The Toddlerhood Transition DVDs are now available in the GFI store and the visit summaries are available for download in the Leader’s Place section.

As a ministry, we understand how important it is to provide biblical parenting principles in a medium compatible with contemporary learning styles or we risk having a “good” message lost because the form of communication undermines the substance of thought. Today’s Moms and Dads are accustomed to teaching that activates all the senses, not just the intellect. They are looking for more than a “talking-head” and a five point outline.

After nine months, countless hours of strategic planning, scripting, and filming which included more than one hundred and sixty-eight individuals, the latest GFI curriculum is done! The Toddlerhood Transition (Parenting Your 18 to 36 Month Old), is out the door and headed for duplication. While waiting for final delivery of the DVDs and the printing of the books*, we want to provide some preview segments for the GFI community. Take a look at what is coming your way.

The series includes nine visits, each one averaging approximately twenty-two minutes in length. While parents of toddlers (ages eighteen to thirty-six months) are the target audience, many principles extend to children four years of age and beyond. When possible, we recommend parents with toddlers first go through The Toddlerhood Transition series before entering Growing Kids God’s Way.

*We wish we could tell you The Toddlerhood Transition DVDs and books are presently in our warehouse; unfortunately this is not the case but they will be there soon. The DVDs will be available for sale after October 12, 2009 and the books are expected by November 25, 2009. However, do not let the delay of the books hold you back from starting your classes. We have posted .pdf summaries of each visit on the Growingkids.org website in the “Leader’s Place” section. These summaries provide the key points for the individual lessons and serve to encourage plenty of small group discussion.

Where do we go next? With The Babyhood Transitions, Preparation for the Toddler Years and The Toddlerhood Transition series all completed, we now turn our attention to the “Gift Series”. This next project has us combining many of the precepts of Growing Kids God’s Way with a number of new parenting concepts and presenting all of them in a new updated and contemporary format, again perfectly suited to the learning styles of a new parenting generation. We are looking forward to this next test of our endurance and certainly the adventure a project of this scope will take us on. But for now, please enjoy The Toddlerhood Transition series.

You help your son blow out his first birthday candle and Great Aunt Lilly proclaims, “He’s a toddler now!” Not so fast! The period between twelve and eighteen months places a child on a one way bridge to the future. Infancy is a thing of the past and toddlerhood is straight ahead. A baby still? Not really, but neither is he a toddler and that is the key to understanding this phase of growth.

Take a couple of photos because the child leaving infancy will not resemble the child entering toddlerhood six months down the road. This is a period of metamorphosis when his potential for learning seems limitless, his budding curiosity unquenchable and his energy level never seems to diminish.

This is a period of great of exchange: baby food is exchanged for table food; the highchair for booster seat; finger feeding replaced with spoon; babbling sounds transition to speaking, the first unsteady steps are conquered by strides of confidence, and the list goes on. Moving forward at a lighting pace, your pretoddler is driven towards a new level of independence, equipped with a mind of his own. Whether you’re ready or not his natural inclination and challenge of “I do myself” will become increasingly apparent, not to mention frustrating.

The emerging pretoddler is acutely aware of self, although at twelve months of age he is not fully absorbed in the self importance of me, myself and I. (Hang on, that blessing of his nature will show up around twenty months of age.) Try taking something away and a scream of protest is likely. Remove him from a dangerous object and his curiosity lures him right back. His favorite foods suddenly become not-so-favorite and in a few months “No!” will become his default word whether he understands the question or not.

The natural inclination within pretoddlers towards independence is very strong yet, unpredictable. He is always in motion and not easily restrained, directed or controlled, but he needs to be! Boundaries will be tested, rules understood as suggestions, and curiosity will become a force to reckoned with. How will you meet these unfolding challenges? That is the big question. The answer begins with understanding the various growth transitions of the next one-hundred and eighty days of your pretoddler’s life. (For pricing details please visit our store at www.gfi.org)

Common Questions:

Question One: Does GFI have plans to update Preparation for Parenting in the same format as the new Babyhood Transitions course?

Ans. Yes, it is being targeted for release in late 2009.

Question Two: Why is GFI splitting the Preparation for the Toddler Years into two series instead of keeping it a single curriculum as described in the Spring 2008 Newsletter?

Ans. As mentioned above we believe it is not in the best interest of parents to receive teaching that is not immediately applicable to the developmental age of their child. When considering the toddler years for example, there is an enormous developmental difference between a twelve month and thirty month old child. As a result, a single curriculum spanning a number of growth stages will always have limited benefits because not all the information is immediately relevant. Information that can not be applied because the child is past that developmental point or will not reach that phase for another year is not helpful information. GFI made the decision to divide the curriculums based on these teaching concerns.

Question Three: Will the decision to divide the new curriculums (Preparation for the Toddler Years and The Toddler Years Transitions) delay the release of either course?

Ans. Since most of the taping for the series was completed prior to the decision to split the curriculum, we do not anticipate any significant delays as a result of this change. The original release date was already pushed back several months due to equipment delivery problems outside GFI’s control. We are working to meet the revised dates which are now Late Fall of 2008.

Question Four: What is the status of the new Parenting by Principle series introduced at the 2007 National Conference?

Ans. The new series continues to receive much of our time and attention although at the time of this post we are at least six months behind schedule. Some of that time will be made up in the Fall of 2008 when the other curriculums are completed.

Question Five: Does GFI have plans to drop Growing Kids God’s Way or replace it with a new curriculum?

Ans. No. Growing Kids God’s Way has blessed millions of households and continues as a leading parenting curriculum worldwide. There is no compelling reason, nor any thought given to dropping or changing the curriculum. GFI newest releases will complement not replace GKGW.

This is the third in a series of three posts.  Earlier this week we shared the early childhood curriculum updates and changes as well as some information for leaders.

What Leaders Need to Know
As is the case with all of the GFI curriculums, the new courses are self contained units presented in DVD format. Specific recommendations and suggestions for leading any particular curriculum will be found in the companion workbook.

Leaders will notice two changes in the new curriculum that affects the dynamics of the video presentation. First, each session is divided into three or four teaching segments. Each segment targets a specific topic within the general presentation. At the end of each segment, we placed a summary of the key points just covered. This brings us to our second change. The new format no longer needs the outlines to track the key points of the presentation since the segment summaries bundles this information in a concise review.

What has not changed is the “Questions for Review” found at the end of each chapter. They remain part of the course work and still considered a great way to foster discussion.

This is the second in a series of three posts.  Later this week we will share some common questions related to the early childhood curriculum updates and changes.