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Parent Express for 29-Nov-2006
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As we head full throttle into the holiday season, it can be energizing to plan for helping our children find meaning in our holiday activities. Recently I had the great privilege of interviewing Debby Weidner, PCI Certified Parent Coach® and principal of Parent Ease Coaching on Parent Appreciation Radio. She and I talked about some of the things parents can do during holiday seasons to infuse meaning so our children will learn about what we value. If you would like a CD of that radio interview, please e-mail amy@thepci.com with your request and mailing address and we will be sure to get copy off to you. The article below, Looking for Meaning in All the Right Places, contains the main points of the interview that may be helpful to you or a parent that you know. This issue combines our November and December issues. Parent Express will resume in January of 2007. In the meantime, wishing you a wonderful and meaningful holiday season, Gloria DeGaetano, Founder and CEO 
We are now taking applications to begin Winter Quarter. Application deadline is Friday, Dec. 8 for phone classes and distance-learning program to begin the third week of January 2007. For an application form and information packet please call: 425-401-1519 or email: info@thepci.com. If you are a forward-thinking professional with an undergraduate degree and a deep calling to work with parents, welcome home. We would love to work with you to help you build a successful parent coaching practice. Learn more about our acclaimed distance-learning Parent Coach Certification® Program by clicking here for more information. Check out our Video About the PCI Parent Coach Training Program and see what professionals think about their training with the PCI. One of our new graduates, Roni Stein, Ed. D., from Portland, Oregon, recently observed: "I wouldn't be able to coach like I am coaching now if it weren't for the PCI curriculum and the year-long program I went through. It is transformational in itself!" 
Working with a parent coach who has received Parent Coach Certification® through the PCI is giving yourself a valuable gift as well as a sound investment in your family's future. PCI Certified Parent Coaches™ are caring, thoughtful professionals with years of experience working with parents. They have successfully completed the PCI Parent Coach Certification® Training Program—a comprehensive academic one-year, graduate-level program in collaboration with Seattle Pacific University. Through a series of coaching conversations that can be either by telephone or in person, PCI Parent Coaches help you re-discover your dreams and design your life for more joy and satisfaction.
Our next show will be December 2, 11AM (Pacific Time) on 1150 KKNW in the Seattle area. Gloria's guest will be one of her parent coaching clients, Dulcie, who will discuss what PCI parent coaching has done for her and her family.
Please call in with your comments and stories:  Looking for Meaning in All the Right Places by Gloria DeGaetano My husband and I love ritual-making and find any excuse to create one. Recently, he announced that his stash of Guarana Chai will come to an end in a few months. This wonderfully delicious, unique tea has, unfortunately, been discontinued by Traditional Medicinals®. To assuage his disappointment, David explored the Internet and bought as much as he could find—a supply that has lasted us over a year. But now the pleasure of our favorite tea will soon be over. David proposed a way to honor the bittersweet moment of the last sip. "When we are down to our last two tea bags," he wistfully announced, "let's have a special tea ceremony." "OK," I agreed readily, putting aside for the moment what we will actually do. The fact that we will do something meaningful to both of us is all that matters. Now that our sons are grown, it will be just the two of us probably sipping our tea slowly, savoring each moment, and stating a few words of respect for such a beautiful brew that will no longer be a part of our lives. As children and teens, we engaged our sons in these types of experiences regularly and intentionally. Often we would have special moments before and after family meetings to commemorate a significant even in their lives such as completing all home in a week or practicing the piano each day. We encouraged times of quiet introspection on family hikes, picnics, or car rides. "What are we supposed to do, Mommy?" "Just rest a moment, put your heads down, close your eyes and think about ____." I put candles on a dinner table of hot dogs and macaroni and cheese and talked about "ways to eat mindfully with gratitude." In all these types of moments, I cherished their delight as they connected what we were doing with something meaningful. They literally lit up as they recognized the extraordinary spinning out of their "ordinary" day—like magic. These family times of wonder imprinted a sense of connectedness with each other and with the Larger Picture. I took it seriously that I was their guide into the mystical. Any opening I created for them to enter into a time of communion with the meaningful, I was also helping them appreciate fully what we valued as a family. How meaningful to me!
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PCI Bookstore We have had some problems with our on-line bookstore. Many issues have been corrected and those of you who were trying to order books by credit card can now do so at the PCI Bookstore. Thank you for your patience! Alexandra Blumencranz, PCI Certified Parent Coach® in the South Florida area was recently interviewed on WINK TV about her parent coaching practice. You can go to http://www.winktv.com/x25410.xml to read part of the transcript. Congratulations, Alex! You are providing such a great service for moms and dads! Alex also writes regular feature articles for Tampa Bay Parent and pens the popular column Ask Coach Mom for their Web site. Gloria DeGaetano's article, "Reading TV: Simple Techniques Parents Can Use to Make TV Time Thinking Time," was published in the November/December 2006 issue of Our Children, the PTA National Magazine. If you would like to read this article, you can access it on the PCI Web site. Gloria recently returned from speaking engagements in Seoul, South Korea, and Istanbul and Bursa, Turkey. In Seoul, she was the featured speaker at the 4th International Symposium on Early Childhood Education hosted by the Seonam Foundation. She spoke on the PCI Parent Coaching Process as a New Paradigm for Family Support. A chapter with the same title that she wrote for the Conference Proceedings Book was published in Korean and disseminated throughout the country's early childhood community. In Istanbul, Gloria was the plenary speaker at the 3rd International Children and Communication Congress and Children's Film Festival hosted by Istanbul University. The video she wrote and produced, Healthy Brain Development in a Media Age, was featured at the film festival and will be translated into Turkish. Her book, Parenting Well in a Media Age is also in the process of being translated into Turkish and published for dissemination to educators and parents throughout the country. In Istanbul, Gloria also spoke to parents and teachers at a local school district and to undergraduate students at Bogazici University as arranged by the American Consulate in Turkey. In Bursa, Gloria was the guest of the American Consulate in Turkey and spoke to over 200 people who gathered at Local Agenda 21, the Bursa Chamber of Commerce that sponsored the event, Parenting Well in a Media Age, which they advertised widely—even on the buses in the city of Bursa! To engage Gloria DeGaetano for a keynote or workshop, contact her at 425-401-1519 or 1-888-599-4447. 
On Friday, March 2, the PCI will host an all-day workshop in Bellevue, WA with Dr. Luminita Dumanescu from Babes Bolyai University at Cluj Napoka, Romania. Dr. Dumanescu will present her studies on the state of childhood and discuss what she has found that works for optimal support of parents and children. She will share her recent research on children and play that shows that when children are left to the freedom of play, they grow with enhanced imagination and other abilities. Her work concurs with Huisinga's assertion in Homo Ludens (that the PCI also concurs with) that not only is authentic play a cultural activity, but that culture finds its roots in play. At this interactive workshop we will consider such questions as: What is happening to childhood and to our culture as video game "play" replaces organic, imaginative play? How do we support parents for understanding the role of play in their children's lives? What can be our criteria for authentic play experiences at different ages and stages of development? You are invited to join us for this enriching, enlightening presentation. Look for more details in our January E-Zine or call 425-401-1519 for more information.
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This issue of Parent Express was originally published November 29, 2006. Some content, contact information, and links may be out of date, and the conversion from the original email edition may introduce formatting inconsistencies.
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