Here’s How To Send Beautiful Communications to Parents of Young Children

When it comes to small children, important things are often in the small details. Educators around the US use Smore for all manner of newsletters and updates. But here at Smore — with parents of young children on our team — we know firsthand the importance of helping schools easily distill fine details and clarify their messaging, especially when it comes to little kids.

But here at Smore — with parents of young children on our team — we know firsthand the importance of helping schools easily distill fine details and clarify their messaging, especially when it comes to little kids

That’s why we were excited to speak with Angie Bush, the prinicipal of Madison City First Class Pre-K, in Alabama, who uses Smore to do some of her best work.

As with many Smore users, Principal Bush sensed the importance of communicating consistently with parents and community members. “I needed a way to communicate with my parents that would be consistent and easily shared electronically,” said Principal Bush, and “I also wanted my teachers to use the same newsletter format.”

“I needed a way to communicate with my parents that would be consistent and easily shared electronically,” said Principal Bush

Madison City’s need for digital communication makes a whole lot of sense in any school, but it’s especially important in schools with little kids, since paper newsletters have an unfortunate tendency to wrinkle in the backpacks of the under-7 set! 🎒

Madison City’s need for digital communication makes a whole lot of sense in any school, but it’s especially important in schools with little kids, since paper newsletters have an unfortunate tendency to wrinkle in the backpacks of the under-7 set!

For Principal Bush, the deciding factor came down to simplicity: “Smore is easy to use,” she said, “and it’s easy to share the finished product” via email and social media — a setup she describes as “terrific.”

A glance at the Pre-K Post, the school’s weekly newsletter, makes it clear what Principal Bush means when she talks about simplicity and ease-of-use. Each newsletter is filled with critical details, which are appropriately subdivided with headers and appropriates images:

A bumblebee floats over the word “August” to make it clear that a given section addresses scheduling for the month. A comic book style “Announcements” image draws the reader’s eye to an important heads-up about school lunches. The background image for the newsletter itself is a perennial favorite among educators: vibrant, colorful paint palettes that nicely complement the Pre-K focused nature of her email.

Another, equally critical, aspect that’s important to Principal Bush is consistency — in terms of how each teacher at Madison City communicated, as well as consistency from one week to the next. In getting Smore for her School, Principal Bush wanted a solution that would enable her and her teachers to produce content that looked similar on parents devices. And in order to maintain an easy, readable look from week to week, Principal Bush notes, “I start with the previous week’s newsletter, duplicate, and edit.”

As those of us who are parents of young children know, it’s hard to get children to be consistent — both in and out of school. That’s why Smore aims to help schools streamline their communication about children, so that parents can stay updated and informed about the things that matter to them most.