Just for Parents

"First Wednesdays" Parent Webinar Series with Guest Presenters
Monthly: 9-10 pm Wednesdays on Zoom

​We bring the program to you!  ​

January - Expressing Care & Support for Children & Teens
​February - Practicing Effective Communication Skills
March - Developing Positive Discipline Approaches 
April - Involving Children & Teens in Decision-Making
May - Managing Technology and Media Use in the Family
June - Expanding Children & Teen Potential through Summer Activities 
September - Balancing Time and Commitments in the Family 
October - Establishing Family Traditions & Routines
​November -  Developing Christian Values in Children & Teens
December - Celebrating Rituals and Traditions

If you miss a webinar you can watch it later right on this page!

Secrets of Happy Families - Small Group Study

Best-selling author and New York Times family columnist Bruce Feiler found himself squeezed between aging parents and raising children. He set out on a three-year journey to find the smartest ideas, cutting-edge research, and novel solutions to make his family happier. Instead of the usual psychologists and family “experts,” he sought out the most creative minds from Silicon Valley to the country’s top negotiators, from the set of Modern Family to the Green Berets and asked what team-building exercises and problem-solving techniques they use with their families. Feiler then tested these ideas with his own wife and kids. The result is a fun, completely original look at how families can draw closer together, complete with 200 never-before-seen best practices. Feiler’s life-changing discoveries include: A radical plan that can reshape your family in 20 minutes a week; Warren Buffett’s guide for setting an allowance; and the Harvard handbook for resolving conflict. The Secrets of Happy Families is a timely, counterintuitive book that answers the questions countless parents are asking: How do we manage the chaos of our lives? How do we teach our kids values? How do we make our family happier?
Format
  1. Prepare by reading by one or two designated chapters. 
  2. Meet with your group to discuss the  chapter and how you can put into practice the "secret" in your family. 
  3. Practice the new "secret" during the week. 
  4. Share your experience with everyone engaged in the book study using our "Secrets of Happy Families" Facebook Group. 

Choose How You Want to Participate
  • ​​Join a small group that meets weekly at church.
  • Join a small group that meets weekly at  one of our host homes.
  • Join us for a weekly small group meeting on Zoom. 
  • Host your own book study group in your home, coffee shop, or other location. 

Watch: "Agile Programming for Your Family"

Building Relationships at Home

Every family has and can build relationships that guide children on a path of self-fulfillment and success in life. Family members do this through the everyday ways they interact with, care for, and invest in our relationships in our families.  The tips and relationship-building activities in this guide from the Search Institute are designed to help you strengthen relationships in your family. In general, the tips are parenting practices that can be used many times. These tips and activities are designed for use with children between ages 3 and 13. Trying the tips and activities suggested here will not by themselves transform your relationship with your children. Authentic and powerful relationships take time. But using these ideas can help you become more intentional about building the kinds of relationships that have emerged through Search Institute’s research.
bringing_developmental_relationships_home__search_institute_.pdf
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9 Parenting Strategies - Search Institute
Reflect on your strengths and challenges in parenting by using our 9 Parenting Strategies as a springboard. Then identify one or two areas for growth and focus in the coming year. Go to ParentFurther for more resources. 
Parenting Strategies.pdf
File Size: 150 kb
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Learn More about Your Child & Teen

Ages and Stages: Keeping Connected through Child Development Stages

No two kids are exactly alike—even in the same family. They have different personalities and temperaments. They’re interested in different things and have different gifts. They struggle with different things and have different experiences, both good and bad. And they live in different families, circumstances, cultures, communities, and nations.

At the same time, they’re all growing and developing through child development stages. The timing and emphases will vary, but most families deal with similar issues as children grow up. (For example, children all around the world in all kinds of circumstances learn to sit and walk at similar ages.)

But growth doesn’t “just happen.” Kids develop through their interactions with the world around them. And mothers, fathers, and other parenting adults are central to their world, particularly when children are young. As they grow, their interactions and relationships with many other people also play important roles.

Use these key ideas about intellectual, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual development at each age and stage to become more intentional about the ways you interact with your child.

Go to the Keep Connected website, from the Search Institute to learn more about children and teens ages 0-18. 

Learn about Approaches for Parenting Young Children

Parents are the true experts on their children, and that there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to raising children. The information and tools provided by the Zero to Three website are designed to support parents in developing their own ways to promote their children’s growth and development.
  • Explore the resources on the Zero to Three website to develop and enhance your parenting approach with young children: www.zerotothree.org/parenting. 
The first three years of life are a period of incredible growth in all areas of a baby’s development. Learn how the earliest relationships with caregivers can promote healthy brain development, how young children build social and emotional skills, and ways you can support language and literacy development starting from birth.

Boys Town Parenting Center

Boys Town offers a vast library of parenting information and articles developed over many decades by our child behavior experts. Explore the Boys Town’s Parenting Principles, based on 100 years of real-world experience with tens of thousands of families. And, whether you are a parent, grandparent or guardian of a toddler, teen or someone in-between, we’ve got Parenting Guides, articles, videos, tools and quick tips on a variety of subjects, all developed by Boys Town's experts.​​

​Every Parent Has Questions​​
The Boys Town experts have answers. And we've collected them in a series of guides on a variety of popular parenting topics. Each guide contains a range ​of useful ​materials, including tips, articles, Q&As and videos. Some guides even have ​​​downloadable ​tools you can print​ to help put your new parenting skills into action. ​
Parent Tools
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​An effective way to maintain family harmony is to set up ways to keep an eye​​​​ on family responsibilities by using charts and contracts. With these, consequences and rewards are contingent on specific behaviors or social skills you want to ​see ​from your kids. The goal o​f these agreements is to help children build their self-confidence and character by ​setting a reasonable goal and ​achieving it. 

Boys Town Parent Center & Parent Hotline: 800-448-3011

Parenting is many things. In today’s speed-of-a-text world there’s one thing it’s not…easy. Sometimes it’s hard to know if you’re doing what’s best for your kids. And with new media-hyped “experts” popping up every time you go online, it’s hard to know who to trust to help you stay connected with your kids. You need help that’s always there and backed by the experience of working with millions of kids and families. You need the Boys Town National HotlineSM.

The Boys Town National Hotline’s specially trained counselors are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to offer you parenting advice and assistance. These dedicated professionals receive ongoing training on how to deal with situations ranging from suicide to challenges parents encounter every day with their teens.