What does a spaghetti dinner have to do with my Self-Assured Motherhood program? 

Well, I tell you!

My first year as a high school English teacher, I noticed that my students had very poor essay organization. They often had good ideas sprinkled throughout their papers, but without a clear thesis statement and topic sentences, their good insights got sort of lost in a mess of words that were hard to follow.

Something had to be done. I knew these kids were missing an essential skill that would bless the rest of their academic lives if I could simply figure out a way to help them understand the importance of essay organization in order to get their ideas across. 

But how could I teach this in a way that would actually stick? I knew they had been taught about essay structure in the past–probably multiple times. I knew a teacher had probably put up a transparency on the overhead projector showing them the outline of a five paragraph essay (as a side note: do you remember overhead projectors–the spray bottles and the VisaV markers?); I knew a teacher had probably given them a handout with the structure of an essay outlined–but for whatever reason, this concept wasn’t translating for most of them. My students weren’t able to apply what they had learned about essay organization when they actually sat down to write out their important ideas. 

So I started thinking: How can I teach them about this in a way that will really stick? How can I make this lesson fun, memorable, and effective? 

And that’s when the Spaghetti Dinner lesson plan was born. 

The next day as my students came filing into class, I had a little folding table at the front of the room with a beautifully plated spaghetti dinner on it. They could smell the homemade meat sauce on the noodles and see the ice cold Dr. Pepper next to the plate. I had a crisp salad and a bowl of chocolate pudding with whipped cream on the side, and they definitely took notice and looked at the meal curiously as they walked in, trying to figure out what was going on. Meanwhile, I acted innocent and unaware as I finished up checking emails and taking roll at my desk.

Once the bell rang, I walked up to the front of the classroom and pretended to suddenly remember the plate of delicious goodies waiting there. I said, “Oh! We had a teacher luncheon today, and I got this plate of food but didn’t have time to eat it. I’d hate for it to go to waste, but I can’t eat it while I’m teaching…would any of you want it?”

The students looked around at each other, confused, and then, of course, one of the hands of an outgoing boy in the back of the room shot up. “I’ll take it, Ms. Nielson! I’m still hungry after lunch!”

“Okay, you can have it,” I said, and then with a little mischievous smile, I added, “But first I’m going to do this…”

From under the table, I pulled out a big bowl and spoon and placed it on the table. I then picked up the plate of food and the side dishes and dumped it all into the bowl and started mixing it together.

There were shouts of surprise as the kids demanded, “What are you doing, Ms Nielson??” 

“What?” I said, grinning as I mixed the noodles, marinara sauce, salad, and chocolate pudding together, “It’s all the same stuff! Who cares how it is organized??”

By this point, my students were catching on to the fact that this was an object lesson, and they were laughing–so was I–and my favorite part was opening the Dr. Pepper and, as they shouted, “No, don’t do it!” and pouring it over the top of the entire messy bowl of goop. 

“Nooooo!” They all shouted, as I continued to insist, “I don’t understand what the big deal is! It’s all the same content–the good stuff is still in there–it doesn’t matter how it is organized.” 

During my five years as a high school English teacher, I used this lesson every year, and without fail, there was always some class clown who said, “I’ll still eat it!” and made a big scene of taking a bite from the bowl of slop while his classmates all groaned. (And yes, every time it was a boy. Teenage boys are hilarious.)

This was my favorite lesson to teach each year because not only was it memorable and fun–it lead to an amazing discussion that taught the importance of essay organization so well. My students could suddenly really see and understand that it doesn’t matter how good your ideas are if they aren’t presented in a digestible way, if they get mixed together without any separation or structure to guide a reader. I loved taking a concept that was hard for them to grasp and making it understandable, and I saw a noticeable improvement in their writing after this lesson every year.  

 

I tell you this story because my Self-Assured Motherhood Program is open for enrollment TODAY, and I want you to join!

 

This program is not like other parenting education that you’ve maybe participated in in the past – where you heard the lessons, you felt like you understood them, but then you didn’t actually apply them long-term. This program was developed with your long-term success in mind. 

 

And that’s because the SAM program was designed by a teacher–a professionally trained, extremely experienced, and, at the risk of sounding arrogant, very gifted teacher. Teaching is my passion, and it’s one of my favorite things in the world to take a complicated topic and figure out how to teach it–how to make it accessible, digestible, and understandable for anyone who listens.

 

This is what I strive to do with every episode of 3 in 30, and I take all of that to the next level with the SAM program, a curriculum that I am so incredibly proud to have developed for overwhelmed women who want to create more meaning in their motherhood by discovering more of themselves. 

There are so many parenting programs on the market today, and I’m sure they are great, but I can tell you because I’ve researched in depth to see what is available to support parents, that no other parenting resource is structured like SAM–with your long-term success and development in mind.

And as my students learned with that memorable spaghetti dinner lesson, the way that content is organized and delivered matters. 

 

As I created this program, I put on my professional educator hat and asked myself, “What is working with online parenting education, and what is not? How could I improve upon what I am seeing, so my students will actually get the results that they crave?” I am absolutely thrilled with how the curriculum came together.

 

So, today I want to tell you three reasons why SAM is different than other parenting education on the market and why you should join:

 

1. The Self-Assured Motherhood program is nine months long.

When I tell other online educators this, they just gawk at me. Nine months long?? They don’t believe that any mom out there would want to commit to that. They can’t believe that I would want to commit to that. Why would I want to show up live every single week for nine months? To most online business owners, this is just not a wise use of my time for the most profitability. 

But I designed this program with best practices for learning in mind, not necessarily best practices for business. Of course I care about the success of my business, but I am first and foremost a teacher, and I am never going to make a decision that puts money before what’s best for my students. Ever. 

 

Nothing gives me more joy than seeing my students truly, deeply learn and change through this effectively-designed curriculum–and it is thrilling for me to be with the same group of women for nine months. Even though our SAM groups are typically large, with about 50 women on live calls each week, over the course of nine months, I really do get to know each SAM sister. And I love them! I care about their individual stories. 

This program really works! You deserve to feel more fulfilled and peaceful within your daily life as a mother now, this year–not at some undefined future date. Your family will be blessed by it, you will be blessed by it, and it is absolutely worth it to dedicate one hour per week to truly shifting and growing over the next nine months.

 

2. The Self-Assured Motherhood program is a cumulative curriculum.

This is probably my favorite aspect of the SAM program. It is so satisfying for me as an educator. It was thrilling to get to design a curriculum that builds, where each month you are expanding on what you learned the month before, so step-by-step, you are becoming a stronger, better version of yourself.

As you may know, the SAM program dives into nine principles of Self-Assured Motherhood, one per month, and each new principle builds on the last. Most online parenting education simply isn’t designed this way. You might log in to a portal and see a bunch of different classes to choose from, and they probably all have stand-alone value, but how do they connect to each other? Where should you start? What will be most effective to learn about as a foundation for everything else?

In SAM, we are working through each topic together. The women that you start the program with are the same women you will end the program with. This isn’t a program where women jump in and out and join us wherever we happen to be in the curriculum–that wouldn’t work because the course content builds. It’s a step-by-step journey, a start-to-finish experience, where the doors only open once a year and all of the women commit to doing the work together. 

And did you know that I created a 150-page workbook to go along with this program, and we mail a hard copy to your house when you enroll? “Workbook” might not even be the right term to describe it. This is a 150-page tome, with notes pages and in-class exercises and a homework assignment to go with each lesson, so you can actually apply what you are learning in class to your life and make changes that will last. Most online programs will send you a few digital worksheets to print out for their classes, but this takes the level of commitment to a whole new level. When you see that hefty workbook, you know that it is go-time and you are going to take this seriously, because you deserve to, and a happier life is waiting for you on the other side. 

The Self-Assured Motherhood program is truly like a college course for happier motherhood–except also a lot more fun than a college class and without the pressure of grades. 

 

3. The Self-Assured Motherhood program is taught live.

It is not pre-recorded like most other parenting programs. And that’s because I know that most busy moms need accountability in order to actually follow through on their goals. Have you ever purchased an online course that was pre-recorded – meaning there is no live instructor and no set dates and times to complete the work – everything is pre-recorded and “do at your own pace,” and while that sounds awesome in theory, did you actually follow through on completing that course? If you’re anything like me, you pushed it to the back burner and thought, “I’ll get to that eventually.” And then life got busy, and you never did–or it took months or even years to get around to it. 

Pre-recorded courses can be extremely profitable for online educators because they record the content once and sell it indefinitely – but in my opinion, this model is not the best for students.

I will admit that my original plan with the SAM program was to teach it live the first year and then use all of the class recordings the next year so it could be a pre-recorded model where women enroll at different times throughout the year. I knew that would be easier for me (and probably more profitable too)…but after seeing how the SAM Sisters thrived with the live Zoom calls, and feeling so much JOY as I got to show up to be with them every week (I told you, I love teaching), I decided that the SAM program needed to be taught live. It’s just the best way to make sure that the learning sticks.

 

Can you tell I am proud of my Self-Assured Motherhood program? As a passionate teacher, I truly truly am. I am grateful for each of the 215 women who have done the program so far and 60 women are currently enrolled in our Alumni program. 

 

If you are on the fence–you want to join but you just aren’t sure, I encourage you to take a chance on me! Take a chance on yourself! The program is a financial investment, but I feel so confident that if you truly invest in this work, and it will help you to make massive growth in your life, that I offer a money-back guarantee. If, at the end of the nine months, you feel that this program has not deeply blessed your life, all you have to do is send us an email and show us your completed workbook (so we know you gave it a genuine try!), and we’ll refund you 100%.

I also want you to know that we have scholarships available if you have financial need, and you can find that information at the bottom of the program page at 3in30podcast.com/sam. These scholarships are made possible by generous private donors who want to support moms, as well as SAM Alumni who have been through the program and seen it change their lives, so they want to pay it forward by supporting another mom so she can have this experience. It really is such an incredible cycle of giving.

 

If you’re still not quite sure, and you want a taste of my live teaching style before you commit, I am teaching some free Zoom masterclasses this week called ReRoute your Mom Rage: How to Use your Anger to Better Connect with your Kids. In this class, I will introduce three of the SAM principles and show you how they can help you become less reactive as a mom, and I will also give more information about the full program. 

 

My friends, I’m rooting for you. I am so grateful to be able to teach you each week via this podcast. When I gave up my career as a high school teacher in 2011 because I wanted to be home with my kids while they were growing up, I never could have imagined that I would get to continue teaching in an entirely new capacity through new technologies that were just being introduced at that time. It’s such an amazing time to be alive, and I am grateful. I’m sending you all my love today and always. 

***

 

Related Episodes like this one on the Self-Assured Motherhood Program:

• 315: A Word from our SAM Sisters
• 316: Considering the SAM Program? You MUST listen to this. [Enrollment ends Thursday!]
• 375: 3 Ways Voicing Your Values will Help Lighten your Mental Load // Rachel Nielson on the Happy Mom Summit

 

Mentioned in the Episode:

• 3in30podcast.com/freeclass:  Sign up for my FREE masterclass all about rerouting your mom rage. Come learn how to identify your triggers and become the calm, emotionally resilient mom you want to be. 
• Self-Assured Motherhood Program: The doors to SAM are open now through Sept 19! It only opens once per year, so join while you can!

 

Sponsors:

• Vionic Shoes: Go to vionicshoes.com and use code 3IN30 for 15% off your order.