MetroFamily is proud to announce our next installment in the Parent University series. Dr. Betsy Geddes of the Love & Logic program will be in the metro on February 5, 2009 to present a four-hour workshop to educators in the morning (at UCO, Edmond) and a two-hour workshop for parents (New Covenant UMC, Edmond). Descriptions about each workshop are below. Tickets go on sale on November 3rd.

If you are serious about raising great kids, no matter what age they are now, you will learn tools that can immediately be applied to help you in your day-to-day parenting role. There's nothing more important than being a great parent for your children! We invite and encourage you to mark the date—February 5th—and join us to sharpen those parenting skills and ultimately have a more satisfying (and fun) family life.

Find out more about Love & Logic here.

Dr. Geddes' workshop for parents (Feb 5, two-hour evening workshop, New Covenant UMC, Edmond, 2700 S Boulevard; child care will be available)

Responsible Parents Raise Responsible Kids

All loving parents face essentially the same challenge: raising children who have their heads on straight and will have a good chance to make it in the real world. Every sincere mom and dad strives to attain this goal. We must equip our offspring to make the move from total dependence on us to independence, from being controlled by us to controlling themselves. In this presentation parents will learn how to:

• build and support self concept
• share the thinking
• share control
• use equal shares of empathy and logical consequences

Dr. Geddes' workshop for teachers (Feb 5, four-hour morning workshop, UCO's Constitution Hall, Edmond; continuing education certificates provided)

Discipline That Builds Self Discipline

Here is a workable, practical approach to school discipline based on teaching students to take responsibility for their learning and behavior, to own and solve their own problems, and to respect themselves, others and the planet. Participants attending these seminars will learn to:
   
• help students take responsibility for their learning and behavior.
• teach students to own and solve their own problems.
• replace punishment and rewards with problem solving.
• increase student motivation to learn.
• help students achieve their potential.
• achieve consistency in school discipline.
• generate positive responses from negative peoples.
• renew enthusiasm for teaching.

FYI: about previous Parent University events:

MetroFamily hosted Michael Popkin, Ph.D., nationally-acclaimed author, child psychologist and frequent guest on CNN, Oprah and PBS, on Tuesday, November 13th  at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. Dr. Popkin will discuss his newest book, Taming the Spirited Child: Strategies for Parenting Challenging Children Without Breaking Their Spirits. His lectures outlined effective tools for working with a child's spirited behavior in a way that celebrates his or her unique gifts while providing for a more peaceful, productive family life.

At both sessions, participants wrote down questions for Dr. Popkin to answer. Read the resulting Q&A here.

Find out more about Dr. Popkin at his website.

To provide a sample of what you'll learn at this Parent University event, we asked Dr. Michael Popkin a few questions:

MFM: What is your definition of a spirited child?

MP: Spirited children are born with a temperament that is more intense in at least five key areas. I use the acronym CAPPS to describe them, because they seem to live life in "capital" letters, being more curious, adventurous, powerful, persistent, and sensitive.

MFM: It seems like parents walk a tightrope with a spirited child. Too much discipline and they exacerbate the problem; too little and the child runs amuck. How can parents find and keep the balance?

MP: The challenge facing parents of spirited children is how to help them use these five traits to succeed in life and make a useful contribution, rather than being constantly at odds with authority and others. Taming, rather than breaking, their spirit requires a combination of eight different areas of parenting, of which discipline is only one. Setting and enforcing limits in ways that decrease power struggles requires a mixture of several of these skills.

MFM: What types of limits work best with a spirited child?

MP: The key to discipline with spirited children is to avoid either fighting or giving in. Both approaches play into the child's excessive desire for power and make problems worse. Instead, parents need to set reasonable limits with the child, and then enforce them using discipline that is logical, calm, and proactive. I teach a number of these methods in the book, but always stress that discipline never occurs in a vacuum. It always occurs within the context of the relationship. When that relationship is characterized by anger and hostility, discipline is much more difficult. To counter the natural tendency of relationships between parents and spirited children to degenerate, I also stress concrete ways to win the child over and build a positive relationship through such skills as communication, encouragement, family enrichment, and cooperative problem solving.