Behavior

Parents Place in San Rafael has been a valuable resource for countless Marin County parents and families. This spring, they offer a wide variety of programs, from yoga for little ones and music time to workshops for new moms and dads and parents of spirited children. Here are a few of their offerings this season:

Yoga for Children (2 ½–5 years)
Yoga for the little ones! This ongoing series includes a playful interpretation of classical yoga poses, with songs, stories, movement, and quiet breath awareness practices for 2 ½- to 5-year-olds. Parent participation is optional, but supervision is required. This series gives kids an introduction to yoga that is both fun and educational and helps build concentration and mindfulness in preschool-aged children. Please bring a mat. With Juliana Birnbaum Fox, MA. Fridays, May 3 - 17, 11:00 - 11:45 am. $42 per child for three weeks; $21 for each sibling. Register here.

For Dads Only - Effective Fathering (all ages)
During this workshop, parent educator and coach Tom Limbert, MA will use his new book,Dad's Playbook: Wisdom for Fathers from the Greatest Coaches of All Times, as a framework for tackling the issues facing today's fathers. Tom will reveal how a father can walk the fine lines of discipline, respect, and support. You will discuss the values of listening, leading by example, staying in the moment, setting clear limits, and motivating your children. (Signed copies of Tom's book will also be available at a discount to attendees). Mon., May 6, 7:00 - 9:00 pm. Register here.

Are you getting worn down by bedtime challenges, morning-rush madness, dawdling, whining, and other challenging behaviors? Do you find yourself too often resorting to threats, bribes, or raised voices? Learn practical strategies to improve cooperation and discipline, strengthen character, and enhance your relationships at home. Based on the bestsellers by Faber and Mazlish, this entertaining workshop consistently receives rave reviews. Here’s what one participant said:  “…immensely helpful, practical, and insightful.”

This workshop is led by Julie King, JD. Usually a four-week series, it's being offered as a one-day intensive for those who can’t attend for four weeks.

Julie is a highly regarded Bay Area workshop leader and presenter who has been educating and supporting parents for more than 15 years. A graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School, Julie holds certificates in organization development consulting skills and life coaching. She has also completed extensive training in conflict resolution, mediation, and coaching.

This workshop takes place on Sunday, March 17, from 10 am to 4 pm, and is for parents of children ages 3 to 8. The cost is $199 per person or $299 per couple; the fee includes a $10 workbook.

Getting a good night's sleep for both your baby and you can be one of parenting's biggest challenges. If you're interesting in learning  some great techniques to help your little one—and you—sleep, the Parents Place in San Rafael is offering a one-morning course "Infant Sleep Solutions" for parents of children from birth to 12 months on Friday, December 7, from 10:30 am–12:30 pm.

Participants will discuss baby sleep needs and the best ways to help young ones learn good sleep habits. You'll also cover the importance of a baby schedule, challenges to baby sleep habits (developmental milestones), new SIDS research and guidelines, pros and cons of various sleep methods (Ferber, CIO, low/no-cry methods), infant/child sleep products, and choices: family bed, crib, and room sharing.

Non-crawling babies are welcome.

This class is led by Sarah Middelton, MA, CD PCD (DONA), a mother, infant sleep consultant, and parent coach specializing in the transitions that occur in the first year after the birth of a child. She is also trained as a childbirth educator, and birth and post partum doula (DONA). Sarah has studied with Angelique Millette and uses a variety of sleep methods and tools to help parents of infants with sleep issues.

Marin Mommies presents a guest article by Melissa Lapides, Marin mom, licensed marriage and family therapist, and parent educator.

As a mother, it is sometimes hard to find peace in a busy day. I am not just talking about the kind of peace that you experience by the few valued moments that you actually get to sit down and relax, but about the inner peace that makes you feel connected to your purpose in being a mother.

Sometimes you can get so caught up in the daily routines and emotions that it is hard to connect to what you are really working towards as a parent. Raising children can feel busy and repetitive at times and sometimes you can loose sight of what you are really trying to accomplish. Are you working towards how many activities you can successfully get your children to participate in or are you working towards raising your children to be self-confident, self-reliant adults.

As a parent, you want to provide not only love and compassion, but also rules and guidelines to live by so that you can send your child out into the world with a sense of value and self regard. The main point in discipline is not to have children become good followers, but to have children develop a sense of self-discipline and worth.

When you can connect to your own sense of purpose as a parent, the role becomes so much more rewarding and the daily repetition can feel much more meaningful. If you are going about the day without a sense of being connected to your purpose as a parent, the child will internalize these feelings and have a harder time connecting to their own sense of worthiness.

Does your child:

• Refuse to listen to the rules?
• Generally seem difficult?
• Test you constantly?
• Throw a fit when they don't get their way?

Strong willed children can become a major source of frustration for parents. Come and learn some basic guidelines that will give you more confidence and make you feel more grounded in your parenting. Sessions take place on November 13 and 20 from 7:30 to 9 pm at Parenthood Partners, 1010 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, Suite 204 in Kentfield.

The class is led by Melissa Lapides, a mother of three children and a marriage and family therapist who specializes in parenting issues and child behavior support. Melissa will discuss not only how to set limits, draw healthy boundaries, and create consistency, but will also have parents start to reflect on how their actions contribute to and create a dynamic. She'll talk about value based parenting and working toward a parenting style that is authoritative and empathic and compassionate at the same time. This workshop is ideal for parents with children of all ages.

Managing sibling relationships can be one of parentings biggest challenges. If you're interesting in learning more about how to help your children become more cooperative, caring, and compassionate, the Parents Place in San Rafael is offering a one-evening course "Positive Sibling Relationships" for parents of children ages 2–10 on Monday, October 15, from 6:30–8:30 pm.

In this class, parents will explore this important relationship and discuss conflict, fairness, and sharing. This course is facilitated by parent educator and early childhood mental health consultant Bonnie Romanow. Bonnie is a Jane Nelsen-certified parent educator and a certified Waldorf early education teacher, and also serves as an early childhood mental health consultant in Marin and Sonoma counties, supporting parents and professionals in meeting the emotional needs of young children.

Bonnie’s parenting classes run the gamut—from positive discipline and anger management to raising daughters and spirited children. A former early childhood teacher and preschool director, Bonnie was the founding member of the Great Oaks School in the Chicago area. She also worked with teens in the Youth At-Risk community program.

Marin Mommies presents a guest article by Melissa Lapides, Marin mom, licensed marriage and family therapist, and parent educator.

Becoming a mother is a life-changing event for many people and usually women don’t know exactly what to expect. Many times you imagine your life as a mother based on stories you have heard from other women, media or your own relationship with your mother. You hear about the joys of motherhood, you hear about the changes in your relationships, you may even hear about how big of a transformation motherhood could be.

It is not always though that you hear the depths of how intense it is to devote yourself so deeply to another human being. Mothering is truly a deep practice of patience and compassion. Being able to nurture your children in such a way can be completely depleting at times. This is hard for most mothers to admit to one another.

Mothering is a practice of constant balancing and making sure not just the basic survival needs of the children are getting met, but also the physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Day in and day out of problem solving, nurturing and giving so much of yourself can be quite a task.

Learn about tantrums, toilet training, and strategies to make the "twos" truly terrific. The Parents Place in San Rafael is offering a Terrific Twos (14–36 months) workshop for parents tomorrow evening, August 15 from 6:30–8:30 pm. The workshop will cover setting limits, coping with aggression, developing socialization skills, and more.

Instructor and parent educator Susan Byrd facilitates Parents Place workshops for parents of toddlers and preschool-age children. Her areas of expertise include issues for new parents and young children, such as sleep, toilet learning, limit-setting, tantrums, positive discipline, parent-child separation, and adjustment to school and family changes.

The workshop cost is $35 per person and preregistration is required. You can preregister here.

Marin Mommies presents a guest article by dad, parenting coach, author, and co-creator of Studio Grow Tom Limbert. Learn more about him and how he helps parents and families at parentcoachtom.com.

Somewhere in a big room with a long table and a bunch of chairs, some guys decided the way to fix our failing education system in America was to cram all the curriculum down to younger children quicker and sooner. These visionaries went on to conclude that it would be a good idea to test all those children and, based on those results, reward some schools and penalize some teachers. Teachers felt the pressure so they taught more children faster. They needed those more children to be more ready when they started kindergarten in the first place. So parents felt the pressure and decided to hold most of their children back until they were “ready” for kindergarten. If you have a preschooler right now you know all too well about this pressure. Bet you’re stressed about whether your child will be ready. Hoping your school will bring him up to speed? Me too. But there’s plenty parents can be doing at home to help prepare their children for kindergarten.

Most parents immediately think of numbers, letters and colors when they think of early childhood education and kindergarten preparedness. But any preschool or kindergarten teacher will tell you, there’s much more to it. There are social and emotional elements that are much-less quantifiable than the cognitive aspects of development, but just as integral to a child’s performance in school. The good news is there are many ways you can help prepare your child for kindergarten in your home on a daily basis. You don’t even have to go out of your way really. Just be a bit more alert to learning opportunities. Keep in mind that in order for the machine that we prefer to call our schooling system to operate effectively, children will mostly have to be able to focus, follow directions and respect others.