By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
United Way of Greater St. Joseph officials hope to help parents better discipline their children as well as prepare them for school.
The United Way has launched a program called Success by 6.
United Way Director of Community Investment, Jodi Flurry, says a program entitled, “Raising Children with Conscious Discipline,” will hold three monthly sessions at the Wyatt Park Christian Fellowship Hall beginning this evening.
“It’s geared toward equipping parents and care givers with skills to help them support their kiddo,” Flurry tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “Think back, God bless my child, I have a good kid, but, you know, he would have meltdowns or he would have tantrums. And sometimes it’s like, I don’t know what to do. And these are sessions to help parents or care givers better navigate that to support their kid.”
The first session is called: Reclaim Your Power: How Choices Build Self-Control and Self-Esteem. The sessions begin at 6:30, beginning tonight. Two more sessions will be held, one in February and one in March. Those sessions are entitled, “From Chaos to Calm: Turning Resistance into Cooperation” and “If I Could Only Find the Right Consequence: Secrets and Myths about Effective Consequences.”
The St. Joseph School District will offer United Way KinderClub in all elementary buildings beginning Thursday. The club prepares children for kindergarten, which Flurry calls fundamental to success entering school.
“It is learning how to function in a classroom. It’s learning how to follow rules, classroom expectations. It might be circle time. So, this is how we sit in a circle and you keep your hands to yourself. Or, this is how we do this function,” Flurry says. “So much of it is social, emotional side of being in a classroom, being with other children, interacting with them.”
United Way KinderClub is designed to help children who will be in kindergarten during the 2024-25 school year. Sessions are free and will be held at all St. Joseph elementary schools. Sessions will be led by St. Joseph School District staff.
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