Every so often I will write a sponsored post. I allow companies who have products or services that I think would be helpful to you as readers advertise through a sponsored post. COPE24 is a parenting curriculum that is unique in that it is not a typical lecture style DVD but rather a DVD with realistic scenarios that parents deal with that are open ended allowing for plenty of discussion opportunities. What I like is that there is no commentary in the DVD’s but rather the students have to come up with the solutions– exchanging the normal passive ways students receive this information to active participation in solving these real life problems. The scenario based problem solving is effective as students will tend to recall even years from now when they are parents a specific scenario and the way to handle it. There are enough statistics and a variety of “solutions” for each scenario in the instructor’s manual that it is easy to instruct students and correct any errors in their solutions. COPE24′s instruction style is one that I personally like for high school students who think they know everything. It allows for the student to give their solutions first then correct any errors they may have.

The program

• DVD broken up into the following sections:
  • Crying Baby (preventing shaking)
  • Co-Sleeping/Bed Sharing
  • Bedtime
  • Potty Training
  • Negative Parenting
  • Homework
  • Dress/Clothing
  • Report Card
  • Sexual Abuse
• Worksheets: require scenario summaries, scenario modifications and problem solving.
• Instructor’s Manual – Filled with easy to read and follow instructions, statistics, and additional resources for each section

Samples

• Scenario: Bedtime
• Sample Video Clips

How to fit COPE24 into your curriculum

• Child Development classes: COPE24′s sections on the crying baby , co-sleeping, bedtime, tantrums, and potty training, can all be valuable for your students to go through. Even though this is technically a parenting program if your students are going to work in a day care or your school’s preschool program they will most likely run into similar situations and they will need to know how to constructively handle these problems.
• Life Skills: Student/Parent Focus. Want to talk with your middle or high school students about their parents and the everyday stressors they face as an adolescent? COPE24 sections on Homework, Dress/Clothing, Report Cards, and Sexual abuse that most teens can easily identify with. These video clips can help facilitate discussion and help teens see the situations from their parent’s point of view. They promote empathy and discussions can help students work through their frustrations that they may not realize are common to most teens. Teaching parenting can be tough because you’ll most likely be painting all too familiar pictures of students’ home lives. It is important to stress that this is not a time to judge their parents but rather to make a commitment that the dysfunction or bad parenting stops with them. They can make a choice to parent differently, learn the skills they need, and have healthier kids.
• Life Skills: Parenting Focus. Since this program can easily be split into bite size portions I would strongly recommend some sections to be taught to high school life skills courses. From my experience, there tends to be more female students who voluntarily sign up for child development courses therefore if you can teach some basic parenting in a life skills course where you may get a few more male students it would be beneficial. Imagine how many young men we could help become better fathers if they had some simple training before they left high school!

Testimonials

Yesterday, Ms. Rene Howitt from www.cope24.com came to our school and spoke to all of my classes and she did an excellent job! Rene founded COPE24 as an outgrowth of her experience and frustration with the Social Services system. Her message hits home with teens, she presents the reality of parenting, she does not sugar coat or glamorize what it is like to be a parent at any age, but especially shows teens how hard the road will be when they decide early on to accept the responsibility of becoming a parent. I decided to have Rene speak to ALL of my classes, not just those relating to parenting, because as she puts it, “almost all of you will become a parent at som e point in your life.” This was a great supplement to the curriculum that I am using and can be woven in at multiple points to show students doses of reality and what behaviors are to be expected at different stages of parenting. I highly recommend this program and inviting her as a speaker at your school. COPE24 is relatively new and based in Missouri. As such, Missouri schools have the opportunity to have Rene speak with our students. I would imagine that this program will be expanding rapidly and it will b ecome increasingly difficult to get her booked to speak. Her approach is genuine, she speaks from the heart and with her experience, kids listen and know she is not just “talking” but telling the truth.
Marina Scheiner | FACS, Smith-Cotton High School

“Can you image the impact this program, with the inclusions of a 2-week curriculum, will have in reducing incidents of poor parenting among our families in Missouri as well as the United States? We may never know the impact COPE24 will have on changing behavior, but it is the risk and fortattitude that makes it a worthwhile endeavor.”
- Cheryl E. LeFon | Supervisor, Family & Consumer Sciences Education

How to Purchase

• Purchase the COPE24 Parenting Program Instructor’s Manual & DVD
• Purchase the book, Whose Best Interest
  • Read the First Chapter

Background

• COPE24 is a non-profit 501(c)(3) status organization that was founded by Rene Howitt. Rene has spoken in over 120 Missouri, Illinois and Kansas middle schools, high schools, and universities totaling nearly 10,000 students. Their stories of abuse, neglect, foster care and lack of permanency in their lives led to the founding of COPE24 | Changing Our Parenting Experience. COPE24 believes that the way to break the cycle of abuse for the sake of future generations of children is through educating and providing our youth with a coping skill set that may not have previously modeled to them.
• List of Schools that current use the COPE24 program.

Have Rene Howitt speak at your school

• If you are looking to reach students on the important topics of child abuse/neglect, and parental coping skills, but want a forum that can reach a bigger audience at one time COPE24 founder, Rene Howitt is available to speak. During the past three school years Rene Howitt has spoken to over 13,000 students from middle schools all the way up to universities. She has traveled to over 150 schools in Missouri, Illinois and Kansas.

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A list of great activities, lessons, and resources to do in your preschool classroom.

Food Projects

• English Muffin Pizzas
• Ants on a Log
• Patriotic Strawberries

Homemade Toys

• Homemade Bubbles (Word)
• Homemade Chalk (Word)
• Homemade Play Dough (Word)
• Homemade Slime
• Homemade Crayons
• Homemade Chalk

Preschool Lessons

• Edible color wheel
• Bubble Wrap Prints

• LITERACY: ABC Activities

• LITERACY: Books and Story Telling

• LITERACY: Dr. Seuss

• LITERACY: Story Stretchers

• Math & Science
• Taste

• Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills: Preschool
• Classroom Music for Little Mozarts — Curriculum Book & CD, Bk 3: 10 Sequential Lessons for Ages 4-6, Book & 2 CDs
• Early Literacy in Action: The Language-Focused Curriculum for Preschool

• Teaching and Learning in Preschool – Using Individually Appropriate Practices in Early Childhood Literacy Instruction

• A Survival Guide for the Preschool Teacher
• Free Coloring Pages

Stuff for the Big Kids

• Preschool Observation
• How to Teach Children
• Weekly Lesson Plan Form

Child Development Lab Handoutbooks

• Bedford High Child Development Lab handbook (PDF)
• Plum Senior High Child Development Lab handbook (PDF)

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Lesson Plans

• Families (Word)
• Healthy Pregnancy (Word)
• How Brain Connections Influence Cognitive Development (Word)
• Infant Emotions (Word)
• Toy Evaluation (Word)

• Child Literacy (PDF) “Students will identify three reasons why it is important for adults to read to children.”
• World Hunger (PDF) “Students will research the causes and effects of world hunger on children.”
• Empowered Barbie

PowerPoint

• Birth Order Effects (PPT)
• Attachments (PPT)

Worksheets & Handouts

• Exploring Birth Order (Word)
• Children’s Toys Lesson Plan & Worksheet (Word)
• Dealing with Stress Issues in Children (Word)
• Children’s Stress Outline (Word)
• Children’s Stress Wordsearch (Word)
• Friends- Frog Books (Word)
• GOING ON A BEAR HUNT (Word)
• How to Create Book for Children (Word)
• Infant Emotions (Word)
• Story Telling Evaluation Sheets (Word)
• Story Telling Lesson Plan (Word)
• Story Telling Round Table Discussion Title Page (Word)
• Storytelling Bear Books (Word)
• Storytelling for Children (Word)
• Storytelling Snow Books (Word)
• Storytelling Tips (Word)
• Storytelling Two Little Bugs (Word)
• The Mitten Story (Word)
• What do Emotions Look Like (Word)

Tests & Quizzes

• Heredity Quiz (Word)
• Prenatal Development Test (Word)
• Genetic Birth Defects Test (Word)
• Newborn Care Test (Word)

Links

• Parenting Software: Real-life software simulations, interactive games and activities that teach everyday parenting skills

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If you’re like most schools you have to order supplies through companies that take Purchase Orders. It can be so frustrating ordering through catalogs when you can get supplies cheaper locally, nonetheless here are some catalogs that provide FACS supplies.

• Nasco: sells baking pans, cooking equipment, parenting stimulator dolls, fashion DVD’s, Ez-Decorator, interior design DVD’s.
• Sane: sells cake decorating supplies, fabric, notions, rotary cutting supplies, cooking tools, utility carts.
• Learning Seed: educational DVD’s on consumerism, fashion, cooking, child care, design & housing, etc.
• Calico Industries: restaurant and food service equipment.
• Fresh FACS Publishing: A Family Consumer Science publishing company that publishes lesson plans, booklets, and even adorable vintage looking FACS note cards, calendars, recipe cards, etc.
• Meridian Education: DVD, VHS, & Video on Demand Family & Consumer Science Catalog.
• Prevention Resources: Nutrition curriculum, posters, books, games, charts, kits.
• Enjoy Birth & Parenting Education: Printed Guides, DVD’s, PowerPoint Presentations.
• Insight Media: Nutrition, child development, interior design, history of fashion, fashion merchandising, fashion & society, basic design, fashion designers, and textile DVD’s and Powerpoints.

Text Book Publishers

• Delmar Cengage Learning: Offers text books on culinary, food service management, hobbies, home cooking, home cooking & entertaining, hospitality, and travel & tourism. Teachers can request a complimentary copies.
• McGraw Hill: Offers text books on child care, child development & parenting, clothing & fashion, life skills, consumer education & financial literacy, culinary arts, housing & interior design, foods & nutrition, and family living.
• Wiley: Offers text books on culinary, catering, food & writing, hotel  management, food service, gaming industry, conventions, restaurant management, etc. Teachers can request a complimentary copies.

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The Developing Child
o ISBN: 0205474535 Publisher: Allyn & Bacon Year: 2006

Child Development
o ISBN: 0205449131 Publisher: Allyn & Bacon Year: 2006 Author: Laura E. Berk

Child Development
o ISBN: 0072967439 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities Year: 2007 Author: John W Santrock

The Development of Children
o ISBN: 0716755556 Publisher: Worth Publishers Year: 2004

The Whole Child: Development Education for the Early Years
o ISBN: 0131195921 Authors: Patricia Weissman Joanne Hendrick Publisher: Prentice Hall Year: 2005

Working with Young Children
o ISBN: 978-1-59070-813-2 Author: Judy Herr, Ed.D. Publisher: Goodheart-Wilcox Year: 2008

Children: The Early Years
o ISBN:9781590705858 Author: Celia Anita Decker, Ed.D. Publisher: Goodheart-Wilcox Year: 2006

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