Future Smart Parent

In this episode Jude speaks with Natalie Meerholz, the headmistress of Holy Rosary Primary School, who started this campaign where many students pledged to go ‘phone-free’ for 40 days. 

The campaign was about calling for the delay of smartphone ownership in children "in a bid to restore a play-based childhood and to protect the mental health and well-being of its learners."

We know that with technology our children have more access to information than any generation before them. And while there are many wonderful benefits to technology, there is also a lot of inappropriate content and honestly, their brains are not able to cope with what they see, especially while they’re in primary school.

Natalie and Jude discuss the experience and what students went through during the 40 days. Some pupils volunteered to journal and anonymously share their experiences.

"Initial feedback shows that children found themselves bored, not knowing how to occupy their time. This isn't a bad thing because children who are allowed to experience boredom are more creative and innovative.

"They are forced to either learn a new skill, create something new, or think outside the box, and it was our hope that the campaign would push this to happen.”

At the end of the episode Jude also got to talk to some of the girls and hear their personal experiences of going without their phones for 40 days. 

Connect with Holy Rosary School for Girls:

https://www.facebook.com/HolyRosaryJHB/

https://www.instagram.com/holyrosaryjhb/

Resources mentioned: 

• The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt  

Feeling overwhelmed?
Join our Upcoming Bootcamp that starts on Tuesday 7th May : Transform Your Digital Parenting Journey - From Overwhelmed to Confident in 4 Weeks. 

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In this week’s episode, Jude chats with Buhle Dlamini, author of Unleashing Your Greatness. They chat about how to raise greatness and nurturing potential in our kids.

Buhle Dlamini discusses his concept of unleashing your true potential, your greatness and specifically how this can impact our parenting. We all possess untapped potential, and this is your guide to help your kids harness their potential to the fullest.

Buhle breaks down the process of unleashing your greatness into five essential keys:

• Be Who You Be: This emphasizes finding what sets you apart, your unique qualities, and distinctions.
• Pursuing Excellence: Discover the importance of aiming for excellence in all your endeavours. 
• Living Your Values: Learn how values aren't just words on paper; they are the core of your behaviour and actions.
• Unleash That Winning Attitude: Your mindset and how you show up daily play a significant role in distinguishing you from others.
• Creating the Future: Understand that seizing opportunities when they arise is crucial to unlocking your greatness.

You can chat with Jude or Buhle for more information on his 'Unleashing his Greatness' keynote presentation. Buhle will be in South Africa in February and March 2024 for in person events, but is available to present globally, either in person or virtually.

Get in touch with Jude here: [email protected]

Connect with Guest:

Website: Buhle Dlamini
Email: [email protected]
Social Media: LinkedIn or Facebook

A reminder to celebrate what makes your kids come alive and 'always look for their magic’. Remembering this really helps us let our kids be their own unique, beautiful selves. We’ve created this free printable that you can access here.

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Episode Summary:

Mandy is passionate about supporting parents, teachers and schools on their journey to develop safe, connected and problem solving environments for children to thrive.
Academics aren’t enough! We need to equip ourselves with tools to teach children missing skills through Social Emotional Learning.

In this episode, Mandy and Jude discuss what social emotional learning actually means, and how we need to shift our mentality, as parents and teachers, to connection over correction. Jude shares a real-life example and asks Mandy for her insights on how to prioritise connecting with a child, especially when there’s been a problem or incident where we might be inclined to punish, rather than connect. That’s not to say consequences don’t exist, but Mandy explains how connection and developing certain social emotional skills can really equip our kids and often the natural consequences teach them the lessons in any case.

A very interesting discussion - we’d love to hear your feedback and what you think about Social Emotional Learning.
 
If you want to connect with Mandy, her social links are here. And if you’d like to hear more of these discussions and engage with other parents, attempting to parent a little differently, but very much intentionally, in this changing world, we encourage you to join the Future Smart Parent Club today!

Connect with Mandy:
Website: www.mandyherold.com
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @the_connection_coach

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Episode Summary: 

In this episode, Jude talks with Naomi Holdt, author, mom and child psychologist, all about her new book Bounce: How to Raise Resilient Kids and Teens. This book is so important and we encourage you to read it - if nothing else it will remind you, as a parent, that you are not alone. Bounce will help you tackle this messy and beautiful journey of life and parenting in a very human way.

Bounce: How to Raise Resilient Kids and Teens is an easy-to-read, effective guide that can make an immediate difference to your parenting approach and your relationship with your children. Based on years of experience as a parent and a parenting expert, it provides accessible information and advice, thought-provoking exercises and proven techniques. It explores issues that impact us all, including:

• What is resilience?
• Anxiety and depression
• Building resilience in our children by working on our own resilience
• Boundaries and gentle parenting
• Helping children through grief
• Parenting the anxious child
• Tips for divorced parents
• Childhood depression
• Highly sensitive children and resilience.

Jude talks about what she found most important when reading the book, and Naomi and Jude both discuss what it looks like to be parenting intentionally in a changing world, breaking generational cycles and how to create that sense of belonging for our kids. The book also reminds parents to have more fun with our kids, while at the same time keeping it real. 

For anyone who doesn't follow Naomi on social media, please do. She shares so generously and authentically daily. And please do go out and grab a copy of her book: Bounce: How to Raise Resilient Kids and Teens.

Connect with Guest:

Website: https://naomiholdt.com/
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naomiholdtspeaker
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naomiholdtpsychologist/ 

Thank you so much for listening! This episode is brought to you by Future Smart Parent. Please like and subscribe to our community. If you enjoyed the podcast, consider leaving a review and sharing the episode with your network. 

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This week Jude chats with Graeme Codrington, global futurist and co-founder of the Future Smart Parent Club. Graeme specialises in the future of work and in this episode, we specifically talk about a job of the future. We discuss prompt engineering and how it might be a career path for our kids in the future. Prompt engineering does mean we should teach our kids how to use AI, how to think differently about technology and give them the opportunities to play with this technology themselves.

The future is going to look drastically different than what we are capable of imagining. And the potential for our kids is vast! Listen to this episode to understand the potential impact for your children and their futures.

Connect with Guest:
Website: www.graemecodrington.com
Email: [email protected]
Social Media: Facebook

Thank you so much for listening!

This episode was brought to you by Future Smart Teacher - a monthly membership that empowers educators with cutting-edge AI tools, tutorials, resources and a growing community that will revolutionize the way educators can teach, plan, and manage their classrooms.

For more information, visit www.futuresmartteacher.com

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Today, I’m thrilled to talk with Cheryl Williams, an exceptional STEAM Based Learning Educator. 

With a teaching journey that began in 2000, Cheryl has gained invaluable experiences in various grades and leadership roles - however, her true passion lies in the Edtech world, where she has been wholeheartedly dedicated for the past decade.

Cheryl's days are immersed in the world of technology, exploring innovative approaches like the Internet of Things, Computers, iPads, Robots, and Coding to enhance learning. She is passionate about inquiry and experiential-based learning, understanding its potential impact on preparing children for the future of work.

We had a really interesting conversation about different modes and methods for teaching, as well as the ways that AI tools, such as ChatGPT, can help teachers! It’s not that these technologies are going to take over teaching or replace teachers, but more than they’re going to give teachers an edge. AND - they will help teachers save time!  

Free Bootcamp for teachers!

The Future Smart Parent team is also hosting a free boot camp especially for teachers, helping you to jump in and embrace A.I. to save you time and mental space & shape an educational experience that prepares our students for success in a rapidly evolving world.

Sign up for free today! https://www.futuresmartparent.com/teacherbootcamp 

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Today I got to speak with Rebekah Clark from Happy Marlo. Happy Marlo is an organization dedicated to helping children build skills for dealing with their emotions and being empowered to find their calm space. While these tools and resources are designed specifically for 3 to 11 year olds, the holistic approaches to emotional well-being can, and should, also apply to the parents, guardians and carers of these children. 

Some of us parents also need to learn some emotional regulation skills and find ways to ease our anxieties and centre ourselves. Happy Marlo is a wonderful resource for parents and kids! 

In this episode, Jude and Rebekah speak specifically about EFT - Emotion Freedom Technique, aka Tapping. EFT can help children process emotions and take control of their own wellbeing. The positive effects have been so widespread that some schools are starting to introduce it into the curriculum. 

Benefits include: 

• Helping children recognise, understand and express emotions 
• Significantly reduce stress levels 
• Increased self-esteem and self acceptance 
• Increased happiness, energy and overall sense of wellbeing 
• Reduced perfectionism, fear of failure, or procrastination 
• Improving academic performance or managing learning difficulties 
• Supporting friendship dynamics, anger issues, bullying-related events or self-harm 
• Overcoming fears or phobias

Connect with Rebekah:

Website: www.happymarlo.com
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
IG & FB: @happymarlolife

If you want to read more about the science behind tapping as a calming and healing technique, look at Dr. Peta Stapleton’s book: The Science Behind Tapping

And here are some free Happy Marlo resources for you.

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Today we’re talking about tech habits - specifically tech habits for families because I don’t know about you, but I find it incredibly difficult to break some of my own bad tech habits.  Yes, I'm also acutely aware of the saying that goes 'More is caught than taught' and so I'm acutely aware that I need to try a little harder!  

For example, I know I sleep so much better when I read a physical book before going to bed, but too many nights I’m on my phone right before bed. 

Even as parents we get sucked into our phones when we’re bored rather than finding something to do etc and then get frustrated with the time that we’ve wasted..  

Saying all that, in today’s episode Kate, from our 'online safety and well-being' partners, Be in Touch, shares some tech habits that we can (and should) implement into our parenting strategies. 

And to be honest these habits will help us adults too!

1. No phones in bedrooms overnight. Charge phones in a communal space.
2. No phones (for anyone) during meal times. Use this time rather to connect and catch up as a family.
3. Check in and check up on your kids’ phones regularly. For their safety.

They seem like simple points, but being consistent and demonstrating these tech habits will be beneficial for everyone in the family. You’ll all sleep better, and us parents have the chance to really engage with our kids and understand them, while also creating boundaries that are meant to protect them from online dangers.

Connect with Kate from Be in Touch:

Be in Touch Resources

Family Tech Rules

Wheel of Life

Smartphone Contract

Parental Controls

Thank you so much for listening! Please like and subscribe to join our community. If you enjoyed the podcast, consider leaving a review and sharing the episode with your network. 

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Zanele has built her profile as one of Africa’s brightest organisational change & learning influencers. She’s known to her clients as 'The UnLearning Lady', and is a global leading voice on using key unlearning principles to help companies build cultures that support change & transformation. She’s worked with companies such as Visa, Coca-Cola, The South African Reserve Bank, Deloitte & Discovery.

In this episode, Jude and Zanele talk about how to help our kids manage transitions. Dealing with disruption and change is a natural part of life, but it’s also difficult. If we’re not setting our kids up with the skills to deal with life’s transitions, then we are setting them up for struggle. Empowering them with tools and coping mechanisms to deal with the disruptions and change that is inevitable will give our kids the confidence they need to thrive.

Zanele recommended the book “Managing Transitions” by William Bridges and Susan Bridges. You can get it on Takealot here.

You can subscribe to Zanele’s weekly newsletter, where she shares weekly tips on building a culture of learning, unlearning and relearning. Sign up here.

Connect with Guest:

• Website: Zanele Njapha
• Email: [email protected] 
• Social Media: LinkedIn 

Thank you so much for listening! Please like and subscribe to join our community. If you enjoyed the podcast, consider leaving a review and sharing the episode with your network.

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Sextortion might sound like the name of a really bad movie, but in fact it’s a lot more serious than that and it’s affecting all of our kids online. 

Essentially “sextortion” is a crime, classified as cyber extortion under the South African cyber laws, and occurs when predators blackmail our children into sending them sexual or nude pictures and videos. This is obviously child pornography, which is a criminal offence, and these predators need to be caught.

This might be scary, but as parents we cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist. And we definitely cannot just say “Oh, but not my kids… My kids would never do that.” 

Because as much as we say that children shouldn’t be taking and sharing nude images of themselves, the predators who are engaging with them are exerting an extreme level of power over our kids and are coercing them into doing such things. Our children are victims. So yes, it could happen to your kid. 

That’s why this topic is so important for parents to be aware of and to prepare ourselves and our kids to deal with. It’s happening on all social media platforms. Predators will lurk in social media and gaming apps, such as Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and Discord. 

They will follow your kids, message them and then move to more private apps like Whatsapp, where they will send unsolicited nude images and coerce your children to reciprocate, leading to your children being blackmailed and threatened for sexual favours or money, once your child has sent them photos or videos of themselves.

So let’s be cautious with our kids online. Put protections into place as much as possible and really engage with our children often so that they know that we are a safe place for them to come, if something like this ever happens. 

If something like this does happen to your kids, make sure that there are screenshots of the conversations (on the social media platforms and on Whatsapp), as this counts as evidence to the police. And then, before blocking the predator, send this simple message:

“I have spoken to my parents. They are reporting it to the police for investigation because you are in possession of child pornography.”

Although the predator might try to contact your child in another way, this simple message can deter them or slow them down (as they are often preying on multiple children at one time).

Settings to keep your kids safer:

• Snapchat
• TikTok 
• Instagram
• YouTube

For more info you can sign up for our 90-minute workshop on how to keep your kids safer and saner online for just $37 here:

You can also book a device advice consultation with Kate from Be in Touch, if you’re finding this all too overwhelming.

Connect with Kate and Be In Touch:

Website: https://beintouch.org.za 

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