General overview and instructions
This short course is intended for teachers and parents of children from infancy through middle childhood as a resource provided to you at no cost by Kansas State University. You study and complete course assignments on your own. There are no grades or other forms of official credit. Nor is any formal contact with the course instructor built into the course. I welcome any comments you might have about your experience here. In addition to reading the material, you will be asked to keep a journal (click here for journal instructions) for yourself. You will also arrive occasionally at a page where I will ask you to provide anonymous comments about your progress and the effectiveness of the course. Visit the FireWorks course evaluations page to read what students in that course have said about their experience.

I'm Positive: Growing up with self-respect is a "conversational" course comprised of more than 230 brief web pages linked together in a conversational format. Because information is provided in brief, informal segments, I use the phrase "Electronic Flashcards" to describe how information is managed.

As I wrote this course, I imagined that you the reader were seated across from me at a kitchen table. Although we don't have the opportunity of a full exchange, the use of a journal will enable you to engage in an internal dialogue. This format is the same approach I used in the highly successful FireWorks: Anger management in adult-child relationships course.

Unlike other educational websites, this strategy does not provide a quick study. I suggest that you consider a more leisurely approach, bookmarking and returning to the site to complete the course if you find it interesting and useful. There is too much material and activity here to read at one sitting. If you are taking this short course hoping to complete a certification requirement, contact your agency to see if they are willing to supervise your work. You are taking this course anonymously. I have no way to confirm that you have studied this material.

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Journal instructions
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