Positive Discipline - what to do when your child says No
2.5 hours

Many parents find disciplining their children one of the hardest aspects of parenting. They may feel they swing from being too lenient to being overly harsh and may not want to repeat patterns from their own childhoods. Parents want to ensure that their children are respectful and cooperative and learn good habits and values and they usually want to find ways of achieving that without being dictatorial or punitive or taking disciplinary action that is ineffective or harmful to the child. Many parents have used disciplinary tools such as the naughty step and have had trouble making them work.

We teach parents ways of being both positive and firm at the same time and can establish harmony at home whilst maintaining a positive relationship with their children. We address the reasons for inappropriate behaviour, look at how to encourage good behaviours and how to respond effectively when children don't behave well. We look at tools for discipline which are effective and don't harm the child's self esteem or the positive relationship he has with his parents.

The talk covers:     

• What is "Positive Discipline"
• Why children misbehave
• How to motivate children to cooperate
• Establishing rules and routines that children are willing to follow
• Helping children accept responsibility and deal with their mistakes

Bringing out the Best in Boys
2.5 hours

It can be a tough world out there for boys. They may be under-performing at school, having trouble with organisation or getting into trouble. Some boys’ high energy and excessive competitiveness can be difficult to live with and some are aggressive. Boys typically find it difficult to express or manage their emotions. This talk looks at ways to help parents help their sons become self-assured, cooperative and motivated. We show parents how to help boys channel their high energy constructively and how to manage aggression. We give parents tools for communicating in a style that suits boys and teach techniques for encouraging boys to talk.

The talk covers:  

• What kind of an adult man do you want your son to be?
• Effective ways to manage boys’ high energy, physicality and aggression
• Ways of encouraging boys to do their best without being excessively competitive
• Setting up structure and routine to help boys thrive
• Helping boys manage and express emotions

Raising Girls
2.5 hours

Do you worry about bringing up a girl in today’s world? You may be concerned about preserving your daughter’s innocence in a world which encourages them to grow up so fast. You may worry about the effect of the media. This talk looks at the issues that are especially relevant to girls; how girls are different and how parents can help. We look at techniques parents can use to bring up your daughters to be strong, confident, willing to try new things and with a strong sense of self worth as well as encouraging consideration for others. In particular we teach practical and effective strategies for fostering strong self-esteem and a positive body image and for helping your daughter to have positive friendships. This talk is suitable for parents of girls of any age.

This talk covers:      

• What makes parenting a girl different
• How girls respond to the world
• Creating positive self esteem and body image
• Fostering positive friendships

The Teenage Years: setting up for success
2.5 hours

For parents with children aged 10-18

Many parents feel quite anxious about the teenage years. Adolescents experience many changes in brain development and hormones during this period which can impact behaviour dramatically. Parents often report sudden changes in their children and feel they no longer know how to respond to this new person in their midst. They need new strategies to enable them to communicate effectively, to maintain effective boundaries and to support their children through a time of great change to emerge as competent adults.

Parents need to be able to understand their teens and communicate effectively if they are to reduce conflict, help improve their teenagers’ self-esteem and to minimise the impact of peer pressure. Listening effectively to teens helps improve their ability to solve problems, to develop judgment and to be considerate of others. It also encourages teens to come to their parents if they need help.
In this workshop we teach strategies that help foster a really positive relationship between parent and teen.
This talk is suitable for parents of children approaching the teenage years as well as parents whose children are already teenagers.

The talk covers:    

• Understanding teenagers’ behaviour
• Boosting teenagers’ self-esteem
• Engaging with teens so they want to listen to you
• Motivating teens so they want to willingly cooperate
• Listening actively to encourage teens to talk
• Maintaining boundaries that generate respect, foster harmony and instil good values 

Helping Siblings to Get Along - how to reduce sibling squabbles
2.5 hours

Do your children bicker, argue or fight? Do they come to you complaining about each other or telling tales? Parents can find it very upsetting to witness their child being cruel to his/her sibling. This workshop will give you practical skills to help your children be more tolerant and considerate of each other and resolve arguments successfully.

We will show you how much can be done to make it easier for your children to like each other. We will look at the causes of the rivalry and teach you many practical, well-tried solutions to help reduce the fighting and create a more harmonious environment. We will also look at effective ways to intervene without appointing yourself judge and to help the children resolve their own disputes.

This talk covers:   

• Why siblings fight
• How to respond when they do fight
• How to foster harmony between siblings
• How to help children resolve disputes fairly without getting overly involved

Bringing out the Best in your Children
2.5 hours

All parents want the very best for their children and they want to see their children be successful and happy. Sometimes we worry that our children don’t seem to be achieving all they are capable of, we worry that they don’t seem to be trying hard, they won’t try new things or they give up too easily. In this seminar we look at ways of motivating our children to do their best and practical ways of setting things up so that children are likely to get things right.

This talk covers:    

• Ways of motivating children to want to do their best
• How to focus on the positive aspects of your child’s behaviour, no matter how small they are
• How to encourage your child to try hard and to persevere
• Practical ways of setting things up so that children are likely to get it right
• How to help your child handle things that go wrong and learn from them

Raising Confident Children
Encouraging independence and resourcefulness
2.5 hours

Strong self-esteem is vital for children to be their best and to cope with the ups and downs of life. This workshop will explore the vital part parents play in improving their children’s self-esteem and confidence. It will look at research into the importance of self-esteem and will give parents practical and effective ways to improve their children’s self-confidence, nurture independence and encourage the children to deal constructively with challenges.

The talk covers:     

• Why self-esteem is important
• How to raise a child’s confidence
• Nurturing independence and resourcefulness
• How to help a child stand up for himself 

SLOW PARENTING: bringing up children in a fast world
2 1/2  hours

Thursday 12th Sept, 7:30-10pm, Clapham

Presented by Carl Honore.

Children need to strive and struggle and stretch themselves but that does not mean childhood should be a race to perfection. Slow Parenting is about bringing balance back into the family. It means helping children reach their full potential by giving them the time and space to explore the world on their own terms. It also means giving parents the permission to relax and enjoy the ride. This workshop will explore how to find the sweet spot between doing too much and too little for our children. 

Carl Honoré is an award-winning journalist, author and TED speaker. He is also a globetrotting ambassador for the Slow Movement. The Wall Street Journal called him “an in-demand spokesman on slowness.”
After working with street children in Brazil, he covered Europe and South America for publications ranging from the Economist and Observer to the Miami Herald, Time and National Post (Canada).
Published in 2013, Carl’s latest book is called The Slow Fix. It explores how to solve problems in every walk of life, from business and politics to health and relationships, without falling for short-term, superficial quick fixes. His other works include In Praise of Slow, about how the world has got stuck in fast-forward and how more and more people everywhere are slowing down; and  Under Pressure, about how the pressure to give our children the best of everything and make them the best at everything is backfiring on kids, parents and society as a whole.

On top of writing, blogging, tweeting and giving media interviews about the Slow Movement, Carl rushes (slowly, of course) around the world to deliver speeches and workshops. His TED talk has been viewed over 725,000 times.
Newsweek described Carl as “an international spokesman for the concept of leisure.” ABC TV News called him “the unofficial godfather of a growing cultural shift toward slowing down.” Huffington Post labelled him “the godfather of the Slow movement.” The Financial Times featured him as a Guru of the Week.
Carl lives in London with his wife and two children. In his spare time, he plays lots of sports, including football (soccer) and squash. He also plays for the top ball-hockey team in the UK.

How to Listen so Kids will talk.
2.5 hours

Do you want your children to develop good communication skills, problem solving abilities and emotional literacy?  Children are sometimes reluctant to talk about anything that is bothering them, making it difficult for parents to help. Unexpressed feelings often come out in poor behaviour. When children put their feelings into words parents can respond to this more effectively.

This workshop will give you new skills to build real rapport and closeness with your children so that they talk to you more about their lives and feel understood. It demonstrates skills that allow parents to help children to recognise, process and manage their emotions. It also teaches ways to encourage children to be more considerate and thoughtful.

This talk covers:

• How to respond to your children’s upsets and anxieties to help them deal with their feelings constructively
• Encouraging children to express themselves so that they can learn to problem solve and to communicate with others
• How to build real rapport with your children that will last a lifetime
• Ways of brainstorming with your children to tap into their creativity and to give them the message that they matter.

Helping Children Cope with Life’s Knocks and deal with Bullying
2.5 hours

Strong self-esteem is vital for children to help them cope with the inevitable knocks of life. This workshop shows you how to really improve your children’s confidence and belief in themselves and how to encourage them to deal with things constructively when they face challenges. It will also address effective strategies for dealing with and avoiding any bullying children might face.

This talk covers:   

• How to foster strong self belief
• How to encourage children to share their problems
• How to encourage resilience, perseverance and coping mechanisms to deal with life’s knocks
• How to get involved when your child is bullied and teaching children strategies for coping with bullying

Parenting in a Digital Age: safe and healthy use of TV, electronic games and the Internet.
2.5 hours   

The opportunities provided for our children by technology; computers, TV, mobile phones and games consoles are amazing. The wealth of information, the opportunities to learn, to socialise, to communicate, to create and to be entertained are immense but with this comes dangers of unwelcome content or unwelcome contact, as well as the health and other implications for our children of them spending hours in front of a screen.   

This talk looks at how we keep our children safe and healthy while making the most of the technological revolution. This is a most pressing question for parents of 21st century children and one we need to address if we are to keep them safe and pass on the values we want them to grow up with. This workshop examines the pitfalls or risks associated with the technologies that children are embracing at an ever younger age including what’s missing in their lives if they spend too much time in front of a screen.  

 This talk covers:   

• The need for parents to inform and educate themselves
• What parents can do to protect and educate their children
• The use of technologies to screen and shield
• Ways of developing trust between parent and child
• How to develop effective rules around the use of technologies and having a healthy blend of activities
• Ways of communicating empathetically when they wish to have more!

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Help your Teen find their Strenghts and secure a bright future
2 1/2 hours.
Presented by Caroline Laycock of Practically Positive

“Choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” – Confucius

In conjunction with coaching company Practically Positive, we are delighted to introduce a workshop to help teens to realise their natural strengths and use this information as a stepping stone towards a successful and fulfilling future. Parents attending will have an opportunity to understand their teen better and have some fun noticing the strengths they may have inherited from each side of the family. Most importantly there will be a shared understanding of how to get the best from our teen’s inner talents and encourage this development through their future education and career choices.

What do we mean by strengths?
Based on research in positive psychology, strengths are things we’re not only good at but that also energise us – give more satisfaction, challenge and joy from an experience*. If we think about it carefully they’re easy to spot – those tasks we look forward to doing, the things in which we just ‘lose ourselves’ when we’re fully alive, fully engaged and fully immersed in the activity.

Why is this Important?
With the cost of higher education rising and stiff competition for jobs, the pressure on young people to choose the right next step after school is greater today than ever before. By choosing a path that compliments their natural abilities young people have a significantly greater chance of not only being happier and more engaged, they are also likely to be much more successful.  

Invaluable Insights
In advance of the session, all teens will be asked to complete an online questionnaire to reveal their strengths profile. They will bring this profile to the session so connections can be made between the individual’s strengths and their thoughts on education next steps/career choices.

Grasping the concept of ‘playing to our strengths’ will be an invaluable life lesson for all participants as we discuss our typical bias towards ‘what’s wrong?’ and learn more about how and why we need to accentuate the positive.

Although the focus of the session will be on the teens’ strengths profile, parents will also gather insights into their own strengths profile and might even want to complete a questionnaire for themselves afterwards!

This talk covers
Let’s Play to Our Strengths An introduction to Strengths and its relevance to young people as they shape their future.
What does this Profile mean to me? We’ll explore what the teens’ strengths profiles mean, the extent to which they’re using strengths already and practical ways in which they can use the results to help them find the ideal path for their future.  
How could this help me to choose the right course/be more employable? We’ll spotlight a number of common roles within businesses and discuss which strengths would be used in each and how.
Reflection on individual results in parent/teen pairings – working together with their parents and supported by the facilitator, teens will discuss the opportunities they are most interested in and relevant connections with their strengths profile.

Goals
Clear understanding of the philosophy and benefits of playing to our strengths.
Teens will be significantly clearer on where their particular strengths lie and and the types of roles that will get the best from them in the future. This will help them to make more informed choices on next steps for their education and career.

Participants will learn
The value of finding opportunities that play to our strengths.
What the teens’ strengths are and how to spot strengths in ourselves and others.

Style of Facilitation
Fully participative
Opportunity for Parent and Teen to work together in pairs with support and guidance from the facilitator

Who are ‘Practically Positive’
Practically Positive is a training provider and consultancy that uses positive psychology to get the best from individuals and boost team performance. Working mainly in the corporate space, they offer a range of off the shelf training modules that provide skills in the areas of Exploring Strengths, Resilience and Engagement.

Leading this session will be one of Practically Positive’s Directors, mum of two Caroline Laycock. Motivated by encouraging young people and helping them to find fulfilling futures, Caroline is passionate about sharing insights on strengths profiling that could make a real difference to young futures. For more information go to www.practicallypositive.com.

Happy Families: Exploring Family Values in the 21st century.

Lead by Andrew Stead of Practical Happiness and Melissa Hood of The Parent Practice

2 1/4 hours

Britons and people across the world have been mesmerised by the riots that took place last year in London and other British cities and have been scrabbling for some sort of explanation for what went on and what motivated the rioters. There are almost as many theories to explain what happened as there were people who took part in the riots, ranging from ‘mindless thuggery and opportunism’ to anger and frustration with current economic circumstances, and several explanations revolve around a collapse in family values.

We meet families who find it difficult to uphold the values they think are important because they do not think of themselves as being or don’t believe that they can be ‘in charge’. Sometimes in this busy multi media world we live in with thousands of ideas and opinions zinging around we’re just not that clear on what our values are. And maybe we’re not conveying them clearly to our children. There will always be some differences between families on some values (eg I’m ok with my children having sugar in moderation but I’ve heard some parents compare it to giving them cigarettes) but it’s really essential in raising children to get clear about what our values are and to pass them on to them in a positive and effective manner. We don’t have to become stereotypical Victorian authoritarian parents but it would be good to be able to teach our children what we believe matters and to behave in ways that we think matter.

In this workshop we will:

• Explore the meaning and importance of values in modern society
• Explore what are the most important values for us as a family
• Develop the family ‘mission statement’
• Provide practical tools to embody these values in every day life

This workshop will use discussion and activities to explore the themes outlined above as well as presenting some tried and tested techniques for creating family harmony.

This workshop will be jointly led by Andrew Stead, happiness and wellbeing teacher and Founder of Your Daily Bread, and by Melissa Hood, parenting facilitator and co-founder of The Parent Practice. Melissa is a parent herself who understands the rigours of family life and who has, through her work with families, considerable experience of how families have created happy environments where children are taking on what we believe to be important.

How to be a Calmer Parent

2.5 hours

When our children are behaving well, being polite and cooperative, being nice to their siblings and friends and doing what’s required of them it’s easy to be calm and positive. The difficulty is how to respond when they’re not doing what we want or they’re being rude or not sharing or fighting with siblings. As parents we want to be able to stay calm in the face of provocative behaviour so that we can access our best parenting skills and be effective in teaching our children but this is easier said than done! When our buttons have been pushed we may feel powerless and indignant and respond to behaviour by shouting or threatening or other less than effective methods. In this workshop we look at why our buttons get pushed and what to do about it so that we can stay calm and respond effectively to the behaviour that needs redirecting.

This talk covers:

•    What behaviour pushes our buttons
•    How we respond to provocative behaviour
•    Understanding our children’s behaviour and our reactions
•    What to do to encourage good behaviour
•    How to respond effectively to poor behaviour

School Matters - selecting a secondary school
Presented by Rachel Vecht of Educating Matters.

2 hours

For most parents, selecting a secondary school for their child can be a daunting and confusing procedure.  There is a whole range of options available which offer a varied approach.  Although there is really no substitute for personally visiting prospective schools and speaking to other parents, this seminar aims to provide parents with the information required to make an informed choice.  

Seminar outline
•    Understanding the options available  (state v private, co-ed v single sex)
•    Factors to consider when selecting a secondary school
•    Questions to ask  
•    Preparing your child for entrance exams
•    Easing the transition from primary to secondary school
•    Useful websites and resources
•    Open forum for questions and discussion

The seminar includes:

*    Personal attention and feedback in an informal atmosphere
*    An invaluable booklet complete with information covered on the seminar
*    Free post course advice available by email or telephone




Rachel Vecht (seminar director)

Trained as a primary school teacher at the Institute of Education and taught in both the state and private sector.  She also worked as a University mentor and lecturer to student teachers.  Over the past 10 years (in addition to becoming a mother to 4 children), she has written and delivered 'Educating Matters' seminars to thousands of working parents in the corporate and public sector.  She continues to teach children privately at home and has hands on involvement in schools through her role as a School Governor.

What to do when Your Children Push your Buttons 2.5 hours   A certain look, a defiant act, your child ‘pushes your buttons’, and you say things you swore you never would. Blame, regret, shame—does this ‘spinning out of control’ action/reaction cycle sound familiar? Effective parenting is achieved when we connect with our children, understand what their behaviour is trying to tell us, and end the parenting ‘road rage’ to give our children the help they may really be asking for.   In this workshop you will learn about how you can defuse your buttons by reframing the assumptions and expectations you make, which is what really triggers you, not your child. a defiant act, your child "pushes your buttons", and you say things you swore you never would.

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Creating Happy Learners: how to reduce stress and increase creativity.
2.5 hours 

Race to Nowhere is a film screened in London in March 2011 by The Parent Practice which “raises important questions that educators and parents must confront … a provocative, conversation starter”. - Daniel Pink, Author of ‘Drive and a Whole New Mind’

Vicki Abeles, mother of 3 and former attorney in the US, became aware that something was wrong with how we raise our children to be ‘successful’ when her 12-year old daughter was being treated for a stress-related illness. She created the film Race to Nowhere which looks at the high-stakes, high-pressure culture that permeates schools and children’s lives across the globe, creating unhealthy, stressed-out and unmotivated  youth unprepared for the realities of working life.

The film listens to the stories of young people who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried that students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids. The reality examined by the film is that cheating has become commonplace; students are disengaged; stress-related illness and depression are rampant; and many young people arrive at university and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.

What can we do as parents? Are we stuck in a culture that we are powerless to change? Or is there something we can do in the way that we raise our children that will redefine the way our children view success and themselves? Can we help our children do well and be motivated and creative rather than just following a script and be happy? At The Parent Practice we believe there are things parents can do that will help kids view success and failure differently, be motivated and creative learners and happy and confident people.

In this workshop we examine notions of success in our society and how parents can present to children a different model of success. This is not to say we want to abandon measuring academic achievement or we’re advising opting out of the educational system but rather helping our children to rise up to rather than be weighed down by educational aspirations. We want to encourage children to do their best and work hard but not to define themselves completely by their results.

We look at

• important research done by Professor Carol Dweck on creating a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset and a collaborative rather than a competitive approach to learning
• how parents can encourage healthy attitudes to study, motivation and effort in all endeavours
• how to develop resilience and positive ways of responding to set backs
• how to create a healthy self esteem which is not precariously linked to results