Class 1 · Foundations: healthy families, values, and ground rules
What it covers
- How the program works: attendance, make-ups, and what earns a certificate
- What stays in the group, what is shared with a court or social worker (only with your signed release), and the limits of confidentiality, including mandated reporting
- Group agreements, built together
- What families that function well have in common
- Where your own parenting comes from, and the values you want to parent by
- Who you can turn to for support
Practice in class: A strengths inventory and a values sort.
To try at home: Write down one moment this week when something went right with your child.
Class 2 · Age-appropriate expectations: development and skills
What it covers
- Developmental stages, from infancy to the teen years
- What children can and can’t do at each age: impulse control, memory, cause and effect, handling emotions
- Age-appropriate chores, responsibilities, and independence
- Common mismatches between expectations and a child’s age
- How stress and instability can affect how a child functions
- Reading behavior as information about what a child can handle
Practice in class: List three expectations and three responsibilities for your child, then check them against your child’s stage as a group.
To try at home: Adjust one expectation and add one age-appropriate responsibility.
Class 3 · Understanding your child’s emotions
What it covers
- The emotion behind a tantrum, a shutdown, or defiance
- Helping children name their feelings
- Emotion coaching: notice, name, and validate, then set the limit
- Temperament, and when a parent’s and child’s temperaments clash
- Co-regulation: how a calm adult helps a child calm down
- How emotions look different at 4 and at 14
Practice in class: “Behavior detective” scenarios in small groups, then an emotion-coaching response out loud.
To try at home: Name your child’s feeling out loud once before responding to the behavior.
Class 4 · Managing your own emotions: stress, anger, and repair
What it covers
- The escalation cycle, and early warning signs in your body and thoughts
- Common triggers, like exhaustion, money stress, or feeling judged
- Practical ways to slow down and calm down
- Repair: what to do after you lose your temper
- How children learn to handle emotions by watching adults
Practice in class: Map your own path from calm to blow-up and mark the earliest point to step in. Then practice a repair conversation.
To try at home: Use one strategy from your map at least once.
Class 5 · Structure, routines, and clear limits
What it covers
- Why predictable routines lower everyone’s stress
- The routines that matter most: mornings, meals, homework, and bedtime
- Giving clear directions, one at a time
- Rules, expectations, and preferences, and why fewer rules work better
- When-then statements and following through
- Keeping limits consistent across caregivers and homes
Practice in class: Direction-giving practice in groups of three, with feedback on clarity and tone.
To try at home: Run one routine the same way, at the same time, for five days.
Class 6 · Discipline that teaches
What it covers
- The difference between discipline and punishment
- Natural and logical consequences, and positive consequences
- Time-out done well, and time-in
- Alternatives to physical discipline
- An overview of what California law says about physical discipline, and what mandated reporters must report
- Matching discipline to a child’s age, and the limits of behavior charts
Practice in class: Bring a real situation and build a consequence that is related, reasonable, and something you can follow through on.
To try at home: Try one logical consequence and note what happened, even if it didn’t work.
Class 7 · Communication and connection
What it covers
- Listening so a child keeps talking
- I-statements, and why timing matters as much as wording
- Body language, tone, and getting down to a child’s level
- Assertive, passive, and aggressive communication
- Praise vs. encouragement
- What works with a preschooler and what works with a teenager
Practice in class: Role-plays of reflective listening and I-statements, and writing an I-statement for a real situation.
To try at home: Use one I-statement with your child and note how it went.
Class 8 · Shared caregiving: conflict, communication, and problem-solving
What it covers
- How conflict between adults affects children
- Keeping children out of the middle
- Shared caregiving as a business relationship: brief, informative, friendly, and firm
- Written messages and shared calendars
- What you can control when the other caregiver won’t cooperate
- Step-by-step problem-solving
- Where domestic violence is present, the class uses a parallel-parenting approach
Practice in class: Rewrite a real message in business form, then work through one shared-caregiving problem step by step.
To try at home: Send one message in business form. An alternative version is offered to everyone, so no one has to share private details to take part.
Class 9 · Blended families, shared caregiving, and family meetings
What it covers
- Realistic timelines: blended families take years, not months
- Children’s loyalty binds
- The stepparent or partner role: relationship first, authority later
- Which rules need to match across homes, and which don’t
- Introducing new partners, and sibling and stepsibling changes
- Grandparents, relatives, and foster caregivers in the parenting picture
- How to run a family meeting
Practice in class: Map the rules in each home your child moves between, then a family meeting run-through in small groups.
To try at home: Hold one family meeting, or one conversation using the family meeting format.
Class 10 · Safety and your plan forward
What it covers
- Supervision by age, including across two homes
- A home safety review: medications, firearms storage, water, and vehicles
- Online safety
- Body safety and abuse prevention
- Signs a child is struggling, and when and how to get professional help
- Local crisis and referral resources, in writing
- Planning for setbacks
Practice in class: A home safety checklist, a body-safety conversation for your child’s age, and a written personal parenting plan.
To try at home: The plan you write in class is yours to keep.
