 18,000 primary students in Georgia. The cards, designed to sit on a table or countertop for easy reference, consist of a variety of exercises that can be completed during the course of everyday tasks. Examples range from estimating the weight of fruit in the market to reading newspaper advertisements. The difficulty of the exercises increases with each successive grade level.

Through projects like this one, G-PriEd actively supports the Georgian Ministry of Education’s initiative to engage parents in their children’s education. When the card sets were distributed at an event in Tbilisi School #45, the Minister of Education and Science Tamar Sanikidze spoke about the important role that parents play in their children’s education: “The Georgian national curriculum includes involving parents in their children’s education as much as possible. The parent engagement component of the G-PriEd program is very important and urgently needed. We can consider it the first step towards reaching curriculum goals.” Together with the Ministry of Education, G-PriEd recognizes that the earlier parents get involved in their children’s education, the more their children benefit.

The card sets are just one of the resources G-PriEd has created to extend learning from the classroom to the home. G-PriEd also supports parental engagement activities at participating schools from its pilot program, including reading clubs, drama clubs, Grandparents’ Reading Hour, and Story Hour.

Parents report how much they enjoy being part of their children’s education. Tamuna Kvaratskhelia, first grade parent in Tbilisi School #133, shares, “As a housewife, I do not know where to find information about helping my child to learn. The activities G-PriEd has provided are so simple that I will not have a problem doing them with my child. I like that some of the activities can be done with my child in the kitchen because I spend a lot of time there.”

Maka Todria, first grade parent in Tbilisi School #133, adds, “This morning, my child and I read all the street signs along the way to school, something that I had never thought of doing. It was really simple and fun.”