2024-2025 General Meeting Dates:

September 5 (A.M) - Gina Gendron, A Play Filled Life: Sensory Play Made Simple

Gina Gendron, the creator of A Play Filled Life, LLC, is a mom of 4 and an educator. She taught pre-school, kindergarten & first grade for 15+ years. She has a Master's degree in Special Education & a CAGS in Early Childhood. She also has a certificate in Psychology. As an educator, sensory play advocate & mama, she believes in simple, impactful, hands-on play. During this presentation you will learn the benefits of sensory play, how to set-up a safe sensory space, storage tips and ways to incorporate learning experiences in.  You will also learn ways to strengthen motor skills, support self-regulation and enhance language and vocabulary, all through PLAY! You will leave with all the supplies to create your own Sensory Play box at home!

October 3 (P.M.) - Bethany Siggins, Image Consultant & Color Specialist: Connecting with Color

Bethany is a certified image consultant and style coach. Her professional career began in finance, but she found her way into image consulting when she decided she wanted to help others in a creative field. Bethany is passionate about assisting her clients uncover their personal style and coaching them to authentically express themselves. Her measure of success is when her clients feel confident and comfortable in their own skin. Bethany’s areas of expertise are personal branding, color analysis, styling, wardrobe organization, and personal shopping. Bethany is also a speaker and a writer who enjoys travel, reading and spending time with her loved ones.

November 7 (A.M.) - Lauren Twigge, Nutritionist: Feeding Kids Through the Years


        

Lauren strives to provide evidence-based, practical nutrition advice that you can apply to your own life. Nutrition can feel complicated. It seems like everywhere you turn, there are new rules about food that end up leaving foods off your plate. She wants to bring nutrition back down to its roots and empower you to make informed decisions that keep as many food groups on your plate as possible. She wants to provide you with simple, nutritious, and delicious recipes that work for you and your family. Healthy eating should not mean that you eat separate from your family. Healthy eating also doesn’t mean you need to spend hours in the kitchen. Her memories from childhood are from time spent around their large dining table. Food is fuel, but food is also memories, culture, and much more. Join us to learn about feeding kids through the years, from introducing solids, feeding toddlers, to growing kids. Let's put the fun back in food!

January 9 (A.M.) - Dr. Toni Griffin, MD, IBCLC, Life Sprout MD

More information to come.

*February 6 (P.M.) - Dr. Mary Ann Little, Child Psychologist: Strategies to Raise Unselfish, Unentitled, and Empathetic Children: Essential Elements in the Parent’s ‘View’ of the Child and the Parent’s ‘Treatment’ of the Child

NDECPTA invites you and your spouse to join us as hear from the renowned Dr. Little. Mary Ann Little, PhD, is a clinical psychologist who has been in private practice for over four decades. “Strategies to Raise Unselfish, Unentitled, and Empathetic Children: Essential Elements in the Parent’s ‘View’ of the Child and the Parent’s ‘Treatment’ of the Child”: We all know that parents influence their child’s development in healthy or not-so-healthy ways. But the details are hard to sort out. How much affection should you show your child? How much help should you provide? How much frustration is constructive? How much supervision is too much? This keynote looks at the critical aspects of how parents “see” and “treat” their child. Based on the latest research, Dr. Little presents the notion of “moderation parenting” as a guiding principle and explains how “too much” or “too little” is problematic. She shares specific guidelines for rearing happy, accomplished, and well-adjusted children.

She is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and has served as an adjunct professor in the departments of psychology and special education at the University of Texas at Dallas. Little authored Loving Your Children Better: Matching Parenting Styles to the Age and Stage of Your Children, Cooperation Station, an educational toy for kids and families, and the Competent Kids Series. She has been a consultant to numerous educational and psychiatric facilities and frequently lectures to both lay and professional audiences. When not in her Dallas office, she can be found with her husband cooking, cycling back roads in Europe, or hiking trails near Santa Fe. Visit her online at drmaryannlittle.com.

March 6 (A.M.) - Jennifer Lewis, Attorney-At-Law: Tips Every Parent Needs to Know When Estate Planning 

Jennifer N. Lewis is an Equity Partner with Farrow-Gillespie Heath Wilmoth LLP. Her primary practice areas are estate planning, wealth preservation and transfer, probate, guardianships, corporate law, and taxation. Ms. Lewis routinely advises clients regarding estate and incapacity planning; federal income, estate, and gift tax issues; probate, trust, and guardianship administrations; and the formation and operation of business entities and non-profit organizations. Ms. Lewis has substantial experience in administration of trusts and decedents’ estates. Ms. Lewis has served as lead counsel on complex probate cases. In addition to handling complex estates, Ms. Lewis provides cost effective estate planning and probate solutions to individuals and families. Ms. Lewis loves engaging with her clients and gains personal satisfaction from providing the best possible legal solutions to meet her client’s needs. Ms. Lewis has been named to the list of Texas Super Lawyer “Rising Stars” (a Thomson Reuters service), which represents the top 2.5% of attorneys under the age of 40 in the State of Texas. 

She will share with us about "standard" estate planning entails, and pitfalls that people can unknowingly fall into as try to be better prepared for the future. There will be a great Q&A session afterward.

April 3 (P.M.) - Jessica, Sleep Happy Consulting - Well Rested Children Change the World

Jessica always knew she wanted to be a mom. After earning a degree in child development and working with children facing developmental delays, she discovered her passion for helping families. When she became a mom herself, Jessica realized the power of sleep routines in creating calm, connected homes. In 2015, she founded Sleep Happy Consulting to help exhausted moms solve their children’s sleepless nights, believing that well-rested children can change the world.

*Denotes spouses welcome and a start-time of 6:00PM