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Parent Express for 11-Aug-2008
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August reminds us that summer is not over—yet—there is still time to make memories that children will savor the rest of their lives. Memories of being inventive and innovative while feeling nurtured and expansive in Nature's beauty, can dramatically impact self-identity in numerous positive ways. Mari Ferrel's article "The Benefits of Outdoor Play for Children" offers a mom's insightful view of the magic that happens when outdoor play is a priority. Mari, a PCI Certified Parent Coach® living and working in Austin gives many practical suggestions for integrating these moments in the course of daily events with children. Leah Stublarc's article "Doing Time: Growing Up in the 21st Century" reiterates that message while pondering the differences and the costs between then (when she was a child) and now. Leah is a PCI Certified Parent Coach® residing in Palo Alto. Her sobering thoughts inspire me to continue helping moms and dads with what we call Brain-Compatible Parenting at the PCI. Outdoor meanderings, unstructured time, self-directed activities, creative play, artistic fun—all are critical components of cortical growth—without regular doses of these ingredients the young brain is lost and so are our children. Summer's last weeks provide opportune times for more of these precious moments. Grab them, while there's still time! Gloria DeGaetano, Founder and CEO 
Take Advantage of Early Registration for Fall Quarter! Applications are now being accepted for entrance Fall Quarter for the Parent Coach Certification® Training Program with phone classes for Course 1 beginning the week of September 22. Phone classes are in the evening time to accommodate work schedules of our students. The first 12 applicants who apply before August 15, 2008, will be granted a $500 tuition discount of they are accepted into the program. (There are currently 5 spaces left for receiving this discount!) Application deadline for Fall Quarter is September 2, 2008. Please send in the basic application as your first step. Transcripts and letters of reference can follow the basic application by a few weeks. Download the application here. Send to the PCI at: 1400-112th Ave. SE, Bellevue, WA 98004. Applications can be faxed to (415) 401-1572 or sent via email to gloria@thepci.org. Questions? Please call: (425) 401-1519. Spaces are limited. Early applications receive first consideration. 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.
"When I found the PCI…little did I know that this path would also lead me on a transformative journey of my own; connecting me with others who shared a desire to create a cultural shift toward more mindful parenting, and launching my own parent coaching business…My PCI training was both practical and inspiring...it is perhaps the single best educational experience that one could ever have."
"Gloria, words can't express how thrilled I am to have found the PCI and this amazing program. Thank you for all you do to keep the PCI moving forward and onward. Your efforts, sacrifices, and vision continue to bless families within the PCI and those we coach."
"The whole PCI experience has made every breath more fun."
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. 
Visit www.parentappreciationradio.com to listen to programs featuring PCI Certified Parent Coaches® and other experts from around the country discussing topics of interest to moms and dads. Programs are available as podcasts. Listeners can download individual episodes directly, listen to them from this site using a Web browser, or via the iTunes podcast directory. iTunes subscribers will automatically pick up new episodes as they become available!  The Benefits of Outdoor Play for Children by Mari Ferrell, PCI Certified Parent Coach® Have you ever noticed the difference in your children's behavior when they are outdoors rather than cooped up inside? My childhood memories are filled with games of hide-and-seek, flashlight tag, making firefly lamps, building clubhouses, exploring the "woods" (vacant lot) near our house, and making things from the "clay" we found in the backyard. My mother and her brother tell stories of leaving their house every morning in the summer and not returning home until dusk. Their days included craw fishing in a nearby ditch, wading in Dry Creek, and building hideouts in the tall prairie grasses. Do our children today have entire days to explore nature and enjoy the freedoms of the outdoors? Is unstructured outdoor play becoming a relic of the past? Evidence is mounting that points to the fact that children are spending more and more time indoors, disconnected from nature due to the pull of the TV, internet, or video games. Most outdoor activities are those which are structured and under the careful supervision of adults. Outdoor Play Has a Calming Effect In my own children I notice a marked difference in their personalities when they are able to enjoy the pleasures of outdoor play. I have always believed that children should spend as much time outside as possible, hearkening back to my teaching days when I was often the only teacher who took her students to the playground on a cold and misty day. I never had a complaint about the kids' behavior inside as long as they had plenty of time outside. When things seemed to be getting crazy it was always a sign that they needed to get OUT! I have noticed that it works exactly the same with my own three kids. Studies have indicated that exposure to green space and nature has an especially calming affect on children with ADHD. Even adults benefit from time in nature, which has been shown to help with relaxation, stress reduction, and mental restoration. Outdoor Play Is Fun This past summer at my daughter's birthday sleepover I had 12 girls ranging from six to eleven years old spending the night. My husband just happened to be out of town. I was a little concerned about doing this all by myself, so one of my good friends stayed for a couple of hours to help me out. Then she got to leave her kids with me and go out for a nice, quiet dinner with her husband. I was on my own. It was (understandably) wild and crazy inside my house. Cake crumbs and ice cream drippings covered the floor. I knew the best thing for everyone involved would be for all 12 kids to go in the backyard so I could have a moment to clean up the sticky mess. For a full 15 minutes one or another of them kept knocking on the door. "When can we come in?" "I'm tired." "I'm bored out here." They didn't seem too sure about the idea of being outside in the heat. Finally the kitchen was cleaned up and I was ready for the re-entry to occur. But wait—what was going on out there? I stealthily opened a shade and peeked outside. They had a frog and some paper birthday plates and bowls, sticks and leaves. Come to find out they were building a frog mansion. The mansion became more and more elaborate over the next several hours and the frogs multiplied. There needed to be lots of rooms, you see. And a swimming pool complete with a diving board…. Meanwhile I kicked back and read a magazine in my nice clean house. Around 10 p.m. I forced them to come in because I was scared the neighbors would wonder. The frog mansion project ended up being the most talked-about event of the party. |
What's New?
Noteworthy Books
The Case for Make Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World by Dr, Susan Linn (The New Press, April 22, 2008) Dr. Linn, a psychologist and director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has pioneered the field of supporting parents with issues stemming from our corporate culture. This book offers insightful research and wise perceptions to reclaim the natural birthright of children—their imaginations. On Dr. Linn's website about the book, it states: "At the heart of the book are gripping stories of children at home, at school, and in a therapist's office using make believe to grapple with real-life issues from entering kindergarten to the death of a sibling. In an age when toys come from TV shows, dress-up means wearing Disney costumes, and parents believe Baby Einstein is educational, Dr. Linn lays out the inextricable links between play, creativity, and health, showing us why we need to protect our children from corporations that aim to limit their imaginations." Truly this is a critical issue of our times making this book a critically important read of our times. Another absolute must-read for educators and parents is Diane Levin's new book, co-authored with Jean Kilborne, So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can do to Protect Their Kids (Ballantine Books, August 5, 2008). Both authors have depth and range in this territory having spent the bulk of their careers on helping the feminine find a healthy voice and portrayal in our media-saturated world that diminishes and victimizes women so profoundly—Levine with a focus of supporting parents to address the viciousness of sexualization of children; and Kilborne calling needed attention to advertising's stranglehold on women with her superb insights and her poetical articulation of the loss of women's power in a media age. Combining the experience and expertise of these authors brings a powerhouse to the book that fully covers the research, enriching it for the reader. Practical suggestions are not overlooked. The Library Journal in its review states, "A…useful feature is the sage advice to parents. By emphasizing ongoing discussion and communication between parents and children, this work provides strategies for helping children, particularly adolescents, thread their way through the minefields of societal and peer-reinforced sexuality." And this is what we emphasize at the PCI as we work to support parents' honest dialogue with their children—for it is real relationship and caring communication that will make the most difference. This book helps us keep that reality alive. 
Back issues of Parent Express are available on the PCI Web site. There you can read articles by Gloria DeGaetano and PCI Certified Parent Coaches®, and easily send past issues to friends and colleagues via e-mail.
Doing Time: Growing Up in the 21st Century
by Leah Stublarec As a baby boomer, I find I'm starting to reminisce about different stages of my life and some of my favorite memories, it seems, are those from my childhood, playing with the neighborhood "gang." In fact, as sleep becomes a more challenging pursuit with age, a pleasant way to lull myself back to slumber land is to recount the different activities we enjoyed, just hanging out on the block—a hilly street in a 50's track home development in suburban Maryland. Some highlights from this list include: climbing trees, playing hide and seek, red light/green light, kickball, and freeze tag—plus building snow forts, making perfume from flowers then selling it door to door, hiking the cliffs behind our houses, riding bikes, sledding, camping in the backyard, searching for four-leaf clovers, making clover necklaces, jumping in leaf piles, roller-skating, running through sprinklers, water balloon fights…just to name a few! I've also started to conduct an informal survey of fellow-boomers about their favorite childhood pastimes and typically they'll get a serene, somewhat wistful look on their faces as they venture back to their favorite times, playing outdoors with the neighborhood kids, completely free, living both in the moment and in nature. It seems like a common theme for these memories is that they were outdoors and involved children of all ages and both sexes who were totally free to do whatever they wanted. The various games and activities we devised to while away the hours were, for the most part, entirely child-initiated and directed, and required moving, thinking, creating, cooperating, making rules/following rules, and intimately connecting both with nature and each other. It was amazing how creative, focused, and alive we were when left to fend for ourselves. And we had to be because, for the most part, "indoors" was pretty much off limits—and there wasn't anything to do inside anyway. |
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This issue of Parent Express was originally published August 11, 2008. Some content, contact information, and links may be out of date, and the conversion from the original email edition may introduce formatting inconsistencies.
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