Distinctly Nurturing

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Ephesians 3:14-19 “For this reason I kneel before the Father…And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love…[are] filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” 

Do you have questions about how to be a good parent?  Do want to know more about how to handle temper tantrums, defiance, or aggression?  Do you wonder what to do about your child’s shyness or difficulties in math?

Do you wonder what your school is doing about it?

At First Lutheran Christian School, we are exploring what it means to be a ‘school of choice’ and believe it means we are ‘rooted and established in love.’   At our recent professional development workshop, we discussed the foundations of this in our learning community:

A child’s relationship with caring adults

Facilitated by Terri Elwood and taught by Dr. Gordon Neufeld we explored how ‘Relationship Matters’ and the ‘Matters of Relationship.’  Dr. Neufeld is considered  to be the primary voice of Attachment and Developmental Theories in Canada and wrote the book, Hold on to Your Child.  His encouragement for us during our professional development was that in order to answer all of our questions about teaching and parenting, we must understand the context of the strong attachment of a child with a caring adult.

The research shows that resilient children are those who feel a strong emotional connection with a caring parent or adult.  What does this mean? This means that children need right relationships and soft hearts.

Dr. Neufeld has hours and hours of teaching on the topic      of parenting and teaching within this context, more than could possibly be covered here.  But, we need to convey that FLCS teachers want to partner with you, supporting parents as the place of primary attachment and also serving our students with a foundational focus on the teacher-student relationship.

It’s not about making children behave or transforming them into academic “superstars”.  It’s about guiding our children to reach their potential, which Neufeld purports will happen naturally within the context of a child’s strong attachment to a caring parent or adult.  So, first, we all must work on creating right relationships and soft hearts.

I’m not sure always what to do about temper tantrums or struggles in math, but I am certain that the answers are in working on the attachment of the child to caring adults.  So, I’m encouraged as a mom and an educator that family meals, bedtime routines, rituals like attending Chapel or church together, and afternoons at the lake or library are good starts.

FLCS will be inviting Terri Elwood to facilitate parenting courses on this topic in the near future and you can also find resources at http://www.gordonneufeld.com/

My prayer is that God will help us all to ‘be rooted and established in love’ as Ephesians 3 suggests.

For the sake of the children,

                                                                       Karine Veldhoen,

                                                                      Chief Learning Officer