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Get started now
$250.00
Family Price - Ongoing Access
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Get started now
$200.00
IMC or Family Alliance Member
Peacing it all together.
This updated edition of the popular course, The Parenting Puzzle, led by Lorna McGrath, shares the secrets of Family Leadership—the Montessori way. Over the course of five weeks, Lorna provides strategies and practical examples that you can use right away to bring peace and ease into your home, creating a haven for the whole family where power struggles fall away and give rise to joy.
You Will Learn:
- How to provide simple choices to empower young children.
- How to communicate with honesty and respect.
- What to say instead of "good job."
- Why natural consequences are more powerful than arbitrary punishments.
- How and why to hold family meetings.
- How to strengthen parenting partnerships.
- How to mitigate morning struggles.
- How to separate your own feelings from your child's actions.
- How to refocus behavior and meet your child's needs at the same time.
- BONUS: Access to a private Facebook group for discussion with participants and Lorna.
“All Misbehavior is Communication.”
—Kathryn Kvols
Whether they are 14 months or 14 years old, a child who misbehaves is trying to tell you something. Maybe they have emotional needs that are not being met, or, perhaps, they are dealing with a difficult situation at school. This course serves as your parenting guidebook, from birth to adulthood, providing clear, pragmatic strategies to nearly all the difficulties we all, as parents and caregivers, encounter along the way.
For 110 years, the Montessori way has fostered peace in classrooms, nurtured emotionally resilient, empathetic children, and built powerful adult/child bonds upon a foundation of mutual respect. We are so excited to share this time-tested magic with you; so that you can strengthen the bonds within your family, understand and address disruptive behavior, create joyful parenting partnerships, learn alternatives to punishment and reward, and so much more.
Family is a gift, and our wish for you is to fully experience all the joy it can bring.
Along with issues raised by parents participating in this course, we will address the following issues:
having time to breathe | cooperation | raising confident children | feeling part of a family community | communicating with honesty and respect | enjoying your time together as a family | learning how to work out solutions without creating excessive family drama | creating a home environment that is filled with peace, understanding, and harmony
A Note From Lorna McGrath
Director of the Montessori Family Alliance & Senior Montessori Consultant
Educating children in the Montessori way has been my passion and my life’s work. I’ve designed this course, for you, parents, to help your children (whether they are toddlers or teens) develop kindness and courtesy, self-discipline, responsibility, and confidence.
In our five weeks together, I will explain essential strategies to meet your children’s emotional needs, identify and breakdown preconceived ‘habits of thought,’ and understand and minimize misbehavior.
A new unit will open up each week. I provide homework and suggestions for things to observe and try with your family. In addition, there is a private Facebook group where you, me, and the other course participants can discuss what we are learning. And best of all, when the course is done, you will have access forever.
This course is a tool you can return to time and again as your child grows and the challenges change.
I had the honor to learn much of what Lorna teaches in this course by sitting in her office and begging for help. My son began Montessori at 18 months old; he is now nearly 15. Lorna was Assistant Head at our school, and I spent countless hours seeking her counsel from everything to tantrums to ‘preparing our home environment.’ There is no doubt in my mind that Lorna made me a better parent, and by so doing, signficantly impacted the quality of my son’s childhood.
Katrina Costedio
A Montessori mom of 14 years
All parents wish their children came with a manual. Well Lorna’s classes have been as close to a manual as I could hope for! Her courses have been life changing for my family. Each class I attend, I walk away with multiple strategies to target our biggest issues or goals and have always found long lasting success. I even enjoy taking the same class after a few years because I can refocus on the latest stage of my children’s development or new issues that have developed over time.
Tara Motzenbecker
Parent of a five- and seven-year-old
I knew I wanted something different! Raised with the idea to let the baby cry herself to sleep or a good spanking will help her listen, wasn’t the way I wanted to raise my daughter. But I didn’t know what that new approach was until I took the course facilitated by Lorna McGrath M.Ed.
My father took the class with me; I was recently divorced and my parents were helping with my daughter. I wanted us to be on the same page. My father learned a whole new style of interacting with his granddaughter. No longer was it a parental dictatorship with punishments. Now it was helping her learn consequences from her behaviors. There were even times when he would help remind me to use the correct techniques in a given situation.
The old punishment and blame game will be broken—giving rise to the new approach of fostering respect, responsibility and unconditional love.
Caryn L. Young, DOM, AP OT
Parent of a young adult
Let’s Learn Together!
We can’t wait to start working together towards your most peaceful home. Register today to begin peacing together your parenting puzzle!
$250 or $200 for IMC and/or MFA members
Registration
Course curriculum
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01
Welcome to Your Family Leadership Course!
Show Content -
02
Session I: Seeing the World from Three-Feet Tall
Show Content- Your Guide to Session I - Seeing the World from Three Feet Tall
- Activities - Session I
- The real preparation for parenting...
- Habits of Thought
- Habits of Thought Worksheet
- The Child's Relationship to Her Environment
- Setting Up the Physical Space at Home
- Safety, Respect, and Clear Expectations
- Disarming the Squabbles - Rules of Engagement
- More on Disarming Squabbles
- Detaching with Love
- Between Sessions
- Observation Guidelines and Notes
- Family Life Forum - I
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03
Session 2: Why Do They Do What They Do?
Show Content- Your Guide to Session II - Why Do They Do What They Do?
- Activities - Session II
- Encourage More Than Praise
- Meeting Our Basic Human Needs
- Relationship Accounts
- Relationship Accounts Worksheet
- Respond Instead of React
- Respond Instead
- Genuine Encounter Moments
- "Good Job" Junkies
- Encourage More Than Praise
- Balancing the Scales - Our Response
- Between Sessions
- How Do You Refresh and Renew Yourself?
- Family Life Forum - 2
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04
Session 3: What to Do When You Want to Trade Them In...
Show Content- Your Guide to Session III - What to Do When You Want to Trade Them In...
- Activities - Session III
- Meeting Our Basic Needs
- One Size Fits All - Wrong!
- Goals Chart - What Is the Unmet Need?
- Attention Seeking Child - Love
- Power Child - Control
- More Strategies for the Power Child
- Take the Power Out of the Issue
- The Vengeful Child - Belong
- The Disheartened Child - Capable
- Between Sessions
- Family Life Forum - III
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05
Session 4: If We Can't Punish or Reward...Then What?
Show Content- Your Guide to Session IV - If We Can't Punish or Reward...Then What?
- Activities - Session IV
- "We must call upon..."
- Detaching: An Important Parenting Tool
- Detaching with Love
- Family Meetings - How to Get Started
- Family Meetings - Some Stories
- Family Meetings - Four Components
- Family Meetings - Helpful Hints
- A Quiet Place
- Guidelines for Creating Quiet Places
- Conflict Resolution
- Choices and Agreements
- Natural Consequences - The Best Teachers
- Between Sessions
- Family Life Forum - IV
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06
Session 5: Parenting on the Same Page
Show Content- Your Guide to Session V - Parenting on the Same Page
- Activities - Session V
- He must grow...
- Finding Common Ground
- Working Together to Make It Work
- Brainstorming with Your Partner
- Other Topics For Parents
- Vibrant Relationships
- Between Sessions
- Family Life Forum - V
- Before you go...
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