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Find and share professional documents—from curricula to articles to presentations. Our Professional Resource Library is a great way for NCFR members and active Certified Family Life Educators to pool knowledge on a wide variety of family topics.

Please refer to Terms of Use for guidelines on submitting to the NCFR website. Materials must be relevant to family and/or social sciences. NCFR reserves the right to reject any submission at its sole discretion.

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Karen Guzzo
for Members ONLY

Unintended childbearing in the United States

by Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University

In an ideal world, men and women would become parents only when they reached a life stage in which they were prepared to provide children with a stable home environment and the emotional, practical, and financial resources necessary for healthy development. Unfortunately, that is not the reality in the United States. Instead, a third of all births in the United States are considered unintended, and thus many parents may not be fully ready for the sacrifices, demands, and investments children require.

Book Review: "Parenting Your Stressed Child"

Reviewed by Kimberly Hunt, CFLE

Parenting Your Stressed Child: 10 Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Practices to Help Your Child Manage Stress and Build Essential Life Skills provides the reader with dialogue that can be helpful when addressing stress at almost any age and is catered to meet the needs of both the parent and the child.

for Members and CFLEs ONLY

Parenting Teens and Young Adults syllabus

Syllabus for San Diego State University CFD 353C Parenting Teens and Young Adults

Video: "Fun Baby Firsts: The Exciting Milestones of Your Baby's First Year"

Watching your new baby grow and develop is such a joyful part of parenthood. Learn about the amazing leaps and bounds your baby will make in the first year, and how to promote development. Parents will learn when to seek help for concerns, and how to access community resources dealing with development.

Video: "Social-Emotional Development in the Earliest Years"

This presentation will describe social-emotional development as it pertains to young children and discuss elements crucial to healthy social and emotional development.  The presentation will describe ways in which parents and caregivers can support social-emotional development in their growing child, as well as ways to identify if development is off track.  The presentation will include video clips of positive social-emotional development and examples of screening instruments that can be used to screen for social-emotional development.

Video: "¡La alfabetización de los niños empieza en casa"

Enseñamos la alfabetización a los niños bien antes de empezar la escuela. Esto ocurre en casa cuando cantamos una nana, respondemos al balbuceo de un bebé, rezamos con nuestros hijos antes de ir a la cama, leemos una receta de cocina, o cuando enviamos un mensaje e-mail al abuelito. Con estas actividades comunes, los  niños aprenden lenguaje, vocabulario, y la escritura. Estos conocimientos son la fundación de la lectura. Y la lectura es la fundación del éxito escolar.

Que sean padres de familia o profesionales que trabajan con familias, este webinar les explicará como  el ambiente familiar influye sobre la alfabetización temprana.  La presentadora es Angèle Sancho Passe, experta en educación temprana y autora de varios libros.

Video: "Premature Babies: A Different Beginning" - Information and Resources for Parents

When a baby is born prematurely, the dreams of parents for a joyous birth experience can  turn into an unexpected journey filled with uncertainties and anxiety. Parents of prematurely born babies may find they have increased worries about their child’s development and child whose development does not follow typical developmental guides. Where can parents find information that tailored to prematurely born child's development? Where can parents find support? Starting from entry into the neonatal intensive care unit through a preemie’s pre-school years, Jolene Pearson will share insights and resources to help alert to valuable information, resources and actions they can take to advocate for their child.

Video: "How is Screen Time and Interactive Media Affecting My Child's Development?"

Toddlers mesmerized by video. Preschoolers who can’t get enough of electronic games. As young children gain access to today’s digital media, many parents are both worried about negative impacts and fascinated by what their children appear to be learning. In this session, Lisa Guernsey, author of Screen Time: How Electronic Media – From Baby Videos to Educational Software – Affects Your Young Child, describes new insights from research studies on how children from birth to age 5 are affected by electronic media. She will present practical ideas on managing screen time in your household and overturn some conventional wisdom on what is good and bad for young kids.

Video: "Ready, Set, Go: Preparing Children for the Kindergarten Transition"

One of the most difficult times as a parent is transitioning your child into kindergarten. This webinar from has been developed by a kindergarten teacher to help answer questions you may have as your child begins kindergarten and their academic experience! Explore what you can do now to support your child’s growth and development so they are better prepared for this exciting transition.

Provided through a partnership between the Minnesota Department of Education and the Working Family Resource Center.

Modern Parenthood: Roles of Moms and Dads Converge

The way mothers and fathers spend their time has changed dramatically in the past half century. Dads are doing more housework and child care; moms more paid work outside the home. Neither has overtaken the other in their “traditional” realms, but their roles are converging, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of long-term data on time use.

At the same time, roughly equal shares of working mothers and fathers report in another Pew Research Center survey feeling stressed about juggling work and family life: 56 percent of working moms and 50 percent of working dads say they find it very or somewhat difficult to balance these responsibilities.