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Ellis Abel Learns.
Parenting Workshops icon — Ellis Abel Learns Book 4 discernment material used in Apache Junction, AZ

Ages 5-16 · Apache Junction, AZ city · Book 4, Discernment

Parenting Workshops — Apache Junction, AZ

Nobody enrols a child in a media literacy course. Apache Junction has a population of about 37,130. They come for the coding club or the games night, which is where this has to live.

An evening that sends parents home with a question and an inventory rather than a list of apps to ban.

The book behind it

Ellis Abel and the Two Wolves Within

“Choose what you feed within.”

  • Notice what shapes your inner world.
  • Awareness makes choice possible.
  • Feed the thoughts that strengthen you.

Ellis Abel is a character series. Volume 4 carries the value discernment, and the story does the teaching. There is no doctrine in it and nothing for a family to opt out of, which is why it runs in Apache Junction, AZ in public schools, libraries, clubs and living rooms without changing a word.

Read about Ellis Abel and the Two Wolves Within · The whole series

Five sessions in Apache Junction

  1. Session 1

    Read one chapter, no questions the first night

  2. Session 2

    Second night, ask what part they would change and why

  3. Session 3

    Third night, tell them a time you got this wrong yourself

  4. Session 4

    Fourth night, they pick the family's one step for the week

  5. Session 5

    Fifth night, come back to it and say out loud what changed

What Apache Junction, AZ leaders ask first

Is parenting workshops in Apache Junction, AZ a religious program?

No. Ellis Abel is a character series. Each volume carries one named core value — this one is discernment — and the story does the teaching. There is no doctrine in it, nothing to opt out of, and it is used in public schools, libraries and secular programs as readily as anywhere else.

What ages does this work for?

Ages 5-16. The story is read aloud, so a child who cannot read yet is fully in it, and the discussion prompts are written in two bands so one adult can hold a mixed-age room.

What does a Apache Junction, AZ program need to run this?

A room, an adult, and thirty minutes. No kit, no screen, no prep beyond reading the page before the children arrive.

Can we run it as a drop-in rather than a series?

Yes. Each session stands alone, and the arc is stronger if they come back, but nothing breaks if a child only ever comes once.

How a session actually runs in Apache Junction

  1. Step 1

    Two voices, named out loud

    The story gives a child a way to talk about their own inner argument without having to admit anything embarrassing. Children in Apache Junction, AZ will describe the harsh voice in detail once it belongs to a story rather than to them.

  2. Step 2

    List what actually went in today

    Not a lecture about screen time. An honest inventory of one real day — watched, scrolled, played, heard, said, and said to themselves — written down by the child, with the adults doing their own list at the same time.

  3. Step 3

    One question, good on any platform

    Who made this, and what do they want from me. It works on a video, an ad, a group chat, a game's shop and a chatbot, and it will still work on whatever replaces all of them. That transferability is the point of teaching a question rather than a rule.

  4. Step 4

    Change one input, and say which

    One thing, chosen by the child, changed before the next session. Not a screen-time limit imposed from above — those are complied with rather than learned. Then come back and ask what changed, without grading the answer.

The rules that make it work

This takes no side on any platform

No app is named as good or bad. That is what makes it usable in a public school, and it is also what makes it still true in three years.

Teach the question, not the rule

Rules expire when the technology changes. "Who made this and what do they want from me" works on something that has not been invented yet.

The child writes the rule

A limit imposed from above is complied with until it can be evaded. A limit a child helped write is one they can explain to a friend.

Adults do the inventory too

A grown-up listing their own real day, honestly, in front of the children, is the moment the session stops being a telling-off.

Self-talk is an input

The harshest voice most children hear is their own, and it is on the list with everything else because it works the same way.

Nobody is shamed for their list

The first honest inventory is always ugly. A room that reacts to that is a room that will only ever see edited lists afterwards.

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