Success Stories

When two-year-old Jaxson and his mother enrolled in ParentChild+ through Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Minneapolis, life was not easy. Food was in short supply, and his family was relying on donations from a local food pantry. His mother Christina was struggling with depression, making parenting stressful for her and causing her to yell a bit too much and focus on disciplining her child. After two years of ParentChild+, this has all changed.

Christina started ParentChild+ “hungry for information” on how to be the best mother she could be, and she has truly taken the parent mentoring ParentChild+ provides and run with it. Today she is a more effective parent. She is more affectionate, and she has learned how to focus on positive reinforcement. She has become a great role model for Jaxson and loves spending time with him. Their Early Learning Specialist, Deb, fondly notes, “Jaxson responded well when mom read and got on the floor and played with him. He is a really smart boy and this made it easy for mom to praise him and see it can be fun to read and see the benefits of reading.”
Jaxson is now not only ready for school, but also does not want to stop reading! Before PCHP, Jaxson needed encouragement when it came to reading. Two years later, he has become the little bookworm. According to Christina, “He’s super into books now. If we could read 20 books a night, we would. We also go to the library all the time.”

In addition to this newfound love of books, Jaxson is nowhere near as shy as he once was. All of this growth has led to even more learning opportunities for Jaxson. Once Jaxson turned four-years-old, Christina enrolled him in their school district’s Early Childhood Family Education Program. Jaxson loves books, loves to learn, and has a great mother and teacher in Christina. She is confident that Jaxson is ready to start kindergarten, and attributes this success to enrolling him in ParentChild+. She believes that Jaxson’s educational future is now a whole lot brighter. According to Christina, “ParentChild+ really gets your kid interested in the learning process and really helps you out as a parent in a lot of different ways.”