Helping families build a plan for how to grow together
Family Growth Project is dedicated to helping families thrive through the four phases of child development. The founding concept is simple: As children grow, what they need from their parents changes, but limited resources exist to help parents navigate these transitions with confidence. As parents ourselves we have committed countless hours to reading the latest on developmental psychology, attachment research, growth mindset, social and emotional development, resilience, and numerous other topics. The reading was rewarding. The application of what we were learning into everyday life with our children was almost impossible.
The challenge wasn't a lack of insight. It was the gap between knowledge and practice. Knowing that mastery experiences shape self-belief is one thing. Knowing how to construct an activity that helps a ten-year-old experience mastery is another. As we spoke with other families about this challenge they expressed a similar frustration and surfaced a second insight: most research focused on specific developmental stages but there wasn't a widely adopted model that addressed a child's developmental needs through age 18. The parents we talked to had a vision for the young adult they hoped to raise, but they didn't have an intentional plan on how to get there.
Family Growth Project is dedicated to helping families with the “why and how” by curating the best of family and child development research, both classic and contemporary, and translating this work into real practices that work in everyday lives. The framework that gives our work its shape is the Launch Trajectory which addresses the “what and when”. The Launch Trajectory helps families build a vision for their family and translate that vision into an intentional plan working backwards from the 18-year-old we hope to prepare for a successful “launch” into the world.
The kids published a book and we saw their confidence grow.
A founding insight for Family Growth Project came from a project our two children worked on over many months, turning the imaginary stories we liked to tell at bedtime into a real, written, illustrated, printed book. We helped them shape it. They did the work.
When the book arrived, something shifted that neither of us anticipated. The kids brought it to school. They showed it to family and friends. We watched them stand a little taller in the world. The story they'd quietly been telling themselves about what they were capable of rewrote itself in real time.
They didn't just learn a skill. They realized they were the kind of person who could make something real that other people would enjoy. They learned that they had the ability and built confidence through the process.
"That's what this work is really about. Helping children realize they are capable and progressively building their confidence through structured activities and the right support."
Principles of Family Growth Project
We translate research into practice.
Every insight we publish ends with one concrete thing to try. Theory is never enough on its own. The translation is the product.
We work backwards from launch.
The Launch Trajectory starts with the capabilities we want a child to carry into adulthood, and maps backwards. Today's choices have a destination.
We build confidence through doing.
Skills matter. So does the felt belief that you can do hard things, and that belief is built through real attempts at real things, not through praise.
We grow with our families.
Co-evolution is non-negotiable. The parent your child needs at six is not the parent they need at fourteen. The work changes you, too.