Parenting Center
The Parenting Center provides families with the support, guidance, and enrichment needed to raise young children in the city. LGBTQ and straight, couples and single parents, Jewish and non-Jewish, biological and adoptive, people of all colors and abilities — all families are warmly welcomed. Classes and programs are designed to meet the developmental and social needs of infants and toddlers (newborns through age 4), to create meaningful bonding experiences for caregivers, and to provide practical skills and solutions, advice, and community-building opportunities for parents and parents-to-be.
We offer a wide variety of Sunday and weekday classes for children ages 0-4 and their caregivers, as well as workshops for parents, parents-to-be, and folks who want to be parents.
Upcoming Workshops for parents and parents-to-be
MUSICAL INFANTS (LIVE IN PERSON!)
Thursdays, 12:30-1:15 PM
For newborns through almost crawling
SUMMER SESSION: 5 Thursdays, June 24-July 22
Summer Session Price: $162 per family; EDCJCC Member Rate $132 per family
Teacher: Miriam Szubin
Bond with your pre-mobile baby through music! We will use age-appropriate songs, movements, games, and instruments to encourage development and attachment. Class size will be limited and appropriate social distancing and mask protocols will be followed.
NOTE: Once you click on the registration link, select the 2021 season and then find these classes under “Parenting Center.”
“You need to eat four more pieces!” . . . “Bedtime NOW” . . . “NO! I do it!” If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. Power struggles are maddening for parents, and, it turns out, not good for children either. Putting these struggles in a developmental context, this workshop will provide strategies for how to encourage your child’s growing need to assert independence while still maintaining your control and authority. Struggles around mealtime, potty training, cooperation and others will be addressed. Led by Claire Lerner, licensed clinical social worker and child development specialist.
How do I welcome my baby into the Jewish community? What’s a mohel and how do I find one? How are the welcoming rituals similar and different for boys and girls? When and how do I announce the baby’s name? Join EDCJCC Children and Families staff Lindsay Kagin and Miriam Szubin — who have welcomed two girl and three boy babies between them — for a virtual workshop on Jewish rituals, traditions, and options for a bris (a Jewish religious male circumcision ceremony) and simchat bat (celebration of a daughter). You’ll walk away with information, resources, and connections to a community of other parents-to-be of Jewish babies.
Led by Claire Lerner
This workshop, based on Claire’s 2021 book, Why Is My Child In Charge?, will explore the common mindsets that prevent parents from responding to their children in the most loving and effective way during challenging moments, including tantrums, power struggles, and bedtime battles. Awareness of these mindsets—the lens through which parents filter and respond to their children’s behaviors—will empower you to make critical mindshifts to see your child’s behavior more objectively, to respond with sensitivity, and to develop strategies that translate into adaptable and happy kids, and calm, connected, and in-control parents.
Raising children to build a just world is a life-long process, as well as a difficult challenge for parents to navigate. Join us for a two-part series with expert educator Dr. Nabina Liebow, who will take us through the learning and practical steps necessary to raise anti-racist children and help us create a cohort of race conscious parents in our community.
This workshop is designed for anyone who wants to understand how white supremacy and white privilege affect all parts of our lives and how to bring these ideas into conversation and action in parenting. It is meant as a beginning to this work, rather than to be comprehensive or all-encompassing.
Although we understand that life is unpredictable, we request that you commit to both Part 1 and Part 2 of this workshop in order to honor the learning process and receive the full benefit of this workshop. Attendance will be capped in order to create an intimate cohort of parents.
Part 1 (October 14, 8:00-9:30 PM): Discussing race and racism with your children is a vital part of antiracist and race conscious parenting. But some people might feel a little rusty on the basics! In the first part of the workshop, Dr. Liebow will give a “Crash Course in Racial Literacy” to provide an important framework and context for race conscious parenting. This session will go over the basics of anti-racist thought and ideology, as well as challenge participants to explore their own biases and thought processes before they are able to address these ideas with their children. By the end of this session, participants will gain a deeper understanding of race, white supremacy, white privilege, and antiracism.
Part 2 (October 21, 8:00-9:30 PM): In the second part of the workshop, parents will learn strategies for helping their child develop an antiracist consciousness and how to apply concepts learned in the first session to raising their children.
This program is brought to you by the Edlavitch DCJCC Parenting Center and Morris Cafritz Center for Social Responsibility
The Edlavitch DCJCC embraces inclusion in all its programs and activities. We welcome and encourage the participation of all people, regardless of their background, sexual orientation, abilities, or religion, including interfaith couples and families.