Annie

Annie Keeling, MFA, is an educator, writer, music teacher, parent, and founder of Start Small Parenting.

Career

Annie has a B.S. in Dance Therapy & Education from UW-Madison with an emphasis on early childhood education, an MFA in Dance from UCLA, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College.

Annie is a certified RMT Strategic Intervention coach. She is certified in Brain Gym I and II, Acupressure Massage Therapy, and holds a certification from The Center for Music & Young Children of Princeton, NJ. She also worked with her father, Gailen Keeling, a family therapist of over 45 years, teaching with him, editing his books, and developing parent training coursework together.

In Northern California, she teaches live Start Small Parenting classes in Northern California. Her parenting tools and strategies blend her father’s 3R’s Behavior Education with experience and knowledge of early childhood. Her column, Parenting Points, appears regularly in The Union newspaper of Nevada County.

 

In addition to parenting classes, she has taught early childhood music and movement classes for over 20 years. This includes Music Together for families of young children and DanceAlongcreative movement classes.

Father’s Influence

Her father, Gailen Keeling, was a family therapist for over 45 years and created the 3R’s Learning Center for Behavior Education. Throughout her life, Annie has had in-depth talks with her father about the challenges his clients faced and how he helped them move through those challenges. She was also fortunate to work with him closely,, training in his 3R’s strategies and editing his teaching manuals. Even more importantly was the profound effect her father and mother’s parenting style had on Annie and her two brothers.

Becoming a Parent

Annie is privileged to bring these tools and strategies into her own parenting.

Her son, Zed, born in 2002, teaches Annie the most important parenting lessons!

 

 

Fantastic Partner

She shares the parenting role with her husband of 30 years, Barry Friedman. It was love at first sight when she met Barry, an entertainer of the wildly successful juggling duo, the Raspyni Brothers. He is also an entrepreneur, having created Showbiz Blueprint and 30 Days Sugar Free.

This phenomenal husband and father shares Annie’s ideal of raising a healthy boy through conscious parenting.