parenting

Parenting Workshops Help School Win

June 21, 2010 by Ronit Baras 1 Comment

Mr. Derek Brady, principal of Upper Mount Gravatt State School says having a life coach attached to his school to deliver professional development and parenting workshops has been instrumental in his school’s excellent performance. Mr. Brady’s school has won the 2010 QUT Showcase Award for Excellence in Leadership for its ‘Healthy Minds, Healthy Bodies, Healthy Spirits’ program, in which the wellbeing of the entire school community is addressed, including teachers, non-teaching staff, parents and students.

With the guidance of the Kids Matter government initiative and by engaging Ronit Baras, a Brisbane-based life coach, Upper Mount Gravatt State School has already had 100% of staff trained in the ‘Be Happy in LIFE’ coaching program and 60 parents trained in the ‘Happy Parents Raise Happy Kids’ parenting program.

‘That has a huge impact’, says Mr. Brady, ‘Because it creates a common language everyone can use at the school and the “spin-offs”. This is helping with the kids’ wellbeing and, ultimately, with their learning outcomes’.

One of the main things Mr. Brady has seen is a big improvement in the children’s behaviour. ‘We haven’t had a suspension in 4 years’, he says proudly, ‘There’s no Detention room, there is a real happiness around the school and the kids are really vibrant’.

Another positive change is students’ ability to handle issues independently. ‘Kids are more resilient’, says Mr. Brady.

Read the rest…

Great Parenting Feedback

November 25, 2009 by Ronit Baras Leave a Comment

I just wanted to share with you some feedback I received from one of my recent parenting workshops. One of them is of particular interest, because he is … a man! Men are rare in parenting workshops, but this one had a few and they were really happy they came.

Everything was useful. Ronit’s stories and humour make the course fun for me. The examples were excellent and the atmosphere was great. Ronit was fantastic. Great lady and with loads of information to help me.
[The workshop] makes you take a step back and look at how you deal with things at home and with yourself. It taught me to believe in myself to help me make the changes to become a better parent and that is also going to help me become a better person.
A. C. (mother)

I found it enlightening. Work on being happy and the kids will follow. The pink elephants, the wolves, communication styles, positive expectations and self-motivating behaviour with practical, real-life examples, have given me a new and positive perspective on parenting.
Ronit’s style was informal and friendly. [She is] easily understood and has the ability to keep all participants interested and involved without being intrusive. The examples were very good and practical. Although I am more visual than auditory, I could have kept listening for much longer. She could respond easily to the participants and keep things moving.
I believe that this Better Parenting Program is exceptional and inspiration in “opening the door” to being a better parent and a happier person with simple and easy to understand techniques that cannot fail to make parenting easier and family life better. Children who grow up in a family that applies this way of thinking must be at an advantage.
Bruce Thompson

I was honoured to coach A. C. and Bruce and I am honoured by their feedback.

If you want to get the same for yourself, ask your school principal or Parents and Friends association to book my Better Parenting Skills workshop.

See you soon,
Ronit

Fathers should Join Parenting Workshops

September 28, 2009 by Ronit Baras 2 Comments

Were you inspired by the video clips of Irene and her new parenting skills after she attended my Better Parenting Skills workshop? Well, here is the final part of Irene’s story, with a message for fathers at the end.

Since we all take our first parenting steps with our first child, most of us make the most parenting mistakes with that child too. In that case, Irene’s experience should seem very familiar and now, she knows what to do about it!

I believe that fathers are as important to their kids as mothers are, especially for boys. Many men find it more difficult to learn parenting, which is why many of my workshops have an overwhelming female majority, but this has to change!

Girls, show your husbands Irene’s video testimonials, especially this one, and ask them to come along to learn parenting. Fathers who have attended have gotten wonderfully close to their kids and are truly happy they have come.

Book this great workshop for your own school or organization.

See you soon,
Ronit

Racist Kids

September 22, 2009 by Ronit Baras Leave a Comment

Yesterday, I went to give a presentation at Griffith University for International Peace Day 2009. I talked about the foundation I coordinate in Queensland (Together for Humanity) and the important work we do with kids to ensure they do not grow up to be racist adults.

As part of the discussion, I gave very sad statistics about kids’ attitude towards different races and talked to the audience about the negative influence of the media and the kids’ parents at home.

At the end of the evening, a dark Indian woman thanked me for the talk and said it was alarming to see the figures on the screen.

“I have a story to tell you”, she said.

As you probably know by now, I love stories and after you read this, you will know why I wanted to pass this story on to you.

“I’m from Indian and I’m married to a Scottish man. Recently, our 3-years-old daughter’s birthday was coming. She said she wanted to invite friends from her day care center home, ‘But I don’t want to invite boys or blacks’, she said. I was very shocked. I’m as black as can be and always thought that because my husband has fair skin and comes from a different culture to mine, we are the perfect example of living in cultural harmony. I never thought my own daughter would say something like that”, she told me.
“What did you do?” I asked her.
“Well, I thought about it for a day and then told her, ‘You can choose who to invite to your party. Daddy is a boy and because you are not inviting any boys, Daddy won’t come to your party and I’m black and because you are not inviting blacks, I can’t come either, so you’re going to have to manage your own party. Have fun'”, she said.
“And…” I was so curious.
“Two days later, I asked her ‘Who did you invite for your birthday?’ and she said she’d invited a boy who is her best friend and a black girl who is a good friend”.

I thought that was brilliant! What would you do?

Ronit

More Success from Parenting Workshop

September 10, 2009 by Ronit Baras Leave a Comment

Remember Irene and her exciting new parenting skills after she attended my Better Parenting Skills workshop?

Well, last time, Irene told us how she managed to use her new knowledge of communication styles and love languages to get closer to her son. This time, she is talking about one of her daughters.

Enjoy!

Book this great workshop for your own school or organization.

See you soon,
Ronit

Exciting Parenting Success Story

September 1, 2009 by Ronit Baras Leave a Comment

It can be difficult to demonstrate the results of any presentation, course or workshop. If I write about “the great benefits” and “excellent results” myself, it just gets classified as self-promoting hype.

So at the recent Better Parenting Skills workshop I ran for a school in Brisbane, I asked participating parents “Why are you here?” and captured on video their reasons for coming to the workshop. A month later, I revisited the school and captured on video the great benefits and excellent results they described.

These are real parents telling their personal stories of parenting success.

Here is the first one, the story of Irene (please turn up the volume and excuse the shaking):

Pretty exciting, isn’t it?

Ronit

Making Multilingual Super kids

July 30, 2009 by Ronit Baras 1 Comment

I met Elodie at one of my workshops. She had a French accent and was very curious about the concepts of first and second language. Her son was just a baby when she participated in my “Cross Cultural Awareness” course for public administrators in the Queensland government.

As a migrant, Elodie felt the gap at work between locals and migrants was widening. She came to my course to get some insights into possible ways to bridge this gap.

When she left, she said, “I’m so happy I met you when my son is just a baby. Everything so makes sense now and I have full confident about what I need to do”.

In the last two years, I’ve met Elodie a few of times when she was trying to organize a group at her workplace to support migrants and help locals and migrants communicate better with each other.

This week, she sent me this email:

Did I tell you my son can count to 15 in his 3 languages? Just turned 2… Speak to him in one language and he answers in another, never needs translation… It freaks some people, I find it fascinating. You gave me the best advice ever first time I spoke with you. Thanks, it really means a lot to me.
We speak English (all of us), French (me) and Italian (husband and my in-laws).
He spends 1 day/week with his Italian grandmother who only speaks Italian to him (with your recommendation, we asked and she is very happy to comply). I go home once a year where he baths in French and has no problem whatsoever communicating with other kids and adults.
It is the most amazing thing to observe, the non-translating part. For example, he learned face, lips, ears, eyes, etc in Italian and I was thinking oh I need to get him that in French too so we had a mummy/son moment and I was saying them in French and he already knew. Bizarre.
Life in a multilingual environment!
Thank you so much.
Elodie David-Quarta
A/Senior Administration Officer, Compliance Support Unit
Department of Environment and Resource Management

Yet another victory of one more family raising multilingual super kids.

Ronit

Parents Learn Invaluable Things

July 24, 2009 by Ronit Baras Leave a Comment

Yesterday, a group of excited parents gathered in a big room for a Better Parenting Skills workshop. Some of the parents were also teachers at the nearby Upper Mt Gravatt State School, one was the principal, one was from the Lions Club, who sponsored the event, and the rest were parents from the school community.

I started by asking them why they were there and what they wanted to learn. Here are some of things they said:

How to handle kids’ behavioral problems
How to support kids with their academic and emotional development
How to feel well-equipped for parenting
How to feel like good parents who do the right things by their kids

During the day, there were many “aha” moments. Parents learned about using positive language, recognizing communication styles and love languages and focusing their parenting on the things that are truly important to them.

For example, one parent told the group he’d had friction with his son for spending too much time on specific details, while he’d just wanted “to get on with it”. During the parenting workshop, he found out his son wasn’t being picky but may in fact be digital. With a bit of patience and an understanding of communication styles, this parent can now improve the communication with his son a great deal.

When asked what she would tell a friend about this workshop, Terri Schneeberg said:

It was like looking in a mirror… Very interesting. I like the way Ronit explains things. Take the time to attend. Invaluable!

Another parent said:

I found Positive Thinking useful. It was fun playing games. It’s great to be here with other parents to share and learn in this skill to change yourself to do a good job as a parent.

Derek Brady, the principal of Upper Mt Gravatt State School, summarized by saying:

This workshop was thought-provoking and had a significant meaning for my work life and home life. A fantastic experience that shifted my thinking.

I am happy to know there is now another group of inspired, focused parents out there, making the world a better place, one child at a time.

Ronit