Confident Parenting
Welcome to Confident Parenting
How long does the course take? You will need time to practice the skills you learn, so we suggest that you complete a session per week over a period of six weeks. This will allow you to put your learning into action and reflect on how well you are doing.
Support: You may find during this course you feel vulnerable, emotional or angry. It is important that you look after yourself emotionally. You will find links to relevant websites and helplines here.
We also recommend that you consider enrolling on a face-to-face parenting course at some point in the future; you will find advice in the programme on how to find parenting support.
Confident Parenting Worksheet
You will learn more on this course if you record your answers. We have provided a worksheet for you to use, but you can create your own document or write your answers on paper if you prefer.
Choose the file type that is best for your computer/device (right-click to download): Confident Parenting Worksheet (Microsoft Word version), Confident Parenting Worksheet (Rich Text Format), Confident Parenting Worksheet (Plain Text version).
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3.3 – How we can help with our children’s education feedback
Did you come up with any of these? AgeWhat others said 18 months Read to them.Take them to a playgroup. Five years Take them to the library/museum.Take an interest in school projects. 11 years… Read more
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3.4 – How can we help develop our child’s self esteem?
Our self esteem and self worth is vital for us to have fulfilled lives – to be able to believe we can do well. Fostering good self esteem for our children gives them the… Read more
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3.5 – How we can help develop our children’s self esteem feedback
Do any of these match your list? AgeEncouragement 18 months Give them a clap!Smile at them.Acknowledge their achievements – “Well done you used the potty”. Five years Use star charts.Praise their abilities – “That… Read more
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3.6 – The importance of listening to our children
Have you ever been ignored or felt that the person you’re talking to isn’t really taking in what you are saying? It is really frustrating when you are trying to get your point across… Read more
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3.7 – Listening scenarios
We have agreed that it is important to listen to children, and we all need to listen more effectively. Here are some scenarios where listening is important. What would you do? In your worksheet,… Read more
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3.8 – Listening scenarios – feedback
ScenarioWhat others said 1. Age2-4 scenario Children in this age range may not have the words to explain what is wrong, so it would be important for parents to pay attention to their… Read more
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3.9 – Listening to difficult issues
There may be some areas of communication that are really difficult for parents and children to deal with. There are lots of resources online where you can find help in talking about difficult issues… Read more
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3.10 – Listening to your family
How can we listen more effectively? At the beginning of this session on listening we looked at how we are listening to our children. We then looked at some examples of situations where it… Read more
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3.11 – Listening to your family – feedback
How and when can you fit in some time to listen to your children? Try to find the time to listen to your children daily. It could be while you are doing something together… Read more
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3.12 – Honesty scenarios
Children often know when something’s not right with you. If you are on your own with your children then they are more likely to know. If we lie to our children they will think… Read more
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3.13 – Honesty scenarios – feedback
Honesty is straightforward communication: it is telling the truth, and it is being fair and sincere. If you are honest with your children they are much more likely to be honest with you. If… Read more
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3.14 – Why is honesty important in a family?
Each family is individual and has different values and morals. In your worksheet, answer the following questions: Question Why is honesty important to you? Why is honesty important to your family? Why… Read more
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3.15 – Being honest with our children
We can all think of a time when we have not been entirely honest with our children. Sometimes they were white lies, or maybe we just wanted to shield them from something we knew… Read more
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3.16 – Being honest with our children – scenarios
Look at the following scenarios. Choose two scenarios from the list below. Then answer the following questions: How old is your child? How would you be honest with your own child in this situation?… Read more
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3.17 – Being honest with our children scenarios – feedback
Did you mention any of the following? ScenarioWhat others said 1. It’s all about the money! “Right now I do not have enough money to pay for this trip. We can start saving now… Read more
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4.1 – Session 4. Growth and development
Parents discuss development endlessly – “Jo was out of nappies completely at 18 months.”, “Abdi didn’t crawl he just stood up and walked one day.”, “Sian could already read when he went to school.”… Read more
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4.2 – Growth and development – feedback
Did your answers include any of the following? Area of developmentHow you can help a child develop it 1. Physical development is how the body gains skills and performs successfully and includes ‘gross motor skills’ (using… Read more
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4.3 – Ages & stages activity
We have looked at what growth and development is and we know that it is vitally important. Now we need to look at the stages of development as a child gets older. Some of… Read more
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4.4 – Ages and stages – feedback
Here are some of the things that children can do by certain ages in their development. Did you get some of them? AgeAbilities Newborn See faces – although not clearly at first.Grab objects –… Read more
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4.5 – Ages & stages – helping your own children
How old are your children? Can you think of ways that you can help them achieve developmental milestones in each area of development? – Physical, Social; Emotional, Intellectual, Communication and Speech. For example: George… Read more
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4.6 – Teaching our children family rules
How can we help our children to know what the rules in our families are? Knowing the rules is the first step for children to behave in the way we want them to. For each age,… Read more
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4.7 – Teaching our children family rules – feedback
Obviously many of these suggestions about rules can be used with our children from early childhood through to adulthood. Rules are important and children and young people feel secure when they know what these… Read more
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4.8 – Behaviour & discipline
This is where we start to look at discipline techniques to deal with behaviour. Earlier in this course we looked at parenting issues, children’s and parents’ rights and what we want for our family.… Read more
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4.9 – Our own behaviour
If we want our children to make good behaviour choices, then we need to think about how we behave ourselves. Parents as role models Everything we say and do in front of your children… Read more
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4.10 – Positive attention & praise
Have you noticed how we give more attention to children when they are naughty? We notice them doing things we don’t like. Our sentences often start with “Stop…”, “Don’t…” or “For crying out loud…!”… Read more