Hello everyone,

Welcome to our third newsletter. Noël's latest book, 'Could Do Better', was launched in 2006, and parents are finding it very helpful. In the book Noel explains in detail how parents can help children achieve their academic potential. The book is suitable for all parents, including those whose children have specific learning difficulties. You can order copies from The New Learning Centre, £17 including postage and packing.

In October 2006 Gillian was the guest expert on the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2. The topic was 'Teaching Children to Manage Money'. Gillian saw the usefulness of the phone-in question-and-answer format and now wants to host her own radio programme. Any radio producers out there?!

Noel was interviewed by the Daily Mail for an article about school refusal and its link to low-level bullying.
You can read the article here. Noel discussed what parents can do to rebuild the confidence and motivation of children and teens who are finding school a struggle academically or socially. Despite this problem being so widespread, many parents feel isolated and unsupported. As witness to that, despite the Daily Mail's circulation of 2 million, we received very few calls. Is this because parents find it embarrassing to ask for help? We'd love to hear your views on this.

• For two months running, Gillian's Parenting Skills Class was the subject of articles in Junior magazine, a leading parenting magazine. You can read them on our website. Also, do check the website for a recent article from a California newspaper describing a home visit in which Noel demonstrated being positive, firm and consistent with homework.
• As parenting professionals whose work has been featured in several TV programmes, we were invited to attend an NSPCC conference on 'Parenting and The Media'. Ten years ago one of the NSPCC's aims was to raise awareness of the value of parenting support through the popular media. All present agreed that this has been achieved, but with mixed success. Although the entertainment value of a quick fix is understandable, it was clear that real change only takes place over time. The New Learning Centre's 'Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting' methods were singled out for high praise.
• We are doing more and more in-service trainings in schools throughout the UK, and we are finding that teachers are increasingly open to learning new strategies to motivate and discipline their students. In addition, Noel has been a keynote speaker at several conferences.
• Our US branches in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area are going from strength to strength. If you have friends in California, do give them our US website for upcoming seminars: www.calmerparenting.com
• And finally, we have taken the first step of becoming a not-for-profit organisation, en route to becoming a charity, in order to be able to access funding for parents who at present cannot afford our services.

6 SUMMER HOLIDAY SURVIVAL TIPS

The school holidays can seem to last an awfully long time when you've got bored, squabbling children at home. Here are our top tips for keeping your kids happily occupied over the summer break:

1. Don't drop your routines
Often parents feel that the school routine is hard on children and that they need freedom during the summer. Even in the holidays children still need structure, routine, rules and rewards.

2. Limit screen time
Television and computers can eat up a lot of your children's time during the holidays. Screen time should happen only after children have tidied their rooms, fed their pets, exercised, helped around the house and garden and completed some academic work (see Tip 6). Screen time should be a treat that they earn.

3. Keep food treats to a minimum
Children often feel that they should have an ice cream each time the ice cream van comes round, and that when you're out doing fun things, they need to have fun food too. Not only are food treats expensive, they're not good for kids' behaviour, either. A maximum of three non-nutritious treats a week is a good rule of thumb.

4. Give siblings time on their own
One way to stop siblings driving each other mad is to have each child play quietly by themselves in separate rooms for half an hour a day. This will help them to enjoy each other’s company more when they are together. To reinforce good behaviour, praise siblings whenever they are not squabbling.

5. Agree on a plan for each day
To keep children from spending too much time in front of a screen, or whingeing about being bored, parents need to arrange regular activities that are purposeful and challenging as well as fun. The long summer holiday is a great opportunity for children to do activities they don't normally have time for during the school term.

6. Have them do half an hour's academic work each day
Help children start a project on something that interests them, such as dinosaurs, football or art. Work on it together daily. Praise sensible work habits, and be enthusiastic (even if you don’t feel like it!).

You may like these ideas but be unsure how to transform your children’s reluctance or outright refusal into cooperation and motivation.

Would you like some personalised advice about how to make all this happen? Ring or e-mail us to book a one-off consultation in person or on the telephone.

Here are some of the strategies that Kathy and George have put into place to achieve this transformation:

Be in charge
The parents, not the children, decide what values will prevail in the home.

Descriptive praise
Notice and mention every tiny little step in the right direction, even if the result is not yet what you would hope for.

Reflectively listen
Instead of reasoning, rescuing or getting cross with an upset, angry or unco-operative child, listen reflectively. That means, take a guess at what your child is feeling beneath the whingeing or sulking, eg "You really don't want to go to bed now." "I can see you're so frustrated that things didn't go the way you wanted." "Even though you think you can't do it, you're being brave and having a go."

Provide a healthy lifestyle
For example, drastically limit the amount of time your children spend in front of a screen.

United front
If you have a partner, take the time to sit down together with him or her to clarify your values and strategies.

Prepare for success
Anticipate what could go wrong, and put routines into place to keep attitudes and behaviour positive.

Establish clear and coherent rules
This goes a long way towards reducing resistance.

Establish rewards and consequences
To help children get into good habits, arrange for them to earn the goodies in life.

Take care of yourselves
One often over-looked way to do this is to ask for help. Acknowledging that the old ways are not working is a sign of strength rather than of weakness. Why not follow Kathy's friend's advice and "Call the New Learning Centre. Do it NOW!" We're here to help and we know how to help. You too can achieve a calmer, easier, and happier family life.

We would like to introduce you to our associates who offer families specialised additional support.

Tim Donaldson is an Integrative Arts Therapist who has been working with us for the past three years. Children and teenagers respond to his empathy, enthusiasm and sense of playfulness.

They open up and start learning how to manage their feelings. One grateful father described him as "the man who can get a hoodie out of his hood". Tim trained with the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education (www.artspsychotherapy.org).

Sue Allen is a highly skilled relationship counsellor with Psychology of Vision (www.psychologyofvision.co.uk). She regularly works with groups, individuals and couples in business and in their private life. Her clear professional guidance enables clients to discover innovative solutions and take new steps towards success.

Myrom Kahaner works with children who are experiencing a range of learning and emotional difficulties, using body orientated methods. For the last 15 years he has been helping children to improve their co-ordination, learn how to use their body and verbal communication to project assertiveness, and help them become more resilient and less prone to bullying. Myrom has been working with our clients over the past five years. He had trained in the Elbaum Centre and Reidman Centres (www.reidman.co.il) in Israel and in the Chiron Centre (www.chiron.org) in London.

All these consultants work with children or parents who are already enrolled in our programmes. If you would like to have sessions with any of these consultants who are highly recommended by The New Learning Centre, please call the office.

We Need Your Help

We have identified several projects that we want to tackle in the near future. We are looking for people to manage these projects. This would only be part-time, and would suit someone who has attended our courses, has experienced the benefits and has a marketing or promotion background. The right person may already be on our database! Please call us if you’d like to know more.

Private Sessions

For those of you who prefer to see us individually, we continue to offer private Parent Sessions (in person or by telephone) and Family Learning Sessions.

Refresher Sessions

For those of you who finished a programme with us some time ago, we offer follow-up private sessions to keep you up to scratch with the skills. Sometimes just a one-off top up session can do the trick! Many parents find that coming along to the occasional Introductory Talk is also a good reminder.