My fabulous co-counselor, Karen, loves to try new things. We sit around and come up with crazy ideas in the hopes of meeting the needs that we see around our neck of the woods (not there are any woods in this desert...)! At the start of the year, we thought it would be a great idea to have a 4 week series for parents. So we put it in the master calendar... and promptly forgot about it! When January rolled around, we suddenly realized we were actually going to have to plan and present on four separate topics, each one being 1.5 hours long. Whoops!

The following are the four topics we covered, along with just a few of the activities & resources we shared:

This session focused on parenting and attachment styles. Parents identified their style(s), and learned about the impact of each style. We also shared techniques that foster authentic relationships between parents and their children.

This session focused on first defining 9 executive skills, then discussed how parents can develop and improve those skills in their children. As executive skills improve, it enables them to work more efficiently and effectively at home and at school. These skills include: planning & prioritizing, organizing, time management, flexibility, emotional control, impulse control, task initiation, sustained attention, and working memory.  (This was the #1 topic requested through a parent survey we'd sent out earlier this year.)

ACTIVITY: How long is a minute?
​As a part of the discussion about one executive function, time management, we asked, "How long is a minute?" We explained that children must learn, often through experience and practice, to become aware of two aspects of time: accurately predicting the experience of units of time and how long individual tasks will take.

Parents were given the following instructions:
1. Put their heads down or close their eyes.
2. Start their minute when we say "go."
3. Raise their hand when they felt a minute had passed.
4. Look up or open eyes when we say "stop."

As the minute passed, we tally-marked each hand raised in 15-second intervals for two minutes on a white board. Then we asked parents to look at their estimations and discuss how they did as adults (they are generally fairly accurate). We ask them to predict how children in upper elementary do at the same task (generally about the same because they often know strategies such as counting to 60 or listening to the tick of a clock). We discuss the difficulty of adding other tasks and distractions... can we accurately predict a minute if we can no longer count or listen to the ticking clock? We learn to notice a minute based on previous tasks or with the use of tools like timers and alarms, so we, as parents and educators, must build in opportunities for students to practice tasks estimating and confirming timed tasks.

A growth mindset thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligience, but as a springboard for growth. This perspective, along with building a capacity for being able to ‘bounce back’ from hardships and/or disappointments, are vital for experiencing success and ultimately happiness. This session focused on developing these important skill sets.

"Thank You Mom" is a Proctor & Gamble Commercial from the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, created by the ad agency Wieden + Kennedy (http://www.wk.com/) in 2014. It clearly shows how children must fall, again and again and again, before they can be successful... and parents have to be willing to let them take those risks!

This session focused on the ways in which families adjust to various challenges and transitions. We touched upon how family roles and dynamics affect the family system. We covered the wonderful joys of siblings: both fostering relationships and dealing with rivalries. Finally, we discuss the importance of open communication, including "I" messages and family meetings, when dealing with conflict and changes as a family.

RESOURCE: The Positive Discipline website
​One of the websites to check out when discussing any and all family concerns is the Parenting and Parent Q & A sections of Positive Discipline. They have many great tools, including the "I feel _____when________  and I wish___________" formula, how to run successful family meetings, and many other topics on the blog. We touched on some of these topics within our presentation, but parents can search on their own as needed.

After our sessions were over, Karen and I sent out a survey to request feedback. Parents were kind, and gave helpful responses. I am grateful to have had a partner in creating and presenting, as I've learned a great deal from this experience. I also feel more confident and comfortable talking with parents in general! I hope that this post gives you a taste for what we presented, and perhaps inspires you to try your own. And I truly value collaboration with other counselors, so if you already run workshops, please share in the comments below! 

In addition to the staff adoption of three families (see the blog post, winter wishes, for details), the entire school is working together to collect food and hygiene products for families who may need the items over the winter break.

The principal of our school, who happens to be a masterful decorator, put up a gorgeous tree in the lobby.   In order to prepare my end, the following needed to be created (attached docs coming soon): 

• a list of items needed for each box
• labels with individual food/hygiene items
• about 500 die cut shapes (trees, circles, mittens)
• letter to send home with students
• a sign for the lobby ("Decorate the Giving Tree!")

I spent a week visiting all 24 classrooms to explain how the Giving Tree works:

• Every student must get permission from a parent/ guardian before participating.
• Students may take one or two blank, white ornaments from the tables in the lobby.
• Students decorate their blank ornament and bring it  back along with the item(s) listed on the label.
• Students then hang their ornament on the tree and put their donation underneath.

In two weeks, staff members will come together and organize the donated food into 10-15 boxes, then deliver the boxes to families in our community. And as the tree fills up with ornaments, the school can clearly see just how generously we can share! 

This time of year is always so fun, as everyone feels festive and generous. It's such a joy to participate in this spirit of giving during my first holiday season as a school counselor! 

My school has a tradition of adopting three or four families each holiday season, and this year I am the one to continue the (confidential) tradition. Each adopted family member made a wish list and the items will be purchased by staff members. Gifts will be wrapped while we enjoy a festive potluck brunch, then delivered during the annual "Ring & Run" (it's exactly like it sounds: we drop off presents and the Giving Tree food boxes at the families' front doors, then go out to celebrate our success). 

This year, I chose the theme "Winter Wishes" and decorated the staff lounge accordingly. First, there is a clothesline with the theme's letters and red mittens hung out to dry. Then I cut out snowflakes to add to our windows; I plan to add fake white snow and a few stray red mittens to the counter once all of the tags have been taken. Finally, I made the gift tags. I had originally planned to use die-cut mittens, but then I realized I could use the scraps from the die-cut trees I'd made as ornaments for our school wide Giving Tree. (That will be another post!) Staff members can use the tags to write a note and add it to the gift when it is wrapped at the brunch. I am hoping that every family member has their wildest winter wishes come true!