I thought I’d share a little bit about what’s going in my world right now as it relates to my dream and passion of sharing fatherhood and parenting education with others. There’s been a lot going on lately!

-I recently attended a three day train the trainer workshop for Mind In the Making. It is a terrific book that was turned into a training series for parents, educators and caregivers. One of the best tools I received from this is the idea of empowering our kids to be curious and think up their own solutions to problems, to ask them more questions and encourage them to use their own ideas to seek and find answers. I am now certified to give this training to others and am very excited about this opportunity.

-For the third straight year I attended and participated in the Oregon Parenting Educators Conference. Once again they planned some great sessions and workshops, invited some terrific speakers and I left with new ideas and connections to follow-up on.  The keynote sessions were excellent and I really enjoyed the workshops on “Boot Camp for New Dads” and “The Nurturing Fathers Program.” One of my colleagues I respect and admire also gave a fantastic presentation about “Boot Camp” at the end of the day that really grabbed the audience’s attention.

-I’m currently working on a contract with my local school district to facilitate the Ready! for Kindergarten curriculum for 3 & 4 olds at one of our local schools. I’ve gotten the chance to observe two of these sessions now with an excellent facilitator and am really looking forward to leading my own session. This curriculum gave me the idea for encouraging my son to write his own books and helped inspire this post.

-I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a part of a pilot recognition system for parenting educators through a local university. I’m really excited about this and will share more as soon as I’m able.

-Finally, I’m applying for another three day train the trainer for “The Incredible Years” curriculum. I’m hoping to be selected and looking forward to learning more about this curriculum.

There have been a lot of awesome opportunities coming my way lately and I have to once again thank the Marion & Polk Early Learning Hub as well as my current supervisor and employer for offering these trainings, and for supporting and encouraging me. I’m so appreciative to my amazing wife and kids for encouraging me to pursue this and for sharing me and my time. They are the inspiration and reason for my passion.

I didn’t expect for all of this to come so quickly, but I’m excited about it and am definitely enjoying the ride.

This is fatherhood…