We have a center here in Logan called the “Child and Family Support Center” it is a great place. A couple Saturdays ago they offered a day of parenting classes. They had a key note speaker and then several classes that you could choose from depending on what stage of parenting you were in. And they provided lunch! AND it was FREE!
I loved it. I took some notes in the classes and here are some of the highlights of what I liked most…
-Don’t let daily circumstances or children’s behavior determine how I react to situations. Choose to stay positive.
-Instead of making threats with your child, ask “What’s a better way that this could have been handled?”
-Build your kids up. Always try to give them positive encouragement.
-Expectations for your kids needs to be re-affirmed on a daily basis.
-Sit and talk with your kids. Listen to them without talking. Ask questions about them and about their interests.
-The power of Positive parenting is about changing ourselves, not our children. When we change our behavior, the child will in turn change.
One of my favorite classes-the teacher talked about 6 things he has tried to incorporate into his parenting that have worked the best.
#1 Ask your child how you can help
#2 Preferences vs. Principle (This is a huge one for me. He talked about not getting so caught up in the small details. If they want to sweep the floor a different way than you do, just let them. The job is getting done.
#3 Praise them for who they are and not what they do.
#4 Be the same in parenting in public and you are in private. Would you yell at your kids in front of their friends? Try hard to be the same at home as you are outside the home.
#5 Evaluate their effort, not necessarily the results. (They worked really hard on that test-maybe it’s not an A, but they did try hard.)
#6 Truth taught in anger will not be taken as truth.
They provided each person in the class a free copy of this book by Dr. Glenn I. Latham. It is really worth checking out. I noticed that there is a whole college course at USU based on this book.
For one of the classes we made a chore jar. The Popsicle sticks are color coded with the spots on the back of the jar. You can of course adapt these jobs to the age of your kids. It has been a great thing for my little 5 year old. We are always looking for new ways to motivate him and get him excited about helping out a little.
p.s. We hit 1000 followers today!!! Yipee!! Thanks for supporting us and our website!!
Great reminder Nat! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Natalie. I totally forgot you sent me the info for the class and I never did anything about it. Looks like I missed out. I love all those tips. It was great seeing you guys yesterday.