Nurturing Parenting Program helps parents and children

Mary the mermaid and Tod the tadpole taught 7-year-old Frumencio Oregon and his classmates a lesson.

“Stealing is wrong,” Frumencio said as Mary the mermaid, a pink hand-puppet, acted out a lesson on morals by returning some almost stolen candy.

Accompanied by his parents, Frumencio is one of the elementary school-age children taking part in the Nurturing Parenting Program classes through the Imperial County Office of Education in El Centro.

The Valleywide program brings parents together with their children to simultaneously learn lessons to better their family dynamic, Susana Evers, prevention specialist with ICOE, said at the Church of Religious Science on Wednesday.

“We realized that there is a great need for parents to build up their relationship with their children and better their communication skills,” she said. “The lessons cover a lot about family rules, morals and so forth.

“Some of the parents, because they have a busy lifestyle, they don’t have time to sit down with the family and set rules for the kids and it gets very chaotic sometimes,” she said.

Evers said the 12-week program offers weekly classes for elementary level kids ages 6 through 12, adolescents ages 13 through 19 and younger children under the age of 6.

Evers said while she teaches parents through videos, discussion and textbooks her counterpart, Liliana Siordia, works with the children to teach them in different ways.

“(The program is) both for them, the parents and the children, to get the same concept and put it into practice when they go home,” Siordia, also an ICOE prevention specialist said.

“Many parenting classes offer curriculum just for parents but when they try and implement new strategies with the children the children don’t understand this change from the parents,” she said. “This way, everybody understands each other and can come to a compromise and come to agreements more easily,” she said.

The parents participating seemed relieved that a program like this one is available in the Valley.

“I needed it,” Frumencio’s father, also named Frumencio Oregon, said. “We have a lot of problems with communication at home and they answer all my questions (here).

“We’re supposed to be role models for our children,” Oregon, of Heber, said. “If we don’t have the answers it’s good to come (here) and learn,” he said.

For more information on specific days, locations and times contact Susana Evers at 760-352-6104.