2010 Topics Coming Soon!

January 12: Creative Discipline 
Our January meeting will be on the topic of creative discipline, featuring speaker Laura Olson, director of the Blossom Family Center and mother of four (ages 2-10), who is also a former Waldorf teacher for 8 years. Laura will talk about early childhood development, democratic parenting, and tools to help with discipline during early childhood.

February 9: TBA

March 9: TBA

2009 Topics

January 13: Weaning
Different types of weaning, how weaning happens, weaning strategies, and emotions surrounding weaning.  A LLL leader will be present to answer questions as well.

February 10: Guest Speaker: Setting Limits
Bethany Prescott.  Learn how to set limits with love, employing the C.A.R.E. model.

March 10: Guest Speaker: Balance
Self-Care for the Attached Parent - Necessary? Absolutely! Possible? Yes!
Many of us decided to parent in an attached way in order to create a deep connection with our children. In the process, how deep is the connection you've maintained with yourself? This month, Darlene MacAuley will talk about how the practice of attachment parenting can help you identify a self-care practice that can work for you. You will learn some simple ways to boost your energy and receive some tools to help you design a plan for your self-care. 

April 14: Choosing the Right Educational Option for Your Child
Learn ways to determine your child's school readiness and questions to ask schools when shopping around.  Explore the different schooling philosophies and the AP pros and cons for each.

May 12: Parenting the Spirited Child
Strategies and support for those parenting a child who is more intense, sensitive, perceptive, persistent, and/or energetic than other children. Meeting discussion will focus on labels and how they affect our parenting and our children's self-image.  

June 8: All Austin All API Potluck
Potluck Picnic with South and Central API Groups at  Little Stacy Park starting at 10 am. Meet more AP folks from around town and help us celebrate the 15th anniversary of API.

June 9: Nighttime Parenting
The benefits of parenting your child at night, strategies to help everyone in the family get a better night's sleep, and emotions surrounding nighttime parenting.

July 14: Guest Speaker: Parenting from the Inside Out
Revolutionary findings coming out of the fields of prenatal and perinatal psychology and neuroscience are offering us new ways of thinking about and being with babies and children. Come learn about these findings as well as simple and effective tools for connecting with and calming your baby, your child and yourself. Bio: Carrie Contey, Ph.D. is an early parenting coach, the co-founder of the Slow Family Movement and co-author of CALMS: A Guide to Soothing Your Baby.

August 11: Guest Speaker: Sandy Blackard, Founder of Language of Listening, will present some simple visual listening skills to keep you connected to your children as they grow. Acting out and resistance melt away when kids feel heard and understood.  Her booklet SAY WHAT YOU SEE is posted online as one of the free resources on her website. Two short YouTubes provide quick examples of the difference this approach makes with kids.

September 8: “Sun Up, Sundown:  Developing Family Routines that Work” with guest speaker, Bethany Prescott
Bethany is a family counselor who also leads workshops at local schools. She’s also a former Montessori teacher and an Attached Mom to three kids. She will be speaking about creating schedules and routines that allow for peaceful mornings and evenings, less stressful transitions, and are family-centered rather than child-centered.

October 6: BigTent and Library Sale: 
We'll have a discussion and Q&A on BigTent, followed by a sale of overstock from our book, sling, and diaper libraries.

November 10: General Discussion and Library Sale
Please bring any questions about AP you'd like to discuss. Maybe you'd like clarification on one of the principles or you want to know AP's stance on things like TV. It's an open forum. We'll allocate a portion of the meeting for support and discussion on topics from all eight AP principles, consider meeting topics for next year and any changes to our meeting formats, followed by a sale of overstock from our book, sling, and diaper libraries.

December 8: Holiday Potluck & Chapter Goals for 2010

*we will update this list with names of guest speakers as soon as possible. Also, expect enrichment meetings outside the meetings in 2009. Possible topics are vaccines, cloth diapering, developing healthy sexual mindsets, or AP and the older child.