Session One:  Understand who are you in your parenting life and who do you want to be?  Recognize what is currently working for you and your family?  Identify changes you would like to make and topics that you would like to learn more about.  Appreciate your personality and parenting styles. List the characteristics of a great parent according to your own beliefs.  Get a handle on your parenting strengths and weaknesses? 

Session Two:  Know who you are parenting.  Identify the needs and strengths of your children.  Recognize the setting and situations that bring out the best in your child?  Understand your child's personality style and explore which discipline style and strategies may be most effective for your child.  Explore what makes your child feel loved and valued?

Session Three:  Examine your relationship with your children.  Explore the feelings that arise when you are with each child.  Appreciate your child's overall demeanor and behavior when in your presence.  Recognize the difference between your present relationship with your children, and the one that you would like to share.  Make sure that you are functioning as a parent, as opposed to a friend, a butler/chauffeur/tutor/cook/ or case manager.  Examine your communication style and ensure that it includes more than instructions and follow-up.


Session Four:  Learn new parenting tools that can be applied to any parenting situation, so that you can walk away from interactions with your children feeling good about the way you handled them.

Session Five:  Identify the obstacles that are currently preventing you from being the parent you want to be every day.  Do they relate to health, energy levels, available time, patience, an undermining caretaker, or to the struggle to balance the simultaneous needs of multiple children?  Are there obstacles related to your child's unique challenges or to your child's mood?  Understand why you are allowing these obstacles to prevent you from being the parent you want to be, and decide upon the changes you wish to make.

Session Six:  Learn new strategies to prepare your children for a successful return to school while BEING the parent that you wish to be without going crazy.  Examine your child's physical, emotional, and academic needs and put together  a schedule and approach that will ensure success for your child and a peaceful home environment.

Session Seven:  Assess how you are doing so far.  Develop a realistic sense of how your children are really doing.  What values are your children living?  What are their passions?  How are they funtioning socially, emotionally, behaviorally, academically, and physically?

Session Eight:  Looking to the Future.  Develop a plan to move forward successfully.  Learn how to recognize developmental changes that arise and how to respond to them.  Establish a long term plan to include periodically taking stock of ourselves and our children, and making appropriate adjustments acccording to our own values and needs.