As we think about how to set our kids up to live their best lives, of course, education is an important part of it.  This week, we talk Dr. William Spady, a leading thinker in the field of education who has been challenging the status quo and shifting the paradigm for more than 50 years.  Bill asks the question: What kind of human beings do we want to send out the door?  His Outcome Based Education (OBE) model shows us a profoundly inspiring answer to this question.

Bill was a professor at Harvard and has written 10 books, including his most recent, Bringing Heart and Soul to Education.  His next book is due out later this year. 

In this episode, we'll talk about: 

• The systemic problems of our “educentric” system, a time-bound factory model of education
• An inspiring alternative to our curriculum-based model that believes "all students can learn & succeed, but not on the same day, in the same way"
• The 4 principles of OBE: clarity of focus, expanded opportunity, high expectations, and design down
• A new way of thinking about the outcomes of education: competence, creativity, collaboration, consciousness, compassion.  

Links:
williamspady.com

This episode is about joy and happiness.  As we've explored how we set our kids up to live their best lives on this podcast, one theme has become clear: We parents have to be pursuing ours.  So, today, I’m sharing stories from my own life.  It may sound weird because I literally never hear anyone say this, but my life is overflowing with joy.  I  have a life, marriage, and family that exceeds anything I ever imagined.  Of course, it wasn't always this way.  In fact, there were some huge limitations standing in the way of my happiness.  But finally a decade ago I had the breakthrough that changed everything.  If you are still look to create more joy and happiness in your life, I hope that my story may have some seed of inspiration or insight so you can have a life beyond your wildest dreams too.  That's my wish for all of us.  

In this episode we talk with Steve Sachs, the co-director of Alaya Preschool, which draws on the wisdom of the Shambhala Buddhist tradition to inspire its approach to early childhood education.  Steve has been an educator for 40 years and has wonderful insights and inspiration to share from his time at Alaya, 24 years in Montessori, and experience teaching in the Early Childhood Education program at Naropa University.  He’s also a co-director of Family Camp at the Shambhala Mountain Center.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Meeting each child in the present moment
• How to handle big emotions
• Cultivating connection, kindness, self-acceptance, and non-competition
• And a wonderful practice for handle the situation when child has hurt another child in some way that has been transformative in our household.

I found this conversation so inspiring…and I hope you do too!

In this episode, we finish part 2 of our conversation with Pat Windom, a life path counselor with a Masters in Theology and special intuitive gifts.  She reads past lives, understands universal law and uses her gifts to show us that we are all much more than we think we are.

Pat is also a parent and step parent to 6 adult children (including 2 with special needs) and grandmother.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why and how, at a soul level, children choose their parents
• How karmic groups work
• The benefit of looking at past lives
• Pat's insightful answer to my daughter's question, "What’s going to happen to me when I die?"

Links:
patwindom.com

In this episode, we talk with Pat Windom, a life path counselor with a Masters in Theology and special intuitive gifts.  She reads past lives, understands universal law and uses her gifts to show us that we are all much more than we think we are.

Pat is also a parent and step parent to 6 adult children (including 2 with special needs) and grandmother.

This episode is like a condensed master class!  We'll be talking about:

• How she discovered her gifts
• The importance of defining our life’s journey and knowing who we really are
• Why it's important for parents to "put their own oxygen mask on first" and make time for themselves
• How we all come in with masculine and feminine energy, what it has to do with the gender we chose in this life, and why it's important to balance the energies
• What the move from the Piscean Age to the Aquarian Age (which started in 2012) means for for us, our children, and the planet.  (This explains sooo much of what we see going on in the world!)
• How to use questions powerfully in times of conflict with kids

This is the first of a two part interview with Pat.  Enjoy!

Links:
patwindom.com

In this episode we talk with Michal Berg about how we can support our kids' development socially and emotionally, and also spiritually.  Michal is a parenting coach, creator of the Parenting the Soul course, and CEO of the non-profit Spirituality for Kids International, Inc. (SFK).  SFK's award-winning spiritual social-emotional learning curriculum has taught nearly 85,000 kids, in 21 countries to tap into their inner strengths and see their true potential. 

In this episode, we talk about:

• Managing emotions; both managing ours and how to coach them with theirs
• Defining SQ and how to help your kids cultivate it
• Developing resilience 
• Building compassion
• The most important thing you can say when your child is facing struggles (Spoiler alert: it’s a question, not a statement)

Episode Links:

Spirituality for Kids International, Inc.
Michal Berg
Parenting the Soul

Tryna Cooper is co-founder of Journeys for Conscious Living and a master of metaphysics.  She was raised Christian, married a Jew, and has studied with a Native American elder for many years.  She’s an amazingly wise and spiritual woman, and I am blessed to call her my mother-in-law as well.

In part 2 of our conversation, I get to ask a question that was part of my motivation for starting this podcast.  My husband is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met.  And his two sisters are equally wonderful, loving, giving, happy people…yet they're all completely different!  So, what's the secret to raising such great humans?  Let's find out!

Looking for a little inspiration as you kick off the new year?  This show is for you!  As we kick off 2020, I was inspired by the question…what are the keys to creating the lives of our dreams?  Based on my life and others', two of the most powerful things I see enabling (or preventing!) this are intention & receiving.  So, we created our first round table discussion with three powerhouse women to share their wisdom and experience about exactly that!  We talk about:

• setting intentions for what you want to create
• how choosing a word for the year can expand your life in powerful new ways
• how to set and align in energetic priorities that make life juicy
• how the day-to-day intentions you set for your interactions with others can transform your relationships
• why and how we block our own ability to receive what we want
• how being the abundance you want to receive can powerfully unlock it

Our guests for this show are 3 of my favorite leaders in the fields of intuition, personal development, and coaching.  If you've listened to previous episodes, they may be familiar! 

• Willow Bradner is a psychic and medium who brings her magical powers to helping entrepreneurs gain clarity, supercharge their businesses, and ignite their intuition & powers of manifestation through readings and her program, The Clarity Cure.
• Tamara Ross its the founder of the personal development company, My Life My Design.  She trains people to create, manifest and actualize the life of their dreams through energetic mastery.
• Erin Breeze, the creator of Happy Home: Life After Divorce (and my sister!), helps moms turn the disruption of divorce into a powerful breakthrough for themselves and their families.

All three of our guests are also mamas, but this week's show really is for you parents.  I believe that in order for our kids to live their best lives, one of the most powerful things we can do is pursue our best lives.  

For more wisdom and inspiration from these amazing ladies, check out episodes #1 (Willow), #3 (Erin), and #5 (Tamara).

Happy New Year!  Enjoy!

In this episode, we talk with Tryna Cooper about Jesus, the man, the spiritual teacher, the metaphysician.  I was raised in a culturally Christian family, but without religion.  Since having kids, every year at this time, I wonder, how can I bring spiritual meaning to Christmas?  Maybe some of you have had the same curiosity.  So, let's explore it!  Tryna is a master of metaphysics and co-founder of Journeys for Conscious Living.  She shares her path in reconciling her faith with her new spiritual beliefs, her insights from studying the history of Jesus and the lost books of the Bible, and her inspiring perspective about who he was and why he was here. 

Links:
Journeys for Conscious Living

In this episode, Bob Tipton, author of What's Right, Not Who's Right, a simple shift to regain our humanity and heal our relationships - at home and at work, shares what he's learned from his career as a transformational change architect working with government and large organizations and, perhaps more importantly, from nearly 40 years of parenting and grandparenting.  Given the world we’re bringing our kids up in today, understanding how we can shift from defending positions to finding common interests has never been more important.  In this conversation, Bob shares:

• what he believes is at the source of the political animosity we see today
• what he's learned from parenting biological and adopted children
• why it's important to let our kids suffer (up to a point)
• the physiology of emotions and how we can disrupt triggers
• why growing your collection of "used to thinks" is important (and how he used to think that balance was possible!)
• how he loves his kids uniquely rather than equally
• how our energy dictates the outcome of situations
• and, the hardest lesson he's learned as a parent

Bob and Team Tipton have a mission to get What's Right, Not Who's Right into the hands of every elected official in America (435,000 of them!).  You can join them here.

Team Tipton has also created a transformation month.  Week one is a FREE 7-day course on real, lasting transformational change, focused on What's Right, Not Who's Right, and includes a free copy of the book (shipping and handling required).  You can sign up here.

You can find Bob and his team at Team Tipton.

References:
Bruce Lipton: What is Epigenetics?
Bruce Lipton: Biology of Belief (Amazon)
Joe Dispenza: Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself (Amazon)