A Girls' Night Out To Remember

Girls clad in pink with moms (and some dads) in tow posed for photos as they entered Riverside Elementary School Thursday night for its annual Girls’ Night Out workshop.

Girls’ Night Out is the brainchild of Assistant Principals Susan Andujar and JoVon Rogers. The program began three years ago as a way to bring parents into the school for an educational workshop while helping parents and their daughters bond.

“We really wanted a way for parents to come in for a parent workshop,” said Andujar. “It’s a way for girls and their parents to spend some time together.”

In the program’s first year, 85 girls and their parents attended, and the following year’s attendance was in the 90s. Andujar and Rogers are hoping to exceed that number this year.

This year’s parent workshop theme covered effective discipline in the home. The workshop theme was the result of a survey conducted at Back-to-School Night in September, asking parents what topics they wanted to tackle at workshops like Girls’ Night Out.  

Said Andujar, “One of things that came out of that survey, overwhelmingly, was that parents wanted to learn how to manage their children’s behavior at home.”

Parents participated in an exercise called Four Corners, where they divided into four groups corresponding with four common behavioral problems: talking back, disorganization, greediness, and whining. Each group was provided with a laptop in order to browse through disciplinehelp.com, a website that shows parents how to effectively handle over 100 behaviors. Based on what they found on the website and via group discussion, each group shared an action plan at the end of the session.

Many parents enjoyed the workshop and thought the website was a valuable resource.

“I’ve enjoyed [the night] so far,” said Deborah Harris. “I like having a website to go to on a regular basis.”

“I liked seeing a lot of people who have similar issues with their children,” added Sherri Norton.

While their parents were in the workshop, the girls painted picture frames that held photos of the girls and their moms and worked on a mural consisting of “power words” that will be displayed in the school.  

At the conclusion of the workshops, parents and their daughters regrouped for Zumba dancing, a new component added to this year’s program.

The program “definitely has a positive impact,” said Rogers. 

A similar workshop for boys and their fathers will be held in March.