INTEREST GROUPS
INTEREST GROUPS
FOR THE PARENTS' TOOLBOX
FOR THE PARENTS' TOOLBOX
Many individuals and groups are interested in children and parenting. These include : parents, family support groups, homeschoolers, teachers and educators, and counselors and social workers who work with families. We offer Products and Services related to children and parenting. Currently we offer the Parents' Toolbox. It is aimed primarily at parents., but it would be useful to these other groups too. They work with children and / or parents, and may refer to this toolbox for good ideas or recommend it to parents for use in the home.
Toolbox Description - The Parents' Toolbox is aimed at young people ages four to eighteen. It contains several tools and each one offers different types of information. Collectively these various types of materials are called a toolbox because they allow parents to select the specific material or “tool” they need, at the time, to help a child. A description of the toolbox is given below.
- The book Better Parenting : A Simple Approach is the most basic and comprehensive tool. It offers a flexible and practical approach to parenting, which is adaptable to different family situations. The emphasis in on one-to-one interaction between each parent and each child in the family, during the years the child is raised in the home. Each parent and child discuss a holistic variety of topics over a period of time, and have worthwhile activities together on a regular
basis. Challenges
are extended and then met. Daily living is utilized in several ways. The benefits of this approach include the development of each child (and parent) as individuals, stronger parent-child relationships, as well as easier and improved parenting. The short-term objective is to turn today's children into winners and the long-term objective is to turn them into successful young adults. The book provides guidelines for evaluating a child’s progress. It offers recommendations and strategies to improve parent-child
interaction. It covers long-term considerations like monitoring patterns and trends in a child’s life. Age group information is provided to help parents deal more effectively with a child at his current age.
- There is a Discussion or Meeting Form that is available too. It is used with the discussions parents have with their children over the years. The form is used for planning, note taking, recording challenges, and other purposes.
- In the near future we'll be offering the book Topics To Discuss With Children And Adolescents. About twenty major topic categories, each with several sub-topics, will be covered. A lot of useful information is provided to assist parents in discussing relevant topics with their children. Topics information will help to enrich these parent-child discussions.
- There will soon be several Learning Activities for the child / youth to do. Each one covers an important topic in the topics book. These materials supplement and reinforce the Topics To Discuss book.
For more details on these tools and how to use them effectively, visit the Books and Downloads page. We hope you’ll check our website periodically to see each of these products as they become available, as well as check for updates.
There are groups who should have a special interest in the Parents' Toolbox, and would benefit the most from it. If you are part of one of the groups below, click on the group and find out what this toolbox can do for you.
PARENTS - A Letter For You
If you're a parent, we want you to know that your work is important and appreciated. This is why many articles in our online newsletter are for you, and our first books are for you too.
As a parent, here are some things to keep in mind. Parenting is a basic and important responsibility in life for adults. This is true in all generations and all cultures. Marriage and parenting go hand in hand to produce families, and families are the basic building block of society. When family life is going well, society is better off too. To illustrate this, consider four important groups.
- Medical Personnel - Doctors and nurses who serve young people can see the negative effects of poor parenting in the physical and mental health of their patients.
- Schools - School personnel know that better parenting and home life produce better students in the classroom. Problems at home make their way into the schools. This makes the teacher's job harder and classroom instruction is less productive.
- Law Enforcement - Police and others involved in law enforcement know that many problems contributing to juvenile delinquency and adult crime begin with poor quality home life and lack of training by parents. Less problems at home mean less problems on the streets.
- Employers - When youths and young adults apply for work or actually work in a job, the upbringing they had at home shows through in so many ways. It affects things like their speech, dress standards, manners, coping skills, work ethic, honesty, values, etc. Employers want stable, dependable people who can do the job and not cause problems in the process. They appreciate young adults who are ready, willing, and able to work. This saves them, and ultimately all of us, money in the long-term.
As parents, do not underestimate the powerful and profound effects you have on young people. You are given the primary responsibility for shaping the next generation. It is critical that you do this the best you can and utilize all the help you can get.
Because parenting is so important, we have put together The Parents' Toolbox to help you carry out your important role in society. (Refer to the Toolbox description above, and how you can utilize it.) This material can be used by married couples, single parents, stepparents, adoptive parents, or foster parents. As long as you are an adult with some responsibility for a child or youth ages four to eighteen, you can use this toolbox.
Parenting is related to the Life Perspectives stressed on this website : Inner Boss, Effective Living, Stewardship, Character, Spirituality, and Success. These perpectives help people to run their lives better and manage their affairs easier, while showing respect for the rights of others. They help people accept responsibilities and perform them in an acceptable manner. Establishing good family patterns and developing parental skills are basic responsibilities. The perspectives help you to be a better parent and experience a more enjoyable family life. As you use them in this way, your efforts will strengthen you as a person. You will set a better example of being a good Inner Boss, experiencing Effective Living, practicing Good Stewardship in the home, strengthening your Character, nurturing Spirituality in your life, and achieving Success. With time your children will learn from you, and practice good parenting in their own homes and utilize the Life Perspectives more fully in their own lives.
Let us know how our Parents Toolbox is helping you to be better parents and improve the quality of your family life. If you have any questions in utilizing it, don't hesitate to contact us. Also, if you have recommendations for other parents, please submit them so they can be shared with others. For all these cases, contact us via email at rdr@lelandpulley.com .
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If you work with or for a family or parental support group of any kind, then we say keep up your good work for families who appreciate your efforts in their behalf.
Support groups can help families in several ways.
- Groups can pool their resources to collectively seek and gain benefits for their members. They can support worthwhile causes and legislation for family life.
- Groups provide training and education for families covering a variety of topics and issues. This helps families to prevent problems, as well to handle problems better when they do occur. Some groups focus on specific challenges or problems families have, and help each family to resolve its problems. Other groups seek to improve family life, for its members, in a more general way.
- Families in a support group meet other people like themselves who share similar concerns and face similar challenges. They learn that they are not alone in their situation or challenge or problem or dilemma. They can share ideas with other group members. They can literally support each other by sharing experiences, ideas, and solutions.
If your group wants to improve the quality of family life and help parents do a better of raising their kids, then we have a message for you.
No one should underestimate the powerful and profound effects that good family life and parenting have on young people. Parents are given the primary responsibility for shaping the next generation. It is critical that they do this the best they can and utilize all the help they can get. Family support groups is one form of “outside the home” help for families.
As one such group, you know how important parenting is and would like to help families. We have put together The Parents' Toolbox to help parents carry out their important role in society. The material in the toolbox is to be used with kids ages four to eighteen. The toolbox can be used by married couples, single parents, stepparents, adoptive parents, or foster parents. As long as an adult has some responsibility for a child or youth, he / she can use this toolbox. We would like to recommend this toolbox to you in behalf of the families you serve and work with. A description of the Toolbox is given above.
We encourage your group or organization to buy the entire Parents' Toolbox. Also, please let your members know about it. You may have a newsletter or other means to pass on information to members about various issues, topics, and products. They may want to obtain their own copies of our toolbox. We do offer group discounts on purchases. For more information on this, contact us at 503-970-4192.
You may wonder why we’re interested in parenting and family life. Both are related to the Life Perspectives stressed on this website : Inner Boss, Effective Living, Stewardship, Character, Spirituality, and Success. These perpectives help people to run their lives better and manage their affairs easier, while showing respect for the rights of others. They help people accept responsibilities and perform them in an acceptable manner. Establishing good family patterns and developing parental skills are basic responsibilities. The Life Perspectives help parents to develop themselves and experience a more enjoyable family life. As parents use the perspectives in this way, their efforts strengthen them as individuals. This allows them to then set a better example of being a good Inner Boss, experience Effective Living, practicing Good Stewardship in the home, strengthening their Character, nurturing Spirituality in their life, and achieving Success. With time their children will learn from them, and practice good parenting in their own homes and utilize the Life Perspectives more fully in their own lives.
Let us know how our Parents Toolbox is helping your members experience better parenting and family life in their homes. If you have any questions in utilizing the toolbox, don’t hesitate to contact us. Also, if you have recommendations for families, please submit them so they can be shared with others. For all these cases, contact us via email at rdr@lelandpulley.com .
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OUR EXPERIENCES WITH HOMESCHOOL - My wife and I utilized homeschool in our family. Our strategy was simple. We would use the public schools when they met the needs of our children. If any child’s needs were not being meant well enough to satisfy us, we would provide him or her homeschooling. We have several children and between them we have offered homeschooling at the grade school, middle school, and high school level. We have lived in eight states. What we found was the laws governing homeschooling varied from state to state and some of these changed with time. However the basic desire to provide good education for our children remained constant.
There were obstacles to overcome. One was the criticism that we were denying our children proper socialization by not having them in the public or private school setting. The second was that parents were not trained to be teachers and could not do a good job of teaching their own kids. Both of these concerns faded over the years as more parents offered homeschooling for more than purely religious reasons. Also, the academic performance of homeschoolers went up and colleges began to respect homeschooling more and welcomed freshman students who had been homeschooled. Another change was the opening of public school programs to homeschoolers. I remember one school district telling me that if a child was pulled out of their district before high school, he was not permitted to come back in. Now homeschoolers can have academic subjects taught at home, yet utilize group activities at public schools like band, gym, sports, etc.
Perhaps the most important concern about homeschooling was whether we as parents would make the commitment necessary to put in the time required to do a good job. The husband or wife or both has to make an agreement among themselves and with each child involved on who is going to do what. Then there must be cooperation and mutual support.
Some things have made homeschooling easier with time. One is an increased availability of teaching materials through both retail outlets and on the Internet. Another is the increase in organizations offering support and resources for homeschooling. Finally the social stigma of it has decreased a great deal.
PARENTING AND HOMESCHOOL - Generally, the focus of homeschooling is on the academic subjects and some of the activities offered in the public schools. A formal education, along with some appropriate group activities is essential in the training and upbringing of children. However, there are many things that a child should learn through what I call “informal schooling” or learning that takes place outside the classroom. Some of the most important things a child will learn are in this latter category. A few examples are honesty, coping strategies, doing duties, developing a work ethic, using time well, learning how to deal with people, rendering service to others, developing spirituality, etc. As a parent, you are more than a teacher offering homeschooling to your child(ren). I say this because homeschooling may be used for only a few years, while parenting continues from birth to young adulthood. Also, the scope of parenting is much broader than homeschooling. Your efforts with homeschooling are merely a part of your parental efforts.
Let us now focus on parenting by adults who are experienced with homeschooling. As a homeschool parent, you have already shown an interest in your child’s education. You have made a commitment to dedicate money, time, and energy to help that child gain an education. The next logical challenge for you is to improve your overall parenting in much the same way that you have improved the education your child is receiving.
To assist you we are offering The Parents' Toolbox. A description of the Toolbox is given above. We strongly recommend this toolbox to homeschool parents. You have already developed some of the patterns in your home that are essential for using the toolbox successfully. One is the Better Parenting Approach, as described in the book Better Parenting : A Simple Approach. You are already working one-on-one with specific children. You have already made the commitment of time and energy. Now broaden out your efforts to enrich the life of your child in many more ways.
Visit our website periodically to check out each tool of the toolbox as it's offered, and eventually buy the entire Parents' Toolbox. It will be the best investment you ever made. And if the toolbox is used properly, it will be as valuable to your child when he’s an adult, as homeschooling will be!
For those of you with portions of The Parents' Toolbox now, let us know how they're helping you to be better parents and improve the quality of your family life. If you have any questions in utilizing our materials, don't hesitate to contact us. Also, if you have recommendations for other homeschool parents, please submit them so they can be shared with others. For all these cases, contact us via email at rdr@lelandpulley.com .
HOMESCHOOL GROUPS, ORGANIZATIONS, BUSINESSES - Many organizations or groups support homeschooling either directly or indirectly. There are businesses that sell products to homeschoolers. We invite all of you to seriously consider our Parents' Toolbox. Everything in it is supportive of good education and proper training of children and adolescents.
The material you offer to support homeschooling actually blends in with the broader scope of information we offer in our Parents' Toolbox. We say this for two reasons. As experienced homeschool parents ourselves, we know that the formal education offered via homeschooling is only a part of the learning and training that children should receive while growing up. Parents must teach their kids many other things. To help parents do this, we offer not only information on learning and formal schooling, but on many other equally important things children should learn.
Parents experienced with homeschooling are a natural audience for our Parents' Toolbox. If there is any way to share this information with the members of your group or organization, or with parents who buy products and materials from you, please do so. Also, let us know how we could share our material with your members.
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This message is for teachers and other educational personnel who work with children and adolescents ages four to eighteen. You may work in a public school or a private one. You may work for an educational service district in your state or another type of organization / agency directly concerned about or involved with education.
All of you are concerned with what children learn, the training they receive, and the quality of their education. We share that same concern. There are three parties involved in this process - the child / youth (student), the third-party teacher or other educational worker, and the parent(s). Each of these parties should have contact and good communication with the other two. This promotes the sharing of information, mutual understanding, teamwork, and ultimately leads to more progress made by each child.
As educational workers you know that ultimately your best efforts are limited by both the student and his parent(s). The student’s attitudes, abilities, and effort will determine to a large degree how much you can help him. If he resists you , your efforts will produce less results. Also, you know that parental support and good example have a big impact on education. If the student’s parent doesn’t stress education to him or the parent fails to cooperate with you, your efforts will be less effective. One important factor in gaining and sustaining parental support of education is the parent-child relationship. If there are conflicts or lack of cooperation between child and parent, then parental support of his education will be hindered. The parent will be less effective in encouraging, supporting, and working with the child in educational endeavors.
For the reasons summarized above, we would like to recommend a “supplemental educational” resource to you in behalf of the students you serve and their parents who you communicate with regularly. This resource is called The Parents' Toolbox . It contains several tools and each one offers different types of information. All material is aimed at young people ages four to eighteen. With this toolbox, you can select the specific material or “tool” needed, at the time, to help a child. A description of the Toolbox is given above.
For more details on these materials, visit the Books and Downloads page of this website. We hope you’ll check our website periodically to see each of these products as they're offered and eventually buy the entire Parents' Toolbox for your own children and recommend it to the parents of your students.
You may ask why we’re discussing this parental toolbox with you. When parents and children utilize it, children learn more. They have more confidence in themselves. They seek to develop themselves more fully. Both parent and child are more unified, as well as better team players with you the teacher / educator. Your job becomes easier. Everyone gains - the student, parent, and teacher.
We ask that you seriously look at the real benefits this educational resource can offer the families of students for whom you are responsible. Note the many things it can do for your students. For example, the first two topic categories are Learning and Education respectively. A lot of useful information is provided to assist parents in discussing relevant topics in these vital areas with their children and your students. After reviewing our material, recommend it to parents. Help them with their parenting, and you will help your students and yourself in the process!
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Both counselors and social workers work with children, adolescents, and their parents. These professionals communicate, share information, do assessments, give advice or counsel individuals and families. They handle legal matters such as abuse, custody, foster care, and adoption. Through experience they learn a lot about the challenges family members face today and can recommend ways for such individuals to overcome the many obstacles in front of them. In the process, counselorsand social workers should see the value of The Parents' Toolbox , when propelry utilized in the typical family. (A description of the Toolbox is given above.) They can gain some ideas from it and share these with families on a case by case basis. They can recommend to many families that they obtain the toolbox's materials and utilize them in their homes. In some families they can recommend to the parent how to approach a particular child in order to help him do specific things recommended in The Parents' Toolbox. In these ways the toolbox can help the counselor and social worker work with parents to help children.
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Copyright 2005-2010 Leland Pulley
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