Teaching Self-Government Review

Have you ever yelled at your kids?…of course you have. We’ve all done it. I’m not proud when I do it, and I’m surely not happy afterwards. I always feel horrible and often apologize to my kids. I was so excited when I had the chance to write about the Teaching Self-Government review we did over the last few weeks. This program was created by Nicholeen Peck and can be done completely online. Wouldn’t it be nice if your children always followed instructions, accepted criticism and accepted “no” as an answer? Let me tell you about this course and why I am so glad we had the chance to try it out.

Nicholeen, the author of this program, is an international speaker, author, mentor, former foster parent, and President of the Worldwide Organization for Women.  She has appeared on various news shows and radio programs to discuss effective parenting, and she has authored many parenting books including Popular Parenting Methods, The Power of Calm, Londyn LaRae Says Okay, Porter Earns A Quarter, Big Win For Quin, Paije Takes the Stage, and more.

Teaching Self-Government Review

As we go through the Teaching Self-Government review, I’ll tell you what I liked about the program and why we decided to publish a review about it. This program is a thorough, faith-based, positive, online class taught by Nicholeen Peck.

Immediately, in lesson 1, I started devouring everything Nicholeen was teaching. It resonated so strongly with me and our belief system. At the end of this course, I came out with an understanding that the key to having a peaceful and disciplined home was for me and my husband to learn how to self-govern.

This course is laid out nicely – using the visual of a tree – with roots, trunk and branches.  You start with the roots – and take lessons to build the trunk and fill out the branches and fruit of the tree.  (It’s rewarding to see your tree grow as you complete the individual classes – kind of like Hooray stickers for grown-ups!)

In the Roots portion of the course, you cover the basics/foundation of the course, including:

• Popular Parenting Methods (The Cultural Parenting Revolution)
• Training The  Heart
• 4 Keys of Self Government (Analyze, Make a Plan, Act Deliberately, Communicate Effectively)
• The Power of Calm
• Vision – Home Culture (What do you want your future family to feel like?  Now is time to plan your family culture to stand the test of time)

Teaching Self-Government review – When you progress to the Trunk lessons, you learn about the following:

• Marital Relationship & Couples Meeting (The tone of your relationship with your spouse sets the tone for your whole family.  If your children are not happy, the first relationship parents need to focus on strengthening, is the couple relationship)
• Roles (the roles of children and parents should not be confused)
• Tone (Acceptance, Love/Mercy, Trust)
• Family Economy (Consequences) Tolerances (Your family economy is the system of credits and debits.  It defines the way consequences are earned and lost.  The family economy should not be a surprise to the family members.  Knowing the economy ahead of time decreases anxiety for all family members)
• Parent-Child Relationship
• Seek to Understand
• Family Mission (The mission of the family is the what the family is becoming together and how they achieve their vision)
• Family Meetings
• Personal Mission
• The Family Standard (provides boundary lines that keep everyone safe and serves as a shield of protection from the negative influences of the world)

Teaching Self-Government review – The Branches section of the course covers:

• 4 Basic Skills  (Following Instructions, Accepting “No” Answers, Accepting Consequences, and Disagreeing Appropriately)
• 5 Social Lessons
• Assertive Communication
• Praise
• Corrections and Rule of 3/Time-Out
• Pre-Teach
• Parent Counseling Sessions  (These sessions are “talks” where parents get to ask their children about what’s going on in their lives. It’s a time to seek to understand)
• Family Activities/Fun
• Problem Solving/SODAS (a problem solving exercise, and one of the best ways to evaluate a situation and see what could have been done better)
• Mentor Sessions  (This is the time to make goals together and to see what is needed)
• Motivators

Teaching Self-Government Review

In addition to these sections of the course, I was emailed every week with parenting advice and support. I actually looked forward to receiving that email each week. She also supplies weekly call-ins that you can join. You can submit questions before the call and she will go over most of the questions so that you get answers to anything you need help on. So, not only do you get to go at your own pace with this program, you get support on any given week, which was incredibly helpful to me and my family as we worked through this. The support group calls and weekly gems (articles that are written every week) were some of my favorite parts of this program. I felt like I was part of a community and that I wasn’t in this alone.

This course really taught me that in the end, we should be teaching our kids to master themselves…meaning their actions and their thoughts. We want them to be happy, functioning adults in society one day. They shouldn’t just act nice because we want them to – they should want to do it on their own and know why.

Here are some tips to help you get the most out of the course:

• Work from the bottom up – start with Roots. It really does lay the foundation for the rest of the course and is an important part of the teachings.
• Work a little bit every day (you can probably finish one class per day which is what I did).
• Be realistic in your expectations. Don’t expect behavioral perfection right off the bat. You (and your family) may have to work at it.

Honestly, I really got a lot out of the course while we were working on the Teaching Self-Government review.

In particular, I found the following to be very positive:

• There is SO MUCH GOOD INFORMATION! (Some videos are an hour or more – others might be 4 minutes in length. Regardless of the time involved, the information is worth it)
• The info makes sense! She lays everything out so that it is easy to understand and she is very clear in her communication. I never left the course having questions about what she was teaching.
• I thought her advice was fairly easy to implement. It wasn’t intimidating and made me feel like I could make the change I so wanted.
• The information is provided in a variety of ways and you can choose how you’d like to learn it. Video, text, or both.
• If you’re really interested – bonus materials are provided. I found these helpful when I wanted to get more in-depth on a particular subject.
• Assignments are included. You can use the new knowledge effectively.
• If you follow the course and implement Nicholeen’s advice, you will probably become a calmer individual (I know I have in the weeks since I’ve finished the course), and your family, homeschool, and home will see a calming influence too. (Now, read this bullet point again – it’s an important one!)
• You don’t need to take my word for it, you can see testimonials here.
• The website offers lots of relevant information – via great blog posts.
• The resources are priced well and can be purchased alone or in packages.
• Nicholeen offers lots of support, including a FREE Family Mentor Session.
• She also offers a 100% Money Back Guarantee (although I doubt she’s ever had to refund anyone). Still….I like that it’s available and it is a true testament that she believes in what she teaches.

This advice has the ability to be modified for all homes and all beliefs.  Use what you can/what you feel comfortable with.  I do know her advice/techniques WORK.  If you have a Family Vision, set rules, are consistent, and enjoy calm in your life and in your home, your entire family benefits.

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Did you like the Teaching Self-Government review? You can view more reviews by our team of homeschooling parents here: https://howtohomeschool.com/curriculum-reviews