Reaching Roots For Parents

Michele Benyo is a mom of two, a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist, early childhood parent coach, and the founder of Good Grief Parenting. After her 6-year-old son died of cancer, her 3-year-old daughter's heartbreaking statement – "Mommy, half of is gone" – defined Michele’s life purpose.

Michele says “Childhood sibling loss has deep ramifications that few people recognize; it impacts the most basic of day-to-day interactions. My daughter spoke it so well one day on the playground when she said to me, "No one can know the pain that we feel."  My daughter's loss will never ever be okay. Yet I couldn’t change it. I simply had to make the best lemonade that I possibly could. I had to figure out how to do the rest of our lives—how to help her cope with her loss, shine light into the void, and remake a meaning-full life around her altered identity as a sibling by heart.”

Michele’s mission today is twofold: to help parents through the challenges of parenting while grieving the death of a young child, and to help parents meet the unique needs of a child who has lost a sibling in the early childhood years. Michele’s heart's desire is to see families live forward after loss toward a future bright with possibilities and even joy.

In this episode, Michele tells her story, what she needed as a bereaved parent of a young child, and provides some guidance on how to cope, build resilience and live after such a devastating loss.

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When your young child reaches school age, there is anxiety for both parents and children to start kids in school. For parents - doubt of whether their child is ready for school, are they going to be ok, how will the kids survive without us? For kids, they might even be a little scared – new teachers and a new environment, without mom and dad.

Dr. Christopher Brown is a professor of early childhood education at the University of Texas at Austin. Christopher left his job as a teacher to pursue his Ph.D., because he was troubled by how teachers and families were forced to focus on standards and assessments rather than on the children he worked with daily.

Chris is the author of 2 books, Ready for Kindergarten and Kinder-Race. He devoted these books to helping parents free themselves from the readiness trap, so your child will succeed in kindergarten.

In this episode, Christopher provides insight into what is known about school readiness, how to support your child’s learning, how to address common issues that might arise during the kindergarten year and how we could help reform the current early childhood methods.

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Is there a way to backward design a process to raise successful kids from birth onwards?   This is the question that Nate Turner helps answer in this episode.

Society’s chief responsibility is to raise children who will become the best possible citizens of the world and who will maximize their ability, so they fulfill their potential. Parents, guardians, educators bear upon them this responsibility to raise children who are productive citizens.

As a zealous advocate that every person has an opportunity to maximize their human potential, Nate Turner created a backward design life process to help his unborn child become a great global citizen without means of wealth, privilege, legacy status, or wrong-doing.

In this episode, we talk to Nate about the techniques and strategies that helped him raise a successful Gen Zer, and the blueprint that he shared with his parents, through his history-making book “Raising Supaman”.

Nathaniel Turner, is an author, a TED speaker, and describes himself as a “Humanity Propulsion Engineer.”  He is the author of several books, including the children’s book series, “The Amazing World of STEM and has been featured in The Washington Post, Black Enterprise, iHeartRadio, The Good Men Project, Sirius XM, and U.S. News & World Report.

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Student debt has just reached an all-time high amounting to $1.4 trillion dollars!  Kids are getting out of college with tens of thousands of dollars in debt that they can’t pay off while supporting themselves.  Many have had to move back in with their parents to make ends meet.

Shellee Howard is the founder of College Ready who sent her son to Harvard debt-free and has helped hundreds of families enter and graduate from their dream college, debt-free.

She is the author of “How to Send Your Student to College Without Losing Your Mind or Your Money”. In her book, she covers a range of topics - what are the top things that colleges are looking for you, how to avoid student loans, what are the ingredients for a successful college application, and above all how to avoid costly mistakes that most families make.

Shellee is a mother of 4 young adults.  Her oldest son graduated from Harvard in and UC San Diego Medical school debt free, while her oldest daughter graduated from University of Alabama, also without any debt.

In this episode, we talk to Shellee on how each student can create their --  “Stand out Strategy" --, so they can find the best academic, financial and social fit college to thrive at, and graduate debt free.

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As kids across the country finish their school year on Zoom—— more and more parents are wondering if homeschooling is the answer.

Many parents fear they won’t be able to juggle it on top of their own jobs and obligations.  Linsey Knerl is a mother of six and a freelance journalist whose own children learn at home.  She has now committed to help making homeschool work for every family who wants it.

In this episode, we talk to Linsey about her experiences teaching 6 kids at home, how you can create your own schedule, curriculum and what tools you can access to navigate the world of homeschooling.

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STEM is science, technology, engineering, and math - critical requirements for several of today's well-paid careers.  Introducing your children to simple STEM ideas at an early age can prepare them to be more successful in life.

STEM-based education teaches children more than science and math.  It focuses on hands-on learning and real-world applications to help develop broader skill sets, that include creativity, problem-solving, acceptance of failure, entrepreneurship, and innovation.

Stephanie Ryan is the author of Let’s Learn about Chemistry. Inspired by her son and her love of chemistry, she wrote this creative and fun book to introduce young kids to the key concepts and vocabulary of science, using everyday objects. This book ignites curiosity in your children and makes it easy to introduce the basic fundamentals of science.

Stephanie Ryan is also the CEO of Stephanie Ryan Consulting, where she provides services to schools for curriculum development, assessment, training staff, and other research projects.  Stephanie earned her Ph.D. in the Learning Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago, her  Masters from the University of Illinois, and her B.S.  from Saint Mary’s College.

In this episode, we talk to Stephanie about the importance of STEM education and how your children can begin their journey of learning science.

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Sleepless nights, life changes causing stress, and even postpartum depression are things most new parents know are possible when baby comes home.

Sudden relationship and personal challenges might come as a big surprise to new parents.  Navigating life as a family can be harder than you expect. Between unwanted parenting advice from outsiders and no time for self-care, communication with your partner can halt to a standstill.  Your once-steady partner suddenly feels like part of the problem.

Catherine O’Brien is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and the founder

of HappyWithBaby.com.  In this episode, we talk to Catherine about the advice she wishes she could have had when managing expectations of parenthood and relationships, and her guidance on how to build a happier and more passionate relationship with your partner.

Catherine acts as a California state co-coordinator for Postpartum Support International, serves the Maternal Mental Health Collaborative and has helped establish A Mother’s Heart in Sacramento, where mothers with perinatal and anxiety disorders go to receive support.

Catherine is married to her husband, Rick and has 2 kids, a son and daughter. She coaches soccer, enjoys paddle boarding and rowing, and lives with her family in Sacramento, California.

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Moms, do you have days when you feel like your entire life is about your kids, your family and NOT about you at all?

Maria and Zelmira, authors of the book Happy Mom, Happy Kid, say "Motherhood is a gift of unimaginable love and happiness. But in between playdates and nap-time, you can’t help but miss certain things from your old life…and answering to your real name instead of “Mom.”"

Being 'you' and being a 'mom' confuses your identify, where the 'you' part gets filed into the far flung corners of your brain and starts to fade away. Motherhood's nurturing responsibilities and emotions of anxiety and guilt can provide ample room and reason to occupy all your time, focus and energy.

In their book, close friends Maria Luisa Montt, founder of Expert Secrets Academy and writer Zelmira Crespi reveal strategies and five steps on how to reclaim yourself from motherhood to more positively impact your life and your family.

Today, we talk to Maria and Zelmira about what they learned from studying over 600 women who are struggling to achieve a balanced life, and why guilt, shame, and unrealistic expectations are robbing you of joy—and skills to stop the cycle.

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Don't you wish someone would've taken the time to teach you money-management concepts at a young age? Think for a moment what your life would be like. How important would that be to share with your child or grandchild?” says Holly Reid, award-winning author, speaker, and certified financial educator.

“The unfortunate reality is the absence of financial literacy at home and in our schools creates a society filled with victims of the consumer culture, bound in debt, and working well beyond retirement age - not because they want to, but because they have to. Today's youth face a future of similar obstacles because they are learning financial concepts and practicing ideal money-management habits too late in life."

Holly Reid is dedicated to helping adults and the next generation manage their finances as responsible stewards. She believes that as parents, you can break the chain of poor money habits so your child will never face mounds of consumer debt or the dreaded paycheck-to-paycheck living.

In this episode, we talk to Holly about her journey of overcoming debt, creating wealth and how she is helping other parents do the same.

Kids might start to feel "different" throughout childhood, but they don't know what these feelings mean.  Kids might be gay, lesbian, bi, trans or queer - but are not sure. How do kids figure out what to do with these feelings and even what they are? "Coming out" is a gradual process to understand, accept and share one's gender and sexual identity. This is scary and confusing.

Overwhelming emotions bring dark clouds over this journey creating serious mental health risks caused from feelings of isolation, fear, anxiety and depression. Societal discrimination, stigma and harassment further complicate this, forcing children to suppress their feelings to fit in or avoid angering parents & family.

Today, in some places in the world, we are more accepting and young people are coming out at earlier ages than they did in the past. As such, parents have an important role to support their children through the process of coming out.

Mercedes Killeen is an award-winning author, editor, and social media marketer based out of Toronto. Since coming out in her early twenties, Mercedes’ writing has been specifically informed by her queer identity and how that intersects with "taboo" topics like mental illness.

Her work has been published widely in periodicals such as Shameless Magazine, The Innis Review, Half a Grapefruit Magazine, and The UC Review. As a poet, she revised her first book, tulips, in 2018, and after that published her second collection of poetry, Using a spoon as a knife.  She has been invited by Toronto Poet Laureate, A.F. Moritz. to tell her story in several guest lectures at the University of Toronto.

In this episode, we learn from Mercedes’ about her struggles with coming out and mental illness, with a view to informing parents on how they can support their children to a healthier and happier LGBTQ life.

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