Transform Stress to Success
Join Conquering Homework in Middle School: A Busy Parent’s Guide to More Resilient Wins at Home and School
In Conquering Homework we focus on what our kids need the very most to be successful at home and school:
Connection Empowers Action
Are you ready to chart a different course with your child this year? Then we invite you to join us in Conquering Homework in Middle School. We want you to be a part of this new community of parents, and if you are willing to contribute ideas on how we can make this THE best place to help parents help their kids get their homework done with less stress and more success, we are willing to extend that very favorable “founding member” price we talked about.
Step 1:
Secure Connection
Above all else, our children need to know they are safe and secure with us, that they are safe to be fully known, and will be loved, supported, and accepted no matter what. This is a stretch for many tweens and teens, even those who deeply felt this earlier in childhood. They are growing and changing so rapidly that they aren’t even sure who they are or if it’s okay to be who they are discovering themselves to be. Now more than ever they need to know you have their back and always will.
Step 2: Motivation
Our children are born with a drive to learn and grow, just watch a baby playing hide and seek or trying to roll over until they master each next step. They also begin life totally dependent, and we as parents shoulder the responsibility for meeting their needs and getting them to do what we know is in their best interests. Then, before you know it, it’s time for us to let go and move from being in charge to being trusted guides and consultants. It’s time to help our kids take on growing responsibility and find the motivation within themselves to direct their own lives.
Step 3: Health and Wellbeing
As our kids move into the teenage years, their minds and bodies are changing at an incredibly fast pace, reorganizing for adulthood. Their biological clock shifts, making it difficult for them to go to sleep or get up on time for when most schools start. They spend more time away from home and make more decisions about what they eat, how they exercise, use their time, and care for their health and overall wellbeing. Just giving them good advice is not enough, we need the tools to help them develop an appreciation for the impact of their choices.
Step 4: People Skills
It’s healthy and normal for our growing kids to start spending less time with their parents and family and more time with their peers. They need great people skills to succeed in the new experiences ahead, problem-solving with friends, communicating directly with teachers and other authority figures, talking with their co-workers and the boss at their first job. Respectful, effective communication, problem solving, and negotiation with you at home helps them build the foundation they need for success as they move out into the world on their own.
Step 5: Academic Toolkit
By middle school, kids have developed strong habits around how they approach school work and responsibilities in general, some more effective than others. The pressures for more independent work can reveal previously undetected skill gaps and learning disabilities. The major overhaul of the brain’s temporal lobe that begins around age 11 sets all kids up for some challenges in their executive function and their ability to plan and execute their plans. In Conquering Homework we tackle these challenges and more, helping you fill your child’s toolkit with the customized strategies they need to navigate the academic challenges ahead.
Enjoy the ride of parenting!
Parenting is one of the most important, challenging, and enduring commitments we make as human beings.
Along the way we can experience incredible moments of joy, wonder, and delight, right alongside painful, distressing, and upsetting ones, all mixed in together.
No one should have to go it alone in their parenting.
All of us do better when we have a safe, warm community cheering us on and supporting us through our trials and triumphs. Our goal is to make Conquering Homework the very best place for parents seeking to do their very best
We want our kids to enjoy more success at home and school, now and in the future. In Conquering Homework, you will find the support and expertise you need to help you along the way.
What's Included in Your Conquering Homework Membership?
What You Will Receive
- As a new member, you will have our full attention for the first 6 weeks in a Weekly Live Video Teaching Call with Q&A just for new members. You will learn powerful, effective strategies to start the change process in your family in the 5 key areas kids need as a foundation for success. Tuesdays at 11 AM MTN (1PM EST / 10AM PST)
- After you complete the introductory trainings, you will join the rest of the members in a Weekly Live Video Teaching Call with Q&A on Wednesdays at 11 AM MTN (1 PM EST / 10 AM PST)
- All teaching calls are one hour. We know you are busy so we stay on point and you will leave with the inspiration and knowledge you need to make a difference in your family right away.
- Each call ends with a live Q&A and we will stay on the calls beyond the hour as needed to answer additional questions.
- Video Replay of every call
- Transcript for those who prefer to learn by reading
- Audio file so you can listen as you drive the carpool or run errands
- Submit questions for Q&A whether you can be on the live call or not
Founding members
- You are a big part of helping us create this membership, so we are looking to you and your feedback for what is helping you make the most progress. You are a big part of how this will evolve.
Benefits
About the presenters:
Together Cal and Anne bring you a powerful combination of strengths. You will laugh and cry and shout for joy and everything in-between as they lead you to better understand and use your own strengths so you can help your child find and use theirs.
Cal draws on a lifetime of overcoming the challenges of Tourette syndrome as well as OCD and ADHD. In spite of being told he really wasn’t college material, he somehow managed to not only graduate but to go on to complete a Masters degree in Public Health as well as a PhD. His stories are based on his personal wisdom, his experience as a beloved professor for over 30 years, and his long career in Public Health motivating people to change their lives for the better.
Anne taught first and second grade and then was fortunate to stay home and raise her kids. After the kids were grown, she went back to school and became a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She’s spent the last 16 years as a therapist helping people heal their lives and their relationships. She will help you create small, practical steps to put into action the inspiration you get from Cal’s stories.
Together Cal and Anne have 5 children, 10 grandchildren, and three amazing great-granddaughters. They’ve come through multiple bouts of cancer, infertility, the death of a spouse, divorce, combining two families into a reconstituted one, and so much more. What really excites them is to look to the present, right now, here with you, what small steps can we take to make this day a better day for you and your family, and then the next, and then the next?
Join Our Waiting List
What students are saying.
"It’s helped my kids with learning and school, but not just that, it’s helped their self-esteem, their communication, and my communication too. I’m communicating better not only with my kids but also with my husband. I hate it when I have to miss and highly recommend it to parents."
- Robyn Nelson
“Anne and Cal’s class has been a divine appointment in my development as a parent. I have relished the science-based research that we discuss, followed by the practical and simple tools that I can apply instantly with my kids. This is hands down the best investment I have made as a parent.”
- Sarah Johnson
Comments Made by Students from the Previous Course:
Why we do this
Parenting tweens and teens is challenging at any time, and more so now than usual with the additional stresses and strains of the past few years.
Kids in middle school are undergoing a huge, important transition from the relative security of elementary school to more independence and responsibility of high school. Making this leap can be hard and requires some big shifts in how we parent.
We bring a unique combination of experience and perspective that helps us to help you to help your child succeed.
We had very different experiences with school growing up. Anne loved school and enjoyed a lot of academic success, but was shy and unsure of herself. Middle school was especially painful for her. With undiagnosed Tourette syndrome, ADD, and OCD, Cal struggled, but his parents never gave up on him and helped him develop a belief in himself and his ability to succeed.
As helping professionals as well as parents and grandparents ourselves (even great-grandparents now!), we see up close and personal just how challenging parenting today can be and believe that none of us should have to go it alone.
We are here to support you in finding your child’s unique path to success.
