Growing
Great Kids™
An Interactive Family Support, Parenting and
Child Development Curriculum
Child Development Curriculum
| A Parenting and Child Development Curriculum |
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Growing Great Kids Curriculum Certification Training   Growing Great Kids™ is a user friendly and truly comprehensive strength-based approach to growing nurturing parent-child relationships and supporting healthy childhood development. |
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“The Growing Great Kids Home Visiting curriculum has been
a great strength of connectedness for our Northern Staff who are located
across many miles
(317,000 square kilometers). The language that is used connects
staff to each other, provides a basis upon which to deliver services and
attaches
to your soul. This connectedness has been a pillar of support
for staff that may be alone in their communities and in a different community
from
their supervisor. The connectedness has given communities
HOPE that change can take place in a short period of time, if change is
rooted in a strength-based
and honest approach and if those involved in change are supported.”
Wendy
Lemaigre, Kids First NORTH
- Specialized strategies for motivating overburdened parents to nurture their infants and young children and to support their early learning and development.
- Modules focused on helping families to identify and to work toward realizing their values, cultural heritage and dreams for their children.
- Strong emphasis on developing parental empathy and supporting parents on responding sensitively to the needs and development of their children.
- Focus on raising children who are self confident, respectful and capable as adults.
- Each module gives step-by-step interactive questions to actively engage parents with the materials so they do not feel they are being given advice or being talked down to.
- Supports staff in developing the skills needed to address difficult issues with families.
- More than a curriculum. It is also a staff development program. Supervisors learn how to build staff competence and confidence in 6 areas.
- Has been field tested with staff who speak English as a second language. It has dramatically changed not only the content of their visits and parent groups, but also has resulted in staff feeling much more confident and proud about the work they are doing.
- Has been Medicaid certified in various states.
- Contextualized for developing countries.
Beginning prenatally, Growing Great Kids is a comprehensive curriculum
that supports the development of nurturing and empathetic parent-child relationships
for 0 to 3 year olds. It does so by focusing on child development and health,
provision of care, parenting concerns and dynamics of parent-child and family
relationships.
For
Every 3 Months of the Child's Development, There are 6 Modules Addressing:
- Basic Care
- Social and Emotional Development
- Cues and Communication
- Physical and Brain Development
- Play and Stimulation
- Parents' Corner
Each of these modules is designed to support learning by anchoring the information in activities and interactive discussions.
An exciting most practical addition, specifically designed for home visitors, parent coaches, and child caregivers, is the Growing Great Families manual with modules focused on family dynamics and supporting growth with the family system.
Growing
Great Kids is written to be inclusive of all family members and all
individuals involved in raising a child. The curriculum can be easily adapted
to meet the cultural needs of your families and communities.
The purpose of this curriculum is to integrate learning into parental practices and behaviors. This curriculum can be used either during home visits or with parent groups, depending upon family dynamics or group size. Each module will take 1 to 3 visits/sessions to complete.
The curriculum includes handouts for parents, unit certificates of completion for parents and documentation records specific to each module.
Parent handouts are available in Spanish.
Beginning prenatally, Growing Great Kids provides a "how to" guide, or roadmap, for supporting parents and developing parenting competencies. It provides a structure for each home visit or group, and takes the "guess work" out of parent contacts and supervision. Growing Great Kids puts difficult concepts into simple language by offering examples of words you could use, and the “how-to’s” in the following areas:
- Building relationships with families that focus on program goals
- Growing parental empathy and nurturing relationships
- Doing activities that support childhood health, growth and development
- Integrating the latest information on supporting early brain development into daily parenting practices
- Gaining an understanding of parental/family values
- Communicating to facilitate open discussion and parental empowerment
- Making age-appropriate toys from common household items
- Enhancing family relationships
- Extending families’ support systems
- Addressing concerns and exploring solutions
- Cultivating critical thinking and problem-solving skills
- Promoting parental self-care and health
It is also a Staff Development Program.
Growing Great Kids training builds supervisor skills in how to maintain focus in program goals while being strength-based and solution focused with staff and families.
The curriculum provides a framework for supervision specific to age appropriate development and parenting issues. Supervisors learn how to develop staff competencies through practicing the strength-based feedback process.
- Home visiting programs for parents of young children
- Community organizations and businesses offering parenting classes
- Church volunteers interested in supporting parents in getting off to a great start
- Health organizations dedicated to providing comprehensive services to families
- Caregivers in home based or center based early childhood settings.
Great Kids, Inc. offers Growing Great Kids Seminars for family visitors and their supervisors. Upon completion, supervisors and family visitors will be prepared to implement the Curriculum with families of young children. Supervisors will have specialized tools both to strengthen implementation and to support staff development for the individuals they supervise in using the GGK Curriculum. This engaging, highly interactive 4.5 day certification seminar includes user-friendly training in:
- Establishing a conceptual foundation for using GGK
- Learning to use the curriculum through “hands-on” practice with parents and children
- A practical plan for building the ongoing integration of GGK into daily practices with families
- Developing a framework for preparing and supervising others in its application
- Developing strength-based supervisory skills
Growing Great Kids “how-to” training provides a framework for family visits and supervision specific to age appropriate development and parenting issues. It builds staff and supervisory skills to support a clear focus on program goals while being strength-based and solution-focused with families. Staff and supervisors develop competencies in motivating families towards positive parenting change. Supervisors learn how to develop staff competencies through practicing the strength-based reflective feedback process.
Each participant attending the GGK Training Seminar will receive the following complete GGK Curriculum Manuals Package:
- GGK Prenatal Manual
- GGK Birth-12 Months Manual
- GGK 13-24 Months Manual
- GGK 25-36 Months Manual
- GGK Growing Great Families Manual
- GGK Implementation Manual including continuing professional development assignments
- GGK Curriculum Tote Bag
In addition, each supervisor attending training will receive a detailed supervisor’s kit providing practical guidance over 18 months of professional development for the supervisor’s staff and includes the following:
- 1 set of two (2) GGK Manuals of specialized information for Supervisors.
- 2 DVD’s with multiple original video clips demonstrating use of GGK with families, designed to enhance implementation and continued staff development.
- 1 set of Master Copies of over 400 pages of professionally designed Handouts for Families in English. (Note: Handouts for Families are also available in Spanish for an additional cost.)
- Certificates of Completion for Parents.
- Documentation Records for each module.
- GKI license to copy Handouts for Families
For Information about Training Dates and Registration Call: 1-800-906-5581
As a way to support your efforts if you need to raise funding for Growing Great Kids training, we have drafted some language that you can use to articulate why integrating a comprehensive parenting curriculum into your program is so important, and how the GGK Curriculum is best suited to meet your needs. Also see the research supporting our curriculum.
Research Supporting Growing Great
Kids Curriculum
Sample Proposal Language
* Growing Great Kids is a trademark of Great Kids, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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