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Helping Educators Help Parents
BY ARLENE F. HARDER, MA, MFT
You are a hard-working educator or other professional working with families of young children or teens. You try to do the best you can. But some days you wish you had more help from parents of the children under your charge. However, you suspect that those parents who don't give their children the guidance and nurturance you know they need may be distracted by marital, emotional or financial problems. They want to be good parents. They just don't know how.
In the fall of 2005, the Childhood Affirmations Program will offer you several products that can help you help parents. We tell you about them now because we want you to know they are right around the corner, so to speak. This fall they can become tools you can use in your arsenal of skills when dealing with parents.
Extensive Free Website Information for Parents of Children Under Your Care
As you will notice when looking through this website, we have considerable material to which you can direct parents, with original articles on a wide variety of topics related to developmental stages, as well as content that helps parents build a supportive family unit. In addition, there are links to some of the best parenting resources on the Internet.
Workshops You Can Offer Parents
The material for our workshops consists of:
 Instruction manual for leading a two-hour workshop.
Ideas for experiential activities.
Practical steps for putting ideas into action.
Sample notebook for parents.
Workshops cover topics such as:
How to help parents manage their emotions so they can help manage their child’s emotions
How parents can instill in their child a love of learning
How parents can teach their child to think clearly and to solve problems
Helping parents define and express the values they want to develop in their children
Understanding family of origin rules and rituals that may hinder parents’ ability to be effective
Affirmation Cards
To help parents remember the affirmations that children need at each stage of growth, we have developed several items that remind parents of the tasks their children need to master at each stage of growth.
Some of these are cards preprinted with a picture and will be sold in groups of 10 each and discounted for purchase by teachers. There are also personalized photo-affirmation holders in which parents can place a picture of their child together with affirmations for that developmental stage.
All of the cards are 5" x 7" and have a magnet attached to the back that allows it to be hung on a refrigerator, file cabinet, or office cubicle as a daily reminder of the skills children need for healthy development.
Included in all our product packages are small 3 in. x 2 in. magnets suitable for reminding parents of the importance of child-rearing. They say, “The effort we put into raising children today will create a better world tomorrow,” and can be used on a refrigerator, file cabinet, etc.
A Special CD
This unique audio CD takes parents through a gentle exercise in which they can experience the needs of children at each age. As they listen, they can not only recognize the importance of words of encouragement for their own children, but they can also discover the affirmations they may have missed growing up. This CD is offered as part of other products, including our e-books. The script for the CD is available with the workshops for educators who want to read the imagery to the participants in their workshops.
Help for ESL parents
Some of the handouts for the workshops and all the affirmation cards will be available in both English and Spanish.
To Learn More About Our Products
If you would like to learn more about our products, please call from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Pacific Standard Time, Monday through Friday, at 626-797-8914, or write at info@childhoodaffirmations.com.
© 2005, Childhood Affirmations Program, Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT
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