Parent Express for 24-May-2007

Welcome to Parent Express, the PCI e-zine! Here you will find updates on the Parent Coaching Institute, along with ideas and practical tips for the parenting journey.

Around this time of year our homes, yards, and gardens attract attention for more order, clearing, and beautifying. It goes with the territory of springtime. We want to be right beside the fresh air, the fragrance of new flowers, and the inspiration lively green buds give!

Our featured article by Jen Wolfe, PCI Certified Parent Coach® captures the many gifts of helping our children participate fully in household chores. Springtime chores can be wonderful opportunities for more family aliveness. In this article Jen shows us how "chores can be one tool we use in cultivating a positive, loving culture within our homes." A wonderful goal for the month of May!

I hope you take a few relaxing moments to listen to the three podcasts brought to you by Parent Appreciation Radio. Carolyn Harvey and Beth Herrild give lots of practical suggestions for preparing wisely for a fruitful summer, making sure our children's days are paced well, not too hectic for our sanity as much as for theirs. Dr. Janice Lovelace inspires us to return to nature with our children, tempting us to more family time outside in Nature's Beauty. If your child is experiencing any reading difficulties, you won't want to miss Dr. Jeannie' Herron's description and explanation of the wonderful program she developed, the ReadWriteType System.

And don't forget the PCI Parenting Tip this month: you will find the 2007 Newberry and Caldecott Award winners, along with links to their sites for access to excellent literature for children and teens. Along with household chores, spring is a great time to prepare those summer reading lists!

Many Blessings to You and Your Family,

Gloria DeGaetano, Founder and CEO

"Through the PCI training, I have made a transformational change, for I have truly changed both inside and outside. I look forward to developing a coaching practice, and hopefully, being a transformational change agent for others."—Barb Bushey, South Lyon, Michigan

"The rigorous study program has taken students through information and experiences that prepare them with integrity and confidence to boldy blaze a clear path towards positive change. I personally feel adequately prepared and qualified to continue forward as a competent parent coach professional. I am energized and hopeful in the change that I will catalyze."
—Janelle Roberts, Bonney Lake, Washington

If you feel a calling to work with moms and dads in an innovative way; or if you are already working with parents and want to discover exciting ideas, fresh approaches, and new tools to add to your experience, contact us. We require candidates to have an undergraduate degree and at least two years of either professional or volunteer experience working with parents in such capacities as a teacher, parent educator, counselor, mental health professional, social worker, or community health worker.

Apply Now!
Applications are now being taken for entrance Summer Quarter with phone classes for Course 1 beginning the third week of June 2007.

Application deadline for Summer entrance is June 1, 2007. Acceptance into the program is determined on a first-come, first-served basis because spaces are limited. Serious candidates are encouraged to get the basic application in as soon as possible. Transcripts and letters of reference can follow the basic application by a few weeks. Download the application here.

For more information please call: (425) 401-1519 or email info@thepci.com.

Learn more about our acclaimed, graduate-level, distance-learning Parent Coach Certification® Program by clicking here for more information.

Check out our Video About the PCI Parent Coach Training Program and see what professionals think about their training with the PCI.

Working with a parent coach who has received Parent Coach Certification® through the PCI is giving yourself a valuable gift as well as a sound investment in your family's future. PCI Certified Parent Coaches® are caring, thoughtful professionals with years of experience working with parents. They have successfully completed the PCI Parent Coach Certification® Training Program—a comprehensive academic one-year, graduate-level program in collaboration with Seattle Pacific University. Through a series of coaching conversations that can be either by telephone or in person, PCI Parent Coaches help you re-discover your dreams and design your life for more joy and satisfaction.

To find a PCI Parent Coach in your area, please click here or call (425) 401-1519 for a referral to a PCI Parent Coach selected especially for you.

New Podcasts Include:

Getting Ready for Summer, with Beth Herrild and Carolyn Harvey, authors of Comfortable with Chaos. A lively discussion of things parents can do now to set up activities and schedules for those not-so-lazy days of summer. Beth and Carolyn provide concrete suggestions that support a more predictable and nurturing home environment during the time children are home for summer vacation. Includes ways parents can take care of themselves well during this hectic time—especially pertinent for working parents. Beth and Carolyn are committed educators and consultants for the parental Quest for Balance. Visit their Web site for more information: www.questforbalance.net.

Read, Write, and Type Learning System—Dr. Jeannine Herron, one of the founders of the Head Start Program, discusses her innovative approach to learning how to read. The Read, Write, and Type Learning System is a program that integrates spelling, reading, writing, and typing, makes reading practice easy from all modalities. The system has won many awards and this podcast outlines the important research behind the effective strategies—which the PCI recommends for school-age children, ages 8–12, having difficulties with reading.

Raising a Nature-Lover—Popular Seattle-area child psychologist writer, Dr. Janice Lovelace asks (and answers!) important questions: What can we do to help our children enjoy nature? What can parents do to support children's learning from nature? How do we get our children outside more when screen technology lures them inside? You will be excited and inspired to give your child the precious gift of more time in nature after listening to these powerful ideas and practical suggestions. You can also read an article by Dr. Lovelace at the Seattle's Child Web site with lots of great ideas, too!

You can download these podcasts (and dozens more besides!) for free from the Parent Appreciation Radio Web site or via iTunes.

Spring Cleaning: How Everyday Household Chores Can Teach Responsibility and More

by Jennifer Wolf, PCI Certified Parent Coach®
http://www.pathwaysparentcoach.com/
jen@pathwaysparentcoach.com

Preparing our children to be responsible adults is one of our main objectives as parents. We recognize, too, that there is a connection between giving our children small jobs, such as regular household chores, and teaching them responsibility. However, our busy lives don't naturally leave us with the time necessary to carefully and intentionally cultivate that sense of responsibility. Frankly, much of the time, it's just easier to do things for our kids than it is to teach them to do tasks on their own. Seeing the long-term benefits, though, can create in us the sense of resolve that we need in order to transform our ideals about teaching responsibility into tangible results.

Seeing the Bigger Picture

Teaching our children to be responsible for some household chores is much more than simply passing on a set of life skills that our children will need in their adult lives. When we look at it that way, it's easy to think that teaching responsibility through household chores is something we can "get to" later. However, our children stand much more to gain than a clean and orderly living space! Take a look at how using simple household chores to cultivate responsibility can impact our children's character:

1. We Can Help Our Children to Develop a Spirit of Appreciation
   When we teach our children to responsibly take care of their belongings, we help them to appreciate the things they've been blessed with. In those moments when we go ahead and do something ourselves—such as picking up their toys—because it's just easier and takes less time, we cast off an opportunity to teach our children to value their possessions. That may not sound like a big deal. However, learning to value and take care of what we have is a big part of appreciating all that we've been blessed with.
   
   
2. We Can Help Our Children Develop Respect for Others
   When our kids value their own belongings, they are better able to put themselves in another child's shoes and show respect for that person and his/her belongings. Thus, being intentional about teaching responsibility facilitates an overall atmosphere of respect for self that extends to respect for others!
   
   
3. We Can Help Our Children Develop a Spirit of Generosity
   When we appreciate what we have, we don't take it for granted. You might think that would mean that our kids would never be willing to part with a once-loved toy. However, when our children truly appreciate what they have, they gain the insight that someone else would also benefit from what they have so enjoyed.

Read the Rest of the Article…

Workshop, Friday, June 8, 8:30 AM–3:00 PM
Where: Conference Center at Bellefield Office Park, Bellevue, Washington
Cost: $105.00, includes lunch.
To register, please call the PCI at (425) 401-1519.
Registration deadline June 1.

Back to Childhood's Innocence: Children's Play in Today's World
presented Dr. Luminita Dumenescu, professor, University of Cluj, Romania.

Dr. Dumenescu will present her research conducted in Romania from both rural and urban areas that help us to understand the distinctions between how parents and children view specific issues associated with children's play. She will share recent theories and present negative influences including the impact of media. Dr. Dumenescu, a leading scholar in this area, will discuss what is being done to improve the lives of children and what we must do better and do more of to ensure a quality life for all children—both in Romania and in the United States. Join us for an intellectually stimulating and inspiring day!

Springtime: Time to Transform

by Gloria De Gaetano

The energy of springtime is the energy of movement. When I think of transforming self or helping to transform declining conditions on our planet, I think of forward movement—one small step at a time, usually. The pace we go doesn't matter as much as the "how" we do what we are moved to do. For it is in the "how" that we catalyze good in our everyday lives for the people we touch. The ripple effect moves out from there. The pace at which it moves out can often astound when the "how" is in alignment with three key qualities.

These qualities define characteristics of internal states that shepherd our constructive actions, imbuing them with far-reaching results, making the good we do more sustainable. Here is a thumb-nail synthesis of each quality. By focusing on them and inviting them to grow within us, we bring more light to ourselves and to our world.

Integrity

In a thought-provoking article titled, "Awakening to the Highest Reaches of Integrity," in the Spring edition of the Vision in Action Journal, Yasuhiko Genku Kimura defines "integrity" on three levels:

"Integrity means being true to one's principles, one's word, and one's self, and true integrity involves the total accord between these three levels of being true. People who can sustain their commitment are those who say, "I am committed to making X happen," and then follow though with the necessary stages of action that ensure that X happens. Such people have integrity. They sustain their commitment to the end. God is reported to have said, "Let there be light," and immediately there was light. In the case of humans, it takes time for commitment to unfold, but the principle is the same. For example, we say, ‘Let there be peace on earth.' If the majority of us have true integrity, with which we are prepared to take sustained action, peace will surely prevail on earth."

Rather than thinking of integrity as a vehicle that propels the action steps, Kimura views integrity as a demonstration of the commitment to take the action in the first place. His words remind us of the incredible responsibility we have to effect long-term change by attending to our resolve and not wavering when we feel discouraged or thwarted. I have discussed integrity in my book, Parenting Well in a Media Age, emphasizing how important it is to "walk our talk" as parents and providing, comfort (I hope!) and practical ideas for the incredible challenge it is to do just that in our media age. The long-term joys of our children depend on our present-day willingness to stay in our integrity with every decision we make, no matter how seemingly small the decision.

Hope

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "Teaching despair is the greatest of sins." Ouch! I had worried over that admonishment many times, having spent the better portion of my career outlining the negative, and despairing, consequences of overuse and misuse of screen technology. I finally realized that teaching about the problem wasn't necessarily teaching people to despair. Although the result of troubling information can be feelings of despair, we can't stay silent because of it. I do think it critically important to accurately define our challenges, or we can't be efficient in addressing them pro-actively. Despair is one option, out of many.

Hope is another option. But, it too, has its challenges. Many "hopeful movements" currently taking place in positive psychology or appreciative inquiry can be troublesome for their pollyannish nature. Glossing over problems can feel as despairing as hearing about them. So what kind of hope is needed to affect deep change on both individual and societal levels?

Read the Rest of the Article…

Choose Great Books for Children The 2007 John Newbery Medal and Randolph Caldecott Medal 2007 winners have been announced. The 2007 winner of the John Newbery Medal for outstanding contribution to children's literature is The Higher Power of Luck by Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson). Three Newbery Honor Books were also named: Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm (Random House), Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (Delacorte Press), and Rules by Cynthia Lord (Scholastic). The Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children is Flotsam, a wordless book illustrated by David Wiesner (Clarion). Two Caldecott Honor Books were named: Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet written and illustrated by David McLimans (Walker), and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom illustrated by Kadir Nelson and written by Carole Boston Weatherford (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun).