Last night, 11 Kidspace parents attended a workshop with Parent Educator Beth Goss. It dealt with all those thorny behavior guidance questions we have as we raise our children through their different ages and stages. It opened up dialogs about our upbringings, our own perceptions about discipline, our current approaches to guiding our children, which of these were working and which were not. The "were nots" were clearly in the lead :-). The conversation was lively, full of laughter and knowing nods as each family shared a bit of their current struggles and the puzzling aspects of different approaches to discipline. Beth offered sound, yet non-prescriptive techniques for families to pick and try. She also recommended several helpful books (which are available from Kidspace if you would care to borrow one from our resource library). Many parents came away with useful new tools to try out.
Beth is a skillful educator from North and South Seattle Community Colleges and Swedish Medical Center. As it happens, she also has deep roots and a long history with Kidspace as both a former parent and staff member here since the early 90s. One of the great benefits of our Kidspace community is the resources Beth can provide your family. She will be leading a follow-up workshop on child guidance including the highly effective techniques of Emotion Coaching (a continuation of this first workshop that will still be appropriate and helpful for anyone coming for the first time). All parents and guardians will receive a workshop invitation when that date is set. She also is available to consult with you one-on-one about any parenting questions you may have. I hope you will take advantage of all that she has to offer during your family's years at Kidspace. She's an experienced and very personable coach. She can make suggestions to use immediately to help turn family dynamics from frustrating to improved understanding and increased harmony. I hope you will call upon her and attend her workshops through the year here at Kidspace. Here is how to reach her:
Beth Goss, Parent Educator
bethlisa.goss@gmail.com
Please contact me if you would like to borrow any books and media on this an many other parenting and child development topics. My email is kimk.kidspace@gmail.com and my phone number is 206 302-9388.
-Kim Kleeh
Mentor Teacher, Kidspace Childcare
What to do with all this candy?
ReplyDeleteWe have the "Switch Witch". The morning after Halloween the kids opt in (it's voluntary but they always opt in) to select 10 pieces of candy to keep and leave the rest out for the Switch Witch. That night, (or sometime before the following Saturday), the Switch Witch takes the candy and leaves in its place a surprise. The Switch Witch is a huge hit at our house, and the kids have decided that the more candy they leave her the bigger their gift will be!
Wow Megs, that is a very fun way to manage the abundance and sounds like a great family tradition forming for your kids. Sounds so wise, too, that you give them the choice and trust them to opt in or not. Thanks for sharing this with all of us!
ReplyDelete-Kim
In the comment box from the article below, Mark Swardstrom also comments that his family tried the Switch Witch idea and the kids love it. You can read his comments by clicking the comments button on the previous post.
ReplyDelete-Kim