Parent Education Seminars
The high school years can sometimes be a confusing and challenging time for both teens and their parents. The LHS PTSA tries to be as supportive of our parents as possible, by inviting guest speakers to address the many concerns we come across during this period. There is comfort to be found too, in realizing that we all share these concerns – despite the differences in our cultural upbringing and vastly different customs and traditions!
We invite speakers to talk to us about how to keep the lines of communication open with our sometimes-uncommunicative teens. We learn about how much it is okay to ‘push’ our children to do their best, and when we cross the line into becoming harsh taskmasters.
We learn the reality about the virtual world our children seem to live in – and how to watch out for the traps they could fall into without being overly protective or hovering over them. We are grateful for help in how to find the ‘perfect’ college for our child – and ensuring once they are there that they have indeed made the right choice.
We learn tips on how to speak to our children about sex, drugs and alcohol – all challenges we know they will have to confront, but that we feel ill-equipped to prepare them for.
Join us at these seminars – an important way to share and acknowledge our concerns and learn how to put them in perspective.
January 26 - What Every Parent Should Know
Lynbrook High School PTSA invites you to a talk on
From the mouths of teens…
and what we can learn by listening
Let’s face it. Communicating with our teens can sometimes be challenging, frustrating and irritating. But the truth is… when we communicate with an open mind and heart, our teens can be stimulating, insightful and invigorating. And that’s not all. When we inquire from a place of curiosity, we can learn far more than what they’re up to, we can learn WHO THEY ARE.
In this talk, we will be sharing what teens have said with regard to:
- What shuts them down when talking with parents;
- What makes it hard for them to open up to us
- And we’ll share several tips for breaking down the barriers and
- opening the door to closer, more connected relationship with our teens.
Carol Satterlee and Lisa Fairchild are Family Relationship coaches with a coaching practice
called Family on the Edge. (Learn more about them at www.familyontheedge.com) Their work
and their passion is about turning everyday challenges and struggles into opportunities for
more fulfilling and rewarding relationships.
Please join us on Tuesday, January 26th 2010, 7 pm in room 72.
Past Seminar
Transitioning to College
Tuesday, November 10th, 7:00 pm in room 72
Remember how you felt dropping your child off at kindergarten?
Seeing your child off to college can be a difficult transition in your relationship.
o How do you help your child choose the ‘best’ college?
o How do you prepare him (and yourself) to live apart?
o How can you continue to support him, financially and
emotionally, from a distance?
Don Mackenzie is the parent of three students who transitioned safely and successfully from Cupertino High School. He is currently the President of the FUHSFoundation. Don has taught parenting classes, was PTA president for two years, and has given presentations on this subject to appreciative audiences around the district for four years. He will share experiences and advice on researching and visiting colleges, asking for financial aid, making deadlines, navigating choices…
And how to live with the empty spaces our children leave behind.
Don will share invaluable for parents of all high school students: parents of seniors who are facing immediate changes, and parents of younger students who should start planning for the future.
Click here to download the flyer for this event.
Past Seminar
If I Knew Then What I Know Now…
The Lynbrook PTSA invites parents and students to join a forum with two Monta Vista graduates:
an opportunity to ask questions, share concerns, and learn from their experiences and perspectives...
Thursday, April 2nd, 7:00 pm in Room 72 (the choir room)
Arar Han and John Hsu will reflect upon:
- What has mattered and what has not in ‘making it’ so far in the world
- Is it more important to follow one’s dreams and passions?
- Or should practical and economic realities come first?
- How can you tell what’s right for you when you’re getting conflicting advice from peers, parents and counselors?
Co-editors of the groundbreaking and insightful “Asian-American X”, Arar and John made very different choices and decisions, leading to very different paths after their high school years. Arar took a year off just to think, and recuperate from the stress of high school. John, who loved, and excelled in, high school, threw himself into a pre-planned path to success…. Now both in Stanford business school, they reflect upon the nature and meaning of achievement and success.
Students, please join us! Questions and dialogue will be an important part of this forum.
Click here to download the flyer for this event,
March 11, 2009 - Steve Saso talked about Risky Teen Behaviors.
As parents we do all we can to prepare our children for the world out there. But there are things we may not feel equipped to discuss with them… Premarital sex, alcohol and drugs are just some of the challenges we know our children will have to confront in their teen years. Is it realistic to hope they won’t experiment? Safe to assume that if they try they’ll know when to stop? Or do you, like so many of us, hide your head in the sand, thinking that innocence is best preserved through ignorance?
Don’t ‘shy away’ from this important responsibility! Studies repeatedly show that having open and informative conversations with our children on these important subjects is the best way to empower them to make mature
and responsible decisions. Let an expert help us find our way around this sometimesconfounding turn in the path to parenting our teens.
Steve Saso, M.Div., draws upon 36 years of experience as a high school teacher and administrator to
empower parents to build influential relationships with kids. With his wife Patt, he has written parenting
books and offers seminars to provide parents with the tools they need to raise successful children. Steve
brings practical insights, enthusiasm, and a uniquely refreshing sense of humor to every seminar. As well
as the wisdom that parenting 3 of his own children through the teen years has brought him.
