Master Guide to Single Parenting
a thirteen-part, interactive series from 1991
This week, we’re taking a look at another piece of religious self-help media with a lot of character and interesting dramatizations sprinkled throughout. Though this may not fall directly in the category of “self-help”, as I believe it’s intended purpose is to be a full course for small groups (similar to a bible study group) to meet and go over each week for a total of 13 weeks.
I’ve had this on my shelf for a long time, and had even popped the first tape in a few times to watch some of the skits over the last year or so. Growing up in the church, this kind of media feels very familiar to me. The cheesy skits hard cutting to a pastor explaining the takeaway, work sheets —it all feels like the very blueprint to so many of these media packets and courses aimed at helping certain members of the church.
While I never had access to the entire course, I do remember a tape floating around in the media room at my church directed at marital infidelity that had a very similar format. I don’t remember much about it, but it had skits that involved two people speaking on the phone to each other a lot just like this one does.
A quick Ebay search for “Christian Life Resources” does turn up some interesting sets of tapes, though I wasn’t able to this pack or the course i remember from maybe the early 2000s. Most of what I see from digging around is early childhood Christian edutainment and supplemental bible study materials, but I do hope to one day find what I’m looking for.
The set I have for y’all today seems to be complete with two tapes, a proctors booklet and a folder with worksheets that can be copied and handed out to members of the group, all housed in a pretty nice double tape clamshell box that kind of resembles a Disney VHS release but really really big because it has to hold two tapes and all the other materials.
I’ve gone ahead and scanned in each part of the set —both the booklet and worksheets have been uploaded in PDF format below, and I’ve digitized the tapes in full. Enjoy!
Successful Single Parenting
Successful Single Parenting
1991 | Runtime: 120 Minutes x2
Many Christians are going it alone as they try to be a loving, nurturing parent while struggling with financial strains, work schedules, children's activities, and the need for a social life. From his wealth of experience with single parents Gary Richmond developed a unique curriculum for his church, The First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton, Ca. After numerous requests from pastors and single parents from around the country, Gary developed this material to help single parents and those ministering to them.
Gary shares a biblical perspective as he gives practical advice on the nitty-gritty problems of:
Balancing your needs and the needs of your children without guilt.
Dealing with emotional baggage.
Setting goals for your children.
Working with your ex-partner.
This thirteen-part, interactive series will help the members of your class become successful single parents. Everything the leader needs (video cassettes, leader's guide, and student notes) is included in this package of thirteen fully planned sessions.
The sessions begin with a discussion starter of either a drama or interviews of single parents to stimulate conversation on the topic of the lesson. The discussion questions in the leader's guide flow naturally into the video teaching segment. After learning the principles and practical helps taught by Gary in his warm, humorous style the class has another discussion time. A second discussion starter leads the class to apply what they've just learned. The discussions encourage the class to open up and help each other.
Well, that’s it for this week! I hope you enjoyed the tapes! If you’re looking for more, please check out my page on Archive.org for the full list of digitized media. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message right here or drop a comment below. If you haven’t already, please check out the one of my ocean-themed posts below, or all of my other previous posts here. Thanks so much for checking out this week’s edition of Diptych!
See you soon!
—Forrest
Late Night Sleepycore
You feel the familiar sense of abrupt horror as you jolt awake. The misery of the dream you’d been experiencing quickly leaves your brain as you’re left with just the anxious lump in your throat. The clock on the VCR is blinking “12:00 A.M.”. Had the power gone out or did you forget to set it again? You can’t quite remember what you were watching before you drifted off to sleep, but you know for certain it wasn’t this trash.
Self Help, Kittens, Haircuts
This week, I have for you another Classic™, disorganized media post! Lately, I’ve been able to pick up a few pieces of shorter content to feature here on the blog, but unfortunately, these tapes seem to deteriorate faster than their longer versions. Whether the reason is that most of these shorter length tapes seem to be very often recorded in LP format, or that the extra lengths of tape on full length cassettes helps protect the media from becoming oxidized, many of the tapes here have tracking and/or audio issues.
Hooked on Puppets
This week in the VCR (and scattered all around the den) I’ve got something very special for y’all. While I don’t remember watching this at the appropriate age, this is a set of tapes I remember very vividly, having watched them in either the 3rd or 4th grade. At the beginning of this summer, I was digging around some thrift shops in Johnson City, Tennessee, and came across this box set and I immediately recognized all the characters on the box!
Some good sweaters on that guy