Parent Workshops

Ever since my training in graduate school, I have desired to do parent workshops. Parents have so much more influence over their children than teachers, and so I believe the greatest potential toward influencing children is through training parents, especially training from a Biblical worldview. ECA has some structures in place for parent workshops, in that it is required for parents to go to at least one workshop each year. I have been very encouraged by ECA's desire to provide parent workshops and have me expand what they have been doing.

So far this school year, I have had the blessed opportunity to do 3 workshops for parents: 1. Having a Biblical understanding of stress and how parents can help their children counteract its effects; 2. Preparing your child to go to college in the states; 3. The pictures seen below based on the book Shepherding Your Child's Heart on understanding the motives of our children and how parents can shepherd them toward righteousness. The 5 pictures found in "Ministry Pictures" are of my most recent presentation based on the Shepherding book. I did this presentation because last year the elementary school at ECA (pre-k through 4th grade) began using the philosophy and methodology of the book for discipline (although not the "Rod" portion of the book). All the parents invited were parents of elementary children. (Pic 1)

I will be doing 2 more presentations this semester:

1. Procrastination & Perfectionism
2. Understanding English Language Learning.

Liana Moguel, a parent of current students and a former staff member of ECA with the "Learning Center", translated the powerpoint and the presentation for me. She also marketed the workshops for me by making personal phone calls to parents. She has been a great asset, and I could not have been able to reach the parents without her! (Pic 2)

At my most recent workshop, I was really struggling to find my rest in God as I had tremedous difficulty with extraneous circumstances. 1st, The teacher van brought us to school late because of the rain and traffic being particularly heavy; 2nd, I was originally supposed to be presenting in a large conference room, but the room was under rennovation; and 3rd, the school internet went down, so I was unable to print my handouts in Spanish, nor was I able to use my "enhanced" version of my powerpoint. I was very thankful that Mrs. Moguel had saved a version of it on her computer!! Praise the Lord! I learned a valuable lesson: to never rely entirely on technology to work and to always bring your materials on a pin drive. (Pic 3)

I was very grateful that our High School principal was willing to allow me take over a classroom. Although we started late, didn't finish the intended material, and had to move locations, the parents were very gracious and gave me a lot of positive and constructive feedback. (Pic 4)

Over the 3 workshops, God has given me the opportunity to share his truths with over 60 parents, some of whom have come to multiple workshops. (Pic 5)