Session 1 –Welcome to the Terrific TWOs®
Key Concepts
- TWOs are at a magical age, eager to learn and excited about all they already know and can do.
- TWOs are positively motivated in their behavior, and we can help them learn positive ways to get their needs met.
Goals – By the end of this session parents will:
- Understand the Terrific TWOs philosophy.
- Experience a friendly and safe environment where they can feel comfortable sharing their experiences and learning about parenting.
- Agree on group guidelines.
- Learn about normal developmental issues for TWOs.
- Understand that they are learning along with their children and can use this series to explore new ideas and grow as parents.
- See themselves as friendly guides who help their children sort out which behaviors work best, in the larger world and within the family.
Session 2 – Who Are We as Parents and Families?
Key Concept
- Parents are more effective teachers and friendly guides when they have a clear understanding of their own values and their goals for their children.
Goals – By the end of this session parents will:
- Have a clearer understanding of their long-range goals for their child.
- Learn how to encourage learning in their TWO that is consistent with those goals.
- Have a clearer understanding of their values and value conflicts.
- Understand that they are their child’s first and most important teacher, and see this as an opportunity.
- Understand and respect their own parenting style, and make more conscious choices in their parenting.
Session 3 – Who Is Your Child?
Key Concepts
- Each child has a unique combination of temperamental tendencies, which has both strengths and challenges.
- Parents can provide experiences for their TWOs that encourage healthy development in These areas of strengths and challenges.
Goals – By the end of this session parents will:
- Become more aware of and appreciate their children as individuals.
- Think about how their own temperament fits with their TWO’s temperament.
- Understand that each temperamental tendency has strengths as well as challenges.
- Learn how to design experiences that help their children develop confidence and skills in areas of challenge.
Session 4 – Words That Work
Key Concept
- Parents have a powerful influence on their children’s developing communication skills.
Goals – By the end of this session parents will:
- Understand the power of their words and body language.
- Learn communication tools called “Words That Work” to guide their TWOs.
- Learn ways to encourage TWOs’ language development.
Session 5 – Setting Your Family Up for Success
Key Concept
- Parents can help prepare TWOs for the “game of life” by using family guidelines, developing routines, and being one step ahead of the game.
Goals – By the end of this session parents will:
- Develop a set of basic family guidelines or principles.
- Learn about the value of family patterns and routines.
- Learn how to be one step ahead, and set their families up for success.
Session 6 – TWOs’ Journey to Self-Discipline
Key Concept
- Parents can be their children’s best teachers and guides on the journey to self-discipline.
Goals – By the end of this session parents will:
- View discipline as an opportunity to teach and guide their children.
- Consider their children’s development, individual differences, and their own values when guiding their TWOs.
- Learn how to think through a problem behavior to identify what the parent wants to teach and how to begin.
- Develop learning and teaching plans for what their TWOs “don’t know.”
Session 7 – Strategies for Effective Discipline
Key Concept
- Parents can learn principle-based tools for loving and effective discipline.
Goals – By the end of this session parents will:
- Have tools to use to problem-solve as a family.
- Learn some specific strategies that can help them positively influence their children’s behavior.
Session 8 – Upsets and Meltdowns: Theirs and Ours
Key Concepts
- Parents and children have similar reasons for their upsets, yet developmentally, they are very different.
- TWOs need their parents’ help in learning about both their own and others’ emotions.
Goals – By the end of this session parents will:
- Become more aware of their own emotional responses to situations.
- Understand upsets from their child’s point of view.
- Learn ways to prevent and repair upsets.
- See the importance to the family of taking time for emotional refills.
Session 9 – Moving Into the Outside World
Key Concepts
- As their world expands, children will have other influences in addition to their parents.
- Parents can use what they have learned in the series to help their children deal successfully with these outside influences.
Goals – By the end of this session parents will:
- Learn how to communicate their family values to influential people in their children’s lives.
- Be proactive about guns, commercialism, and unsafe people.
- Be a media-wise family and make thoughtful media choices.
- Know how to empower TWOs to eventually handle outside influences on their own.
Session 10 – Celebrating Our Families
Key Concepts
- Play is important to both TWOs and their parents for learning and for adding joy to family life.
- Many of the parenting skills, strategies, and ideas from the Terrific TWOs will last a lifetime.
Goals – By the end of this session parents will:
- Learn about the value of play for both TWOs and adults.
- Share ways to create low cost, low stress family fun, including holiday, seasonal, and daily fun.
- Recognize the progress they have made, the skills they have learned, and the goals they have met over the series.
- Celebrate the completion of the Terrific TWOs program.
- Make future plans, both for their families and for the group.