Using stories and quotes both humorous and thought-provoking, this retreat marshals the wit and wisdom of those who have undertaken the task of parenting, and helps us to learn from the gurus! We’ll take the time to get in touch with our own inner wisdom about partnering with God in the co-creation of good children. We’ll hope to go away remembering why becoming parents seemed like such a good idea, and with our energy restored to reenter the fray. Parenting in a spiritual family (single parent, step-family, traditional, two career) means finding a love for “holy chaos”. This retreat time will celebrate that greatest of all growth opportunities: working at being a Mom or Dad!

This can be a great program for May/Mother’s Day! Some churches combine it with a simple intergenerational Tea!

A fresh new workshop that foster parents will welcome, this facilitated morning or evening is a chance to reflect on what keeps Moms and Dads going. Topics include: what sustains you as a Mom/Dad, keeping your sense of humor, how parenting provides unique opportunities to grow as a person, what older Moms/Dads and younger Moms/Dads can teach each other, and what to do when you’re at your wit’s end. Makes an especially nice program near Mother’s or Father’s day or as an antidote to the January/February blues!

This workshop generates great feedback from participants. Learners return home empowered with 20 tips for homework helpers, 15 ways to do better in science and math, and full of ideas on motivating reluctant readers/ students. Participants will view two excellent videos entitled Homework! No Way! and the School Success Tool Kit. Parent-Teacher conferences will be practiced in pairs and many practical ideas shared on how to strengthen the home-school partnership.

Reasonable TV viewing and other contributing factors to promoting success at reading will help parents to make wise choices with their children in foster care. Participants especially appreciate skills in how to help their children organize a study space, time and papers so that completed work actually gets back to school! (Attention can be given, if time permits, to helping the ADHD child and children with learning disabilities or developmental lags.) Effective use of rewards, praise and structure to promote good study habits will also be discussed.

As adults, we know what it’s like to be stressed out! But we may not realize that children are also showing the physical and emotional signs of stress in increasing numbers.

This session offers practical examples of stressors in kids’ lives and the warning signs for recognizing stress in kids. We discuss stress releasing activities and ways to observe and lower stress in ourselves. Most importantly, you’ll learn valuable skills for assisting children in the management of their schedules, feelings, choices and tensions. Research indicates that when parents know how to raise resilient kids, those kids are at lower risk for a host of teen difficulties, get sick less often, and do better in school.

Now more than ever we need to engage children in a healthy dialogue about money and what it means to live in a society that is dominated by spending. During this session, you’ll discover some staggering statistics about kids and money and gain a deeper understanding of what our children are up against. Hear kids’ own thoughts and opinions about money and how parents influence the way their children manage their finances. Then, learn successful (and fun) strategies for teaching kids to develop a healthy and responsible relationship with money, now and in the future.

Daniel Goleman started a revolution with his groundbreaking research on "EQ" and how emotional intelligence is more predictive of success in most arenas of life than either high IQ or obvious talent. We’ll look at the basic principles of Goleman’s work and show parents how to use them to raise socially skilled, responsible, and self-disciplined children. This workshop offers practical strategies that have been field-tested, for everyday issues including school situations, peer pressure, fights with friends and siblings, impulsive behavior. In addition the research of John Gottman on the differences between emotion-coaching and emotion-dismissing parents is a real eye-opener! Parents will learn how to coach children in a crisis, help them to stay calm and become more self-aware, and learn how to think in a sharing, caring, problem solving family. These are exciting new techniques especially useful for the parents of school-aged children and adolescents, although some examples involve pre-schoolers.