Reaching Roots For Parents

Computers are part of the fabric of every aspect of our life today. Computers are made to work by coding, and coding is the language of the technology in our environment. It is no longer something that we opted in to learn in computer class. Instead, today coding is the basic literacy skill of the 21st century – it is the language that makes everything around us actually work – cars, homes, education, banking, farms, shopping, travel and more.  So, it should come as no surprise, that our kids will have to figure out how to navigate through this new world.

Coding is a language that our children need, to understand and speak to the technology around them. It lets them experiment, test and iterate - fosters creativity and helps them learn problem-solving skills.

The issue, however, is where and how do we start? As a parent, it might be daunting to figure out what the right way is to teach your kids this skill. There are so many choices, different languages, different classes, and opinions.   You might have also tried it and seen your kids repeat the same material with little forward progress, even after multiple coding classes.  In this episode, we talk to David Dodge about the importance and the approaches we can take to help our kids learn coding.

David Dodge is the CEO of CodaKid, a company with a mission to each kids how to code, write apps and games. Prior to his current job, David was a veteran game designer and software architect who is credited on over 30 games for the Sony PlayStation, SEGA, and the PC. In his free time, David enjoys chasing his three-year-old daughter Dylan around, playing guitar, traveling, and cooking with his wife Lauren.

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Kids like to spend money! But are they thinking it through? Responsible spending habits will help your child learn how to make the right choices. Kids want to save money for many things, but don’t know how.

As a parent, we all want the best for our children, for them to be happy and do well in life. Sam Renick, co-creator of Sammy Rabbit says “Without a working knowledge of money, it is extraordinarily difficult to do well in life. Money is central to transacting life, day-in and day-out. Where we live, what we eat, the clothes we wear, the car we drive, health care, education, child-rearing, gift giving, vacations, entertainment, heat, air-conditioning, insurance—you name it, money is involved.”

When kids reach school age, they begin to understand the difference between $1 and $100 and how much money you need to buy candy from the corner store. This is when you need to start teaching them about money, the important concept of being content, being grateful, learning how to give and figuring out the value of work, time, money and opportunity cost.

Pam Liyanage created MoneyPrep because as a mother of 4 she knew it mattered and wanted kids all over the world to benefit from learning about the universal language of money!  Creating a new generation of money-smart kids, MoneyPrep is an edu-tech company that was designed to teach kids money skills that they can conceptualize, practice and retain.

In this episode, we talk to Pam about how we can teach our kids the various aspects of money – how it works, bank cards, budgeting, saving, giving, earning, and investing.

When people make you question your  beliefs, decisions or preferences in a way that causes shame, it is demoralizing.  So, how do you deal with the anxiety from this negative judgement.  We hear a lot about knowing your own strengths and limitations, not letting others define you, and finding your own inner confidence.  This  is really hard stuff, but allowing someone else's judgment to take over your thoughts gives them power over you.

Janette Shearer has had her share of difficult times in her family life,  her parents separating, conflicts with siblings,  rejection in business and life.  A lot of us can relate with our share of challenges.    The question is how do we react to these and overcome the obstacles.

5 years ago Janette joined a casual running group formed to foster a meet up of neighborhood moms.  Unfortunately, she  was kicked out of this group and told that she was not  good enough.  Finding strength from this rejection, she is now a Sports Clinic Coordinator helping other runners reach their goal of running 10km safely.  She has completed, countless 10km runs, 2 half marathons, and been training for a full marathon.

Janette started her blog, AvaToZoe with the hope to create a space where  she can be real and relatable.  Her goal is to show women regardless of age, size, and lifestyle that running is possible but so is living a normal life too.  Janette is a mom of two girls Ava and Zoe and lives in Vancouver, BC.

In this episode, we talk to Janette about her feelings on being judged, rejected and how she channeled these negative experiences into something that made her a stronger person and a better mother.

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Parents choose to homeschool their children for various reasons.  Usually, because they believe they can give their child a better education than the local school can, integrate teachings on religion or there is some other reason that their child may not be able to attend school.

Homeschooling provides a more flexible schedule for kids, who benefit from the one-on-one attention.  Kids get to learn at their own pace without dependence on the progress of a whole class.  Homeschooling builds close family and community relationships, and and creates better engagement, because kids have the opportunity to learn in unique ways that interest them.  They also can experience more hands-on education at museums, libraries & community resources.

However, homeschooling does take a tremendous amount of parental time and energy.   Some parents lack the formal training to teach, kids lack social connection and the convenience of school facilities, such as a gyms and science labs.

In this episode, we talk to Krystin Godfrey about the benefits and challenges of homeschooling.

Krystin is the owner and creator of Growing Up Godfrey — a family lifestyle blog.  She is also a mom to 4 children that she homeschools.   She says "We are a homeschool family with 4 kiddos, one tween girl, two toddler boys, and a baby girl.  So, you can usually find me in leggings under a sleeping babe, teaching pre-algebra, or playing monster trucks”.    If that is not enough, Krystin also leads courses to teach others how to earn money from blogging.  In her free time, you can find her road tripping with her family to Disney World, trying a new restaurant, or planning a trip.

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The recent Boulder, Colorado shooting once again has America considering what if anything can be done to improve gun safety.  Over 20 years since the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, there are more than 248,000 children at 258 schools that have experienced these unspeakable acts of violence, according to a Washington Post database.

Mass shootings shake our sense of safety and our immediate reaction is to erect fences, barriers, metal detectors and video cameras.  This has spawned a $2.7 billion school security industry, and it drives calls for see-through backpacks, bulletproof vests, armored whiteboards and armed teachers.

Back in the 1950s, students went through "duck and cover" drills in anticipation of a nuclear bomb blast. Today, students in K-12 classrooms go through regular school lockdown drills. Lockdown drills, required in most states in the US and in Canada, are a response to school shooting events.  Tizzie Nuss asks “Why are kids and teachers not being protected at schools as part of lockdown drills rolled out across the country?

Tizzie struggled to process this question.   In 2017, Tizzie lost her eyesight for a few days, and during this dark time figured out that her mission had to be to help protect kids.  Fueled by faith, the topic of school shootings ignited Tizze and she created the Spark Project in 2018.  Over the next 2 years she would develop her patent pending SPARK™ Shield - a lightweight, bullet resistant, usable school folder that easily transports in and out of backpacks.

In this episode, we talk to Tizzie about the subject of schools shootings and what schools should be doing to protect children more.  Tizzie started her career in education working for the YMCA of Central Ohio.  Her love for people eventually drew her to Human Resources where she worked alongside brilliant minds at innovative companies like Honda, Battelle, and IGS Energy.

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As a parent, you want your kids to be confident and resilient with high self-esteem and ambition to achieve great things in life.  Alexandra says “You want them to have a positive outlook on life and try new things. And at the same time, you don't want them to be afraid of making a mistake or think they "can't do" before they even try.”

This is where having a growth mindset comes into play.  It can help you overcome obstacles you face when learning something new or developing a new skill.  People with Growth Mindsets understand the importance of persistence, determination and realize that changing the way you think can help change the way you learn.  Developing a growth mindset isn’t an easy task and you have to cultivate self-acceptance, you need to know that your talents and intelligence can be developed, and you must reject fear of failure and embarrassment.

Alexandra Eidens and Scott, as parents created the Big Life Journal for their son Mikey so that he can grow up to be a positive, resilient, and confident human being who strives to achieve great things in life.  In this episode, we talk to Alexandra Eidens about what it takes to create this growth mindset.

The Big Life Journal community includes over 500,000 parents and educators at home and in school worldwide.  They offer science-based journals for kids of all ages to help them grow their confidence and resilience.  Their journals feature engaging activities, inspiring stories, and colorful illustrations meant to wire your kids' brains for resilience, gratitude, and self-love.

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Why is Reading so important for kids?

Reading for pleasure can benefit a child’s education, social and cognitive development, their wellbeing, and their mental health.  When children read, it provides them with a deep understanding about their world and fills them with knowledge that they use make sense of what they see, hear, and experience.  A book can take kids anywhere - to a different city, country or an alternate world widening their imagination and sparking creativity.  It allows children to develop empathy through seeing the lives of other characters and how they are feeling.  In addition to this cognitive and emotional development, reading helps create a larger vocabulary, improve academic performance and self-confidence.

Allison McDonald is the founder of the popular blog No Time for Flash Cards.  She is passionate about Early Childhood Education and says “Whether in a classroom or family room I want to help adults make learning fun and meaningful for the children they care for”.  Allison co-wrote the book Raising A Rock-Star Reader as a must-have parents' guide to raise lifelong readers and learners.  She followed this with the book, Setting the Stage for Rock-Star Readers, as an important resource for teachers in daycare, preschool, and kindergarten, explaining the whys and hows of early literacy to help teachers better develop young readers.

In this episode, Allison discusses the importance of reading early and provides us with easy-to-implement tips and activities to create a literate environment and build your child’s early reading and writing skills.

Allison McDonald has been teaching children in various capacities since 1993 – from teaching pre-school age kids to leading a pre-school, as it’s Director.  Through her journey, she has partnered with wonderful brands like Melissa & Doug,  written pre-school curriculums for Itty-Bitty Bookworm and MeMeTales, and today shares hands on ways to learn on PBS’s new Adventures in Learning blog.

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In 2012, Sara Oshler, left her marriage with an 18-month old and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017.  Life is not always happy times.  Every family has their challenges and struggles.  Difficult situations like divorce, cancer, crime, or family death creates stress for parents and children.  Our children pick up on and internalize our emotions and attitudes.  They look at adults for cues about what to think and how to respond, and they too experience similar anxiety and stress.

Sara Oshler believes in fighting for our kids, in not letting our darkest times define us, and in coming out the other side a total rock star.  She believes in grit and resilience.  Sara says “In your hardest moments, you just want it to be over.  But we also know that going through rough times — each and every miserable day — makes us stronger, teaches us lessons, and helps us be better role models for our children”

When we're facing the worst times in our lives, it's hard to know what and how to tell our kids.  We feel that we're protecting them by keeping our struggles private.  But studies show that kids understand a lot more than we give them credit for and being in the dark on the truth leaves space for kids to make up their own stories.

Finding inspiration from her own hard times, Sara founded Mighty and Bright where she is the author of six children’s books and spends her time talking about things that make many people want to crawl into a deep, dark hole.  In this episode, Sara provides us with strategies on how to talk to your kids about the uncomfortable topics, be it divorce, death or other situations.   

Her work has been featured in POPSUGAR, Reader’s Digest, and Good Housekeeping, and she regularly speaks on the topic on how to handle major life changes like divorce and cancer.  She truly believes that each of us has the strength to overcome unimaginable hardship to make this world a much better place.

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Every parent has been there before - you need to find a babysitter for date night, or you wake up one morning to discover your child is too sick for school or daycare.   You call around to find someone to watch the kids but strike out.  Many parents find themselves unable to secure their regular sitters, due to short notice and other commitments. Liz Oertle is the CEO and Founder of Nanno, an app that provides parents with an easier way to find safe childcare with short notice, so parents  can get comfortable and confident in who they leave their children with.  Visit https://wishslate.com/podcasts for Episode Transcript & Links to Resources