
Buying new toys for our children can be exciting--but it can also be overwhelming. There are so many options out there and our children are inundated with marketing materials. Today I am chatting with Lizzie Assa from the Workspace for Children. She and her family buy toys outside of the mainstream options--that means they lean towards simple, open-ended toys made of more natural, non-plastic materials.
We are chatting about buying toys that are durable and will hold the interest of children across different ages, genders, and interests.
Show Links:
Lizzie's Instagram: The Workspace For Children
Lizzie's Toy Guide
Website
Simple Families Holiday Guide


SFP 135: Choosing Great Toys [with Lizzie Assa from The Workspace For Children]

Simple Families offers solutions for living well with children. In this show, we focus on child behavior, positive parenting, family wellness, and decreasing the mental load. As a Mama with a doctorate in Child Development, Denaye’s perspectives are grounded in research, but more importantly real life.

Kids & Family

Parenting

Education for Kids

There are widely held assumptions about the adolescent years--many of which are negative. My guest today, Ellen Galinsky, challenges many of the stereotypes that we've come to believe about teens. In this chat she shares the basic needs of adolescents to help us better understand what they need (and want) from us. Her research supports collaborating with children during these years of growth, rather than trying to hold tight in controlling them. 
Book: The Breakthrough Years: A New Scientific Framework for Raising Thriving Teens 
Website: Ellen Galinsky 
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The Breakthrough Years ft. Ellen Galinsky

Most of us have a conflicted relationship with social media and online life. For today's episode I'm chatting with author Kara Alaimo. Kara's new book, Over the Influence: Why Social Media is Toxic for Women and Girls - And How We Can Take it Back, debuts this month. In our conversation we are sifting through a variety of topics related to how we are influenced as parents and how we can be thoughtful when leading our children into a more mindful online space. 
Due to some sensitive content, this episode should be first previewed without young children present. 
Sponsor:
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Over the Influence ft. Kara Alaimo

The chances are good that you are familiar with perfectionism. Either you have experienced it yourself, you have a partner or parent with these tendencies, or perhaps you have a child touched by perfectionism. In today's episode, I'm chatting with Clarissa Ong Ph.D. She's a professor and the co-author of the book The Anxious Perfectionist: How to Manage Perfectionism-Driven Anxiety.  
SPONSORS:


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Perfectionism ft. Clarissa Ong Ph.D.

There are many misconceptions about what it means to be 'gifted'. Today's guest, Julie Skolnick, explains to us that giftedness usually comes with considerable challenges. She also shares ideas and insight on how to support and educate children who are gifted, but also have challenges (sometimes called twice-exceptional). 
LINKS



Julie's Book, Gifted and Distractible




Julie's Website, With Understanding Comes Calm




Episode with Ross Greene, founder of CPS and author of The Explosive Child




GHF Empowering Gifted Families




SPONSORS



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Gifted and Distractible ft. Julie Skolnick

Many of the guests on this show are authors—especially of non-fiction books. Although we often rely on non-fiction to teach us, sometimes the greatest lessons actually come through diving deeper into the life experiences of characters in a novel. Today, I’m speaking with authors Christine Platt and Catherine Wigginton Greene. Christine and Catherine have co-authored a brand new book that tells the story of an entertaining and thought-provoking interracial friendship between two mothers, De'Andrea and Rebecca. You can find Rebecca, Not Becky anywhere books are sold. 
SPONSORS:
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SFP 135: Choosing Great Toys [with Lizzie Assa from The Workspace For Children]

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