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Class Descriptions

 

Do you have questions about these classes? Please contact us--we're glad to help!

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Prep for ParentingPreparation for Parenting (6 Sessions)
(Along the Infant Way)

Preparation for Parenting is a parenting class designed for parents of infants from birth to 5 or 6 months of age. Many parents take this class BEFORE their baby is born, hence the title "Preparation for Parenting." The infant management plan offered by the Ezzos in this six week class helps parents learn to be aware of their baby's natural cycles, and give parents tools to gently shape those cycles with a flexible routine. This results in a much happier, healthier and contented baby who will begin sleeping through the night on average between seven and nine weeks of age. Babies are always fed when they are hungry, but parents learn that not all fussiness in babies relates to hunger and they learn to be observant and sensitive to their baby's true needs. Learning how to manage your newborn is the first critical step in teaching your child how to manage his life. This class is usually 6 sessions long. The teaching is done on DVD, and the remainder of the class is discussion, review of homework, refreshments and fellowship with other new parents!

 

For a more thorough description of the parenting philosophies taught in this class we invite you to click here.

 

Babyhood Transitions (2 Sessions)

Parenting Your 6 to 12 Month Old

It’s reality-check time! You’re at least four months into your tour of parenting and the complexity of child-training is starting to multiply. As your baby matures, both constant and variable factors influence his or her development and by five-months of age, the babyhood transitions require your attention. How will you respond? Certainly not by abandoning that which has brought you so much success-your baby’s routine. No, you will want to preserve the order and structure that brings security to your baby and stability to your home.

What behaviors can and should you expect from your pretoddler? Feeding time for your pretoddler, for example, is now more than a response controlled by a sucking reflex. For the pretoddler, mealtime is part of a very complex, conscious interaction between what the child does and what his parents expect him to do. Right and wrong conduct will be encouraged, discouraged, and guided when necessary. In fact, right and wrong patterns of behavior will now be part of your baby’s entire day. That’s why feeding time, waketime, and bedtime pro­vide wonderful opportunities for training.

One phrase you will hear us emphasize over and over again is “Begin as you mean to go.” The Babyhood Transition series was designed to assist parents in establishing the right patterns of learning for their child in the critical periods of brain formation and adaptation. Those patterns form learning structures that assist the child throughout his or her early development. Just as cartilage strengthens and turns into bone, so also learning patterns develop and form the basis of future moral and academic learning. Therefore, the first patterns established need to be right patterns. Thus, begin as you mean to go!

This manual goes hand-in-hand with a two-part DVD series by the same title. To keep the book coordinated with the video presentation, we included a series of “Segment Summary Review” sheets. The reviews correspond with specific lessons and summarizes the key points covered by our presenters. While the book can be used apart from the video presentation, we believe your learning experience will be maximized when the two are used together.

Finally, as was the case with Preparation for Parenting, we can give you trustworthy ideas and workable solutions, but not every possible application. As you read through each lesson, it is vital that you think in terms of principle. Understanding a ‘principle’ of parenting, derived from your own hierarchy of beliefs and values, is a greater asset than just having a list of ‘how-to’ answers. Principle parenting is wisdom parenting! We know many rewarding experiences are just around the corner as you move into the next phase of parenting. Enjoy your pretoddler

 

Preparation for the Toddler Years (5 Sessions)
(Along The Toddler Way)

Parenting Your 12 to 18 Month Old

You help your son blow out his first birthday candle and Great Aunt Lilly proclaims, “He’s a toddler now!” Not so fast! The period between twelve and eighteen months places a child on a one way bridge to the future. Infancy is a thing of the past and toddlerhood is straight ahead. A baby still? Not really, but neither is he a toddler and that is the key to understanding this phase of growth. Take a couple of photos because the child leaving infancy will not resemble the child entering toddlerhood six months down the road. This is a period of metamorphosis when his potential for learning seems limitless, his budding curiosity unquenchable and his energy level never seems to diminish.

This is a period of great of exchange: baby food is exchanged for table food; the  highchair for booster seat; finger feeding replaced with spoon; babbling sounds transition to speaking, the first unsteady steps are conquered by strides of confidence, and the list goes on. Moving forward at a lighting pace, your pretoddler is driven towards a new level of independence, equipped with a mind of his own. Whether you’re ready or not his natural inclination and challenge of “I do myself” will become increasingly apparent, not to mention frustrating.

The emerging pretoddler is acutely aware of self, although at twelve months of age he is not fully absorbed in the self importance of me, myself and I. (Hang on, that blessing of his nature will show up around twenty months of age.) Try taking something away and a scream of protest is likely. Remove him from a dangerous object and his curiosity lures him right back. His favorite foods suddenly become not-so-favorite and in a few months “No!” will become his default word whether he understands the question or not.

The natural inclination within pretoddlers towards independence is very strong yet, unpredictable. He is always in motion and not easily restrained, directed or controlled, but he needs to be! Boundaries will be tested, rules understood as suggestions, and curiosity will become a force to reckoned with. How will you meet these unfolding challenges? That is big question. The answer begins with understanding the various growth transitions of the next one- hundred and eighty days of your pretoddler’s life.

 

Toddlerhood Transitions (coming soon--watch for this new class that bridges the toddler years to Growing Kids God's Way!)

New Toddlerhood Transition Series Update from the GFI website:   "We can now say with confidence that the new Toddlerhood Transition series, (Parenting from 18 to 36 Months) is nearly complete. With less then five hours of sequence taping left, our attention is now directed to the student workbook.         For those who have followed the updates, the Toddlerhood Transition series is new in many ways. The content reflects new advancements in toddlerhood understanding and comes with a variety of new applications. The class format changed dramatically as each teaching visit averages twenty-two minutes in length, allowing for expanded small group discussion. The video format has also changed dramatically utilizing contemporary video-ography to stirs the emotions as well as challenge the intellect. To date, this is the most complex undertaking GFI has ever attempted or achieved and we are sure our constituency will be very pleased with the results.   The final release date is the only item we do not have for the GFI community, (although we are confident it will be in the early Fall). Prior to the release of this series, sample video clips will be available on-line. More updates will be coming soon.    Thank you for your patience with the process."  

 

 

Growing Kids God's Way (17+ Sessions)
(Along the Virtuous Way)

This is a is a comprehensive values-based parenting curriculum designed for parents of children ages 3 to pre-teen--though some parents do take it and benefit from it even if their children are younger or older. The class is designed to for small group discipleship studies in groups of 6 to 8 couples in a home. Class meets weekly for about 17 weeks, and each class lasts 2 hours, including a video lesson, discussion and homework review, refreshments and fellowship. It is not well-suited for a Sunday School class due to the time frame and other factors.

In the title the authors, Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo, place their emphasis on God's Way meaning the way of the Lord. We serve an ethical God. Moral rightness flows from His being. His moral law is a reflection of His holy character (Psalm 19:7). More than that, He has shown man what is good and what is required of him (Micah 6:8). Growing Kids God's Way can help any parent reach the heart of children with virtues and values that flow from the character of God and do it without stressing the child or the parents.

 

Topics include:

There are numerous examples, charts and teaching tools in the student workbook that assist the learning process along with a number of insightful appendices. For the single parent and blended families there are additional supplemental resources available to help their unique needs.

For more information on what is taught in Growing Kids God's Way, you can click here.

Reflections of Moral Innocence (8 Sessions)
(Along The Innocent Way)

 

Reflections of Moral Innocence is a study in the basics of human sexuality, especially the developing sexuality of our children. The Ezzos believe it is right to let children be children as long as they can, and believe it is wrong to rush children into adulthood through the medium of premature sexual knowledge. There is no faster way to rob a child of the innocence of childhood than inappropriate sex education. Children only get one childhood. What are you doing to protect it?

So we ask: What does God say about human sexuality and the sexual innocence of children? What does He say about purity and the role of parents in forming right attitudes in their children's minds and hearts about their own sexuality? This series discusses the practical how-to's of sex education and much more. By the end of this series you should have the confidence of knowing how, what, and when to communicate biological truth to your children with biblical values attached without fearing that you are giving your children too much or too little information.

Reflections of Moral Innocence video series consists of eight video sessions and is designed to be done in a small group or can also be done in the privacy of your home. We recommend this series to ALL parents--even those of infants and toddlers--it is perspective-shifting and will prepare you for the years ahead. There are even principles which you will be able to use with your very young children (eg: what do you call the body parts?). For more information on the content of this class, click here.

 

 

Parenting the Middle Years (6 Sessions)
(Along The Middle Years Way)

 

Parenting the Middle Years series is a 6 week class designed for those parents who have ALREADY taken Growing Kids God's Way and have been applying those principles for a few years, and whose children are in the 8 to 12 year old age range. Consider the example of the Chinese bamboo tree. Once the first sprout emerges from the soil, the rate of growth averages nearly two-and-a-half feet per day, culminating six weeks later in a ninety foot tree. What is even more amazing is the root system that sustains and nurtures this explosive growth. From the time the seed is planted, an extensive network of roots takes four years to develop before the tender bamboo shoot ever breaks ground and heads for the sun.

This is a good analogy of what is happening now with your middle years child. The growth in these years is silent, extensive and occurs mostly below the surface. Like the Chinese bamboo tree, your child is developing a supporting "root system" that will sustain and support him or her in the explosive growth years of adolescence. This is the time when you the parent must nurture, water and tend the "seedling" in your care. We want to help prepare you to meet that challenge.

The middle years, eight to twelve years of age, are perhaps the most significant attitude-forming period in the life of a child. It is during this time that the roots of moral character are established. From the foundation that is formed, healthy or not-so-healthy family relationships will be built. These are the years when patterns of behavior are firmly established patterns that will impact your parent-child relationship for decades to come. Rightly meeting the small challenges of the middle years significantly reduces the likelihood of big challenges in the teen years. In other words, the groundwork you lay during your child's middle years will forever impact your relationship even long after he or she is grown.

Included are discussions related to the eight major transitions of middle years children.

Included in this series is a healthy family profile test for parents and middle age children. Take it and find out how you compare with healthy families around the country. For more information on what is taught in this series, click here.

 

Reaching the Heart of Your Teen (8 Sessions)
(Along the Adolescent Way)

The most common questions asked of the Ezzos is why do teenagers rebel? Is it due to hormones, a suppressed primal desire to stake out their own domain, or a natural and predictable process of growth? To what extent do parents encourage or discourage the storm and stress of adolescence? Reaching the Heart of Your Teen looks at the many factors that make living with a teenager a blessing or a curse. It exposes the notions of secular myth and brings to light the proven how-to applications of building and maintaining healthy relationships with your teens. Whether you worry about your teen and dating or your teen and drugs, the principles in Reaching the Heart of Your Teen are appropriate and applicable for both extremes and everyone in between. They do work!

 

 

Included in this series is discussion on:

For immediate help with a teen questions please visit the Journal Section of the GrowingKids.org Website, under the category of Teens.