By Katie Enney
Special to The Outlook
La Cañada Presbyterian Church Parent Education’s biannual Open House Week continues through Friday, Jan. 24, enabling guests to try out a class. The program offers 16 daytime and seven nighttime classes.
Parent Ed offers age-specific topics designed to guide parents through childhood challenges, from preparing babies’ first foods to prepping for the SATs. Through open discussion, parents bond over the challenges of raising children and walk away better prepared to face the daunting task of bringing up kids in today’s world.
Daytime classes include:
Spring Infants Class, which meets on Wednesdays from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Parents of babies born between August 2019 and January 2020 will find advice, support and sustenance in a caring group setting. Nanette Brown, an experienced instructor and mother of seven, will lead discussions on nursing and nutrition, sleep and changing family dynamics, infant safety and bonding with your infant. The class is open to expectant parents as well.
GRAND-Parenting is designed for all grandparents with a grandchild of any age. Experienced teacher Jan Roberts’ class focuses on learning effective ways to love and nurture children, and in the process, leave a grand legacy for grandchildren. Classes meet on Wednesdays from 9-11 a.m.
Parents of High Schoolers, 3-4s, Family Class and Parenting Your Exceptional Child are other daytime classes in which parents learn age-specific information about parenting and child development.
Parent Ed is also offering a series of evening classes through the Parent Express program. Launched in 2017, Parent Express provides education opportunities for parents who are unable to attend daytime classes. The relevant and information-packed sessions meet for four weeks and are taught by experienced Parent Ed instructors. All classes are designed for parents only and typically meet from 7-8:30 p.m. Registration is $100 for the first registrant and $25 for each additional registrant — spouse, partner, caretaker, grandparent, etc. Classes include:
Parenting Elementary Kids, running from Feb. 5-March 4 on Wednesday evenings. Longtime Parent Ed teacher Sloan Walsh’s class will focus on what it’s like to parent an elementary schooler and will include information on development, discipline, schooling and more.
Parenting Preschoolers will run from March 4-March 25 on Wednesday evenings. Highly regarded teacher Heather Ehrhart will lead a class focusing on understanding the developmental growth of your 3-5 year-old child, self-regulation and positive discipline techniques, exploration of effective parenting styles and nurturing of the parent-child bond, and finding family balance.
Parenting Your Exceptional Child will run on the first Monday of the month from February through May. Taught by Vicki Rekedal, the class will cover current brain research with practical application for children who are wired differently and will address the learning continuum, anxiety and advocacy.
Visit lacanadapc.org/parented for class listings, staff bios and online registration. Scholarships and payment plans are available online. Affordable child care is offered during all class times. La Cañada Presbyterian Church is located at 626 Foothill Blvd. in La Cañada Flintridge.
