Highlights from our Fundraiser
Our Mission
ParenTeach Institute is a charitable organization focused on high-quality parenting and caregiver education. At ParenTeach, our goal is to de-stigmatize, normalize, and build awareness of parenting and caregiving skills in order to create a healthier, safer and more productive society. We do this by offering online parenting and caregiving courses that can be taken by anyone, anywhere, anytime.
What are the benefits of parenting & caregiving education?
After over 25 years teaching parenting and caregiving education, we’ve learned that early parenting and caregiving education provides the skills needed to create a nurturing, supportive environment for children which leads to their overall development and well-being. Skills included are:
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An understanding of the various stages of child development, enabling caregivers to provide age-appropriate care, activities, and support
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Effective discipline strategies that help parents guide their children's behavior in a positive and constructive manner, promoting a secure environment
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Techniques to encourage positive behavior, reinforcing good habits that create a peaceful family atmosphere
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Communication skills that help develop positive relationships with children, improving understanding and reducing conflicts
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Emotional support practices that help children navigate their feelings and build emotional resilience
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An appreciation for the importance of self-care for parents and caregivers, recognizing that their well-being directly affects their ability to care for their children effectively
ParentABLE Documentary
Check out what students, teachers and subject matter experts say about ParentABLE, our course for high schoolers, in this impactful 12-minute film.
Explore our Offerings
ParenTeach Institute offers a number of evidence-based positive parenting education courses for people of all ages and backgrounds. Classes can take place in person or online in a number of settings, such as in schools, hospitals, pediatric offices, community centers, therapist offices, and privately. We are constantly validating, modifying, and improving our curriculum based on research and evaluation, as well as measured feedback from each of our participants. For this reason, ParenTeach delivers cutting-edge innovative, universal, parenting and caregiver courses that teach child development, problem-solving skills, non-violent discipline, and positive parent-child communication in order to prevent unintentional harmful parenting practices, promote Early Relational Health, insure healthy social and emotional development of children, strengthen families, and improve school readiness and achievement so every child can live up to their full potential.
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From the Founder of ParenTeach Institute,
Katharine Bensinger
In 1994 while working as a family therapist at a community mental health center in Chicago, I witnessed many children and parents going through traumatic experiences; divorce, domestic violence, children with anxiety and struggling with self-regulation. I also witnessed something else. Many of these overwhelmed parents used unintentional harmful parenting practices. They had trouble communicating with their children and disciplining effectively, not because they didn’t love their children, but because they were never taught positive parenting and caregiving skills.
This is why in 1996 we began to develop highly effective, evidence-based parenting education programs. ParenTeach knows that the quality and stability of a child’s parental relationships determine the level of their self-confidence, mental health, motivation to learn, academic achievement, ability to resolve conflict without violence, and positive caregiving skills. Since launching our first program, Parenting Fundamentals, we have added a number of online and in person positive parenting and caregiving courses that allow large numbers of individuals and facilitated group classes to have access to positive parenting and caregiving education.
Our Partners
