Parenting Tool Box Courses

Toolbox courses inspire and equip families. They are bursting with great advice, humour and encouragement, offering practical strategies and insights into developmental stages. Parents leave reassured that challenges are common to all families and that they are not alone on their parenting journey.
The courses are run over 6 weeks in a relaxed and conversational small group setting with a trained facilitator. The four courses – Building Awesome Whānau, Early Years, Middle Years, and Teens and Tweens run nationwide all year. There is also a Grandparents Raising Grandchildren resource available.

The Early Years Toolbox (0-6yrs)
The most important years in your child’s development are these early years. No-one will influence your child’s future more than you will. Remember, when it comes to your child’s development, that you are the builder and everyone else is merely a sub-contractor. Toolbox is there to help you enjoy these years with your child.
During these six sessions you will discover and apply new tools and strategies to use with your family. Our hope is that by the end of this course, you will have the skills to set appropriate boundaries for your child and develop a strong and loving bond with them.
Never forget that the effort you put into parenting your children during these early years will have enormous pay-offs in the future.
Session 1: What is a parent?
Includes: Parenting styles, Caring for yourself, Bill of rights for parents.
Session2: Know your pre-schooler
Includes: Five basic human needs, Ages and Stages, Attachment (building a bond with and making your child feel secure), Positive labelling, Personality types.
Session 3: Bringing kids on board
Includes: Parent led families, Parent Coaches, Tools for engaging cooperation, Family rules and reasons, Family mission statement.
Session 4: Expressing our love through discipline
Includes: What does discipline actually mean? Feel, think, act. Tools for handing the hot spots, Together time, Tantrums.
Session 5: Creating a childhood to remember
Includes: Love languages, Playful parenting, Everyday rituals, Brain builders, Traditions.
Session 6: Putting it all together
Includes: Character, Putting new skills into practice.

The Middle Years Toolbox (6-12yrs)
Nothing gives parents more pleasure than seeing their children grow and mature in the family. The middle years are vital. They are your window of opportunity to stay connected, teach skills and build memories.
It is now that children learn about right and wrong, and most important of all, it is during these years that they are still interested in what you, as a parent, think!
The six sessions of this course will provide you with the skills and strategies needed to be the parent you have always hoped to be. You will be given insight into the particular challenges and unique opportunities that the middle years bring. And you will gain tools for confidently handling the challenges that arise along the way
Session 1: Setting the scene
Includes: Parenting styles, The V of Love, The Parent Coach. Hot Topic: Peer Pressure
Session 2: Building your child’s self esteem
Includes: Self-esteem, Reflective listening, Passing on values, School. Hot Topic: Bullying
Session 3: EQ Emotional Intelligence
Includes: Socialising our kids – manners and positive requests, Delaying gratification, the Teachable moment. Hot Topic: Anger
Session 4: Organising Chaos
Includes: Personality types, Family Meeting, Establishing the rules, Setting boundaries, Consequences. Hot Topic: Total melt down or the Strong-willed child.
Session 5: Unique Families – Creating the memories
Includes: Atmosphere, Family mission statement, Rituals and memories, Love languages.
Hot Topic: Sibling rivalry.
Session 6: Moving Forward
Includes: Change is the theme (puberty) the five A’s of prevention, Get in first (talking about the birds and the bees). Hot Topic: Body image.

Tweens & Teens (12-18yrs)
The teenage years can be like riding a roller coaster. Toolbox aims to take out a few of the nastier twists and turns on the track, and also helps parents hold on and enjoy the ride.

The Tweens and Teens Toolbox is completely realistic – it addresses the serious dangers and problems that teenagers can encounter and gives practical coaching strategies to handle them. But it’s also encouraging in that the course never loses sight of the fact that there is so much to enjoy as children go through this stage.

Toolbox is ideal if your children have not yet reached puberty or are in the early ‘tween’ stage of adolescence – you won’t be caught unprepared! If your children are already in the midst of the teenage years, there is so much in every session to use straight away.
Session 1: Atmosphere
Includes: The changes that tweens & teens go through. How to positively respond to these changes.
Creating a welcoming, positive and safe atmosphere in the home. Teenagers and household chores.
Session 2: Boundaries
Includes: Parenting styles and what works best with teenagers. Giving choice and responsibility at different ages. Parental limits and boundaries for teenagers. Age-appropriate consequences for teenagers.
Session 3: Communication
Includes: How to communicate with your teenager. The strengths and weaknesses in your teenager’s personality. Strategies to use around cell phones and technology.
Session 4: Discipline
Includes: How to encourage self-discipline in your teenager. Letting the consequences do the teaching. Engaging cooperation. Building values and character.
Session 5: Self-Esteem
Includes: The culture in which our teenagers live. The areas that self-esteem comes from.
Building self-esteem and resilience. Helping your teen to stay mentally healthy.
Session 6: Future Focus
Includes: Sex and dating. Teaching teenagers about the value of money. Love Languages.
Inspiring your teenager to be all that they can be.

Building Awesome Whānau (0-12yrs)
As the latest addition to Toolbox, Building Awesome Whanau is pretty special. By drawing on the wisdoms of Maori ways of being, doing and knowing and bringing them together with the best of Toolbox, we’ve sought to create a resource that reflects this remarkable little country of ours, Aotearoa, and in doing so, serve all of its people.
Some familiar faces have helped us to create this resource so it’s packed full of great ideas, positive stories from parents still on the journey with their own tamariki and practical ideas to help you. Your facilitator will draw on the wealth of wisdom and experiences present in the group, and weave that together with all that is Building Awesome Whanau, so that you are supported and encouraged as you awhi (nurture) and build YOUR awesome whanau.

Session 1: Laying the Foundations – building your family on aroha
Includes: The foundations of love, Unconditional love, When kids are difficult, Love Languages, The science of love (what a child needs), Attachment (building a bond with and making your child feel secure).
Session 2: Parents are the roof – protecting your whānau
Includes: Parenting styles, The Parent Coach, Building leaders, Caring for yourself, Kids need attention
Session 3: The walls of the whare – boundaries to keep the good stuff in and the bad stuff out
Includes: Why discipline? Finding rules that suit your whānau, How do you start new rules at home and what rules should you have? V of Love, Consequences, Nudging your tamariki in the right direction, Good discipline.
Session 4: Keeping it sweet – Atmosphere is everything!
Includes: How does your home feel? How to play, Mealtimes and how to get the whole family to the table, Safety and accidents, Fun and Memories.
Session 5: Cool korero – Communication
Includes: Positive tips to make communication work well, Reflective listening, Getting kids talking, Tools for engaging cooperation, Family meetings, Giving your kids bounce (resilience), Hot tips on bullying.
Session 6: Outside the whare – living in the big wide world
Includes: School, Sleep, Learning starts at home, Anger, Hope for the future, Dream a dream