We begin our second season by exploring the many facets of learning.

Our parent guest this week is Annie Snyder, PhD, Senior Learning Scientist at McGraw-Hill and a single mom of three boys. In our conversation, we talk about everything from reframing the "loss' of learning to how the pandemic offers us an opportunity to reconsider and racalibrate what we call learning.

***Episode Notes***

• The Covid Slide
• Socio-emotional learning
• Failure as learning
• Pandemic learning
• Reframing learning
• Learning from children

In this week's episode, we explore the world of science from an anti-racist perspective.

Our parent guest this week is Theanne Griffith, PhD, a mom of two and a neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis. She is the author of the new STEM focused chapter book series, The Magnificent Makers (illustrated by Reggie Brown). We explore her books, discuss the importance of scientific thinking, and why science is for everyone.

Follow Theanne on twitter / instagram @DocTheaGrif

***Episode Notes***

• The Magnificent Makers Series
• Representation, Barriers & Opportunties to pursuing STEM fields
• Why science(tific thinking) is important
• Right Brain / Left Brain / Whole Brain!
• Doing science at home
• Science from an anti-racist perspective
• Impact of the pandemic on children's development
• Titles of the books

Bonus content from Episode 6 Conversations About Race with Charles Barrett Adams, Managing Partner at The Lion's Story. In this mini episode, Charles talks about the role parents can play in advocating for sustainable change in schools, by reflecting on his role as an active parent in his children's schools.

In this week's episode, we learn about what racial literacy is and why we need it more than ever.

Our parent guest this week is Charles Barrett Adams, dad of two and one of the founding members and managing partner of The Lion's Story, an organization that seeks to prepare individuals and organizations to navigate and resolve racially charged situations using research-based strategies. We talk about managing stress during conversations related to race, and how to engage with our children about racially charged situations - from processing the news to everyday experiences with microaggressions.

*Episode notes:*

• Processing events of racial injustice with children
• Racial literacy: Managing racially stressful situations (how to CLCBE)
• Racial climate change
• White Supremacy and Colorism, Prejudice, & Microaggressions
• The Lion's Story: Overview and upcoming workshops

See also our bonus content where we talk specifically about schools and the role parents can play in advocating for change.

In this week's episode we enter the world of social studies to explore the possibilities of restorying our past, understanding the present, and restoring our future.

Our parent guest this week is Noreen Naseem Rodriguez, PhD, a professor of elementary social studies at Iowa State University, and a mom of two. We discuss what social studies is; pushing back against dominant narratives and explore hidden histories; and how to watch the new PBS Asian American documentary with our kids.

Follow Noreen on twitter at: @naseemrdz

***Episode notes***

• Social studies in perspective
• Pushing back against the dominant narratives
• Exploring hidden histories
• PBS' Asian Americans documentary
• Reflecting on heritage months
• Documenting the present

In this week's episode, we reflect on the ways the past few months of the pandemic have reshaped schooling.

Our parent guest is Victoria Hunt, PhD, an educator with over twenty years of teaching and administrative experience and a mom of two young adults. She is the founding principal of Dos Puentes Elementary School, a dual-language K-5 public school in New York City. We talk about the challenges and opportunities that have emerged from the sudden and unprecedented shift to online schooling, and the ways in which we might reimagine schooling moving forward.

Episode Notes:

• Teaching your own kids is hard
• What parents might not know or realize / a behind the scenes perspective
• Loss of learning in perspective
• (Pandemic) Special education

Interlude

• The future: A focus on social-emotional well-being?
• Ideas to take to the future and reimagining schooling

Bonus content from last week's interview with early childhood researcher, Jennifer Keys Adair, PhD, in which she reflects on being a parent of teenagers and what she's learned from them.

In this week's episode we look at how young children learn and what they need from their parents during the pandemic.

Our parent guest this week is Jennifer Keys Adair, PhD, an early childhood education professor at the University of Texas at Austin and mom of three. We talk about ways to balance our children's needs with our own needs; using technology; the importance of play and boredom; and the benefits of developing agency in young children.

*Episode notes:*

• What kids need from parents (during the pandemic and beyond): The 15/45 rule
• Strategies to get work done while caring for your kids
• How to give children attention
• Leveraging/understanding technology
• Opting out and balancing online learning
• The importance of play - and boredom

(Interlude)

• Understanding children's agency
• Agency in children of color
• Cultivating agency at home
• The importance of not overprotecting kids

This week's episode enters the world of books and storytelling to explore ways of talking about social identities and difference with our children.

Our parent guest on this episode is Mathangi Subramanian, Ed.D., award-winning author, activist, and adoptive parent. We talk about books and storytelling as a way to both broaden our children's worlds and imaginations, and also serve as a gateway to social justice issues.

*Episode notes*

• Books as mirrors and windows / Diversifying children's literature
• Responding to questionable/stereotypical content in books
• The benefits of reading aloud to (older) children (gateway to social justice conversations)
• Reading fiction and nonfiction
• Fostering creativity

[interlude]

• Recognizing that kids know more that we think
• Modeling social justice
• How to engage (and re-engage) in conversations about social justice with your kids

Our first episode focuses on the challenges facing parents and folks in parenting roles with having their kids at home rather than in school.

Our parent guest on this episode is Chris Steinmeier, Ed.D., co-founder and co-director of the Natural Creativity Center and dad of two. We talk about school at home vs self-directed learning; finding work-life balance; and using this time as an opportunity to connect with the young people in your lives in a whole new way.

Episode Notes:

• Clarifying terminology (homeschooling, school-at-home, radical unschooling)
• A response to "fear of falling behind in learning"
• Principles of self-directed learning/education

Interlude

• Rediscovering curiosity (recovering internal-motivation)
• Avoiding evaluative language
• Sharing in responsibility
• Being with your family