Elementary

Career Awareness

Career awareness is the first step in the career decision-making process. It begins in the home and community. Parents are a child's most important teacher from kindergarten until graduation. As such, it is important for parents to begin to play an early role in helping elementary students become aware of the different careers available.

During the elementary years, kindergarten through fifth grade, students need to have a broad understanding of the many different careers. Observation of different types of careers can be seen outside of school. A child identifies with family careers early in life. Parents and family members enhance and influence a child's knowledge and awareness of careers in a variety of ways.

How to Help Your Elementary Student:

• Encourage reading. Get your child a library card and visit the library regularly. Read in unusual places like under a tree, in a tent or on the floor. Let your child see you reading. Read to your child and discuss what you have learned from reading.
• Check homework. When checking homework, connect the world of work with the skills being taught in school.
• Play learning games. Play the picture game by selecting a picture with many objects, put the picture away and see who can remember the most objects. Cut out articles and headlines from the paper, mix them up and see who can match the headline to the article, see if you can determine a fact from an opinion, and then discuss the article. Go on a scavenger hunt in your home, list things that are unusual like something from Europe, something round, something very old, and see who can find the most articles on the list.
• Work in Teams. Allow your child the opportunity to work cooperatively on a family project, sharing observations about the skills needed, the responsibilities of each person, and the need to work together to complete a task.
• Show your child you care. Find ways to say I love you every single day, make time to talk and time to listen, monitor school work and let your child know how proud you are and that you care what happens in your child's life.
• Share your job experience. A child delights in hearing about his or her parents' jobs. By discussing how you chose a career pathway could create a discussion about how our interests relate to our careers. It is important for your child to understand why you work such as fulfillment, enjoyment and compensation.
• Make the world your classroom. Have your child figure the tip when you go out to eat, add up your groceries with a calculator, or estimate how many cookies are in a pack. Go to the mall with pencil and pad, let your child look around and then write a short story about what he/she saw. Have your child point out the careers they see on everyday trips to the church, school or to the park.