Parenting Epidemic 2018
WE HAVE A HUGE PARENTING EPIDEMIC on our hands…. so huge that we don’t even realize it in the moment. I’ll preface this with the fact that the way you spend time with your child is directly related to your child’s behaviour.
This summer my husband and I took a leap and pulled our kids out of daycare & camp for the month of August and spent the entire month together at our cottage. We figured why not do it while they are still young enough not to fight us on it.
We didn't know what to expect.
We didn’t know if we would last the entire month.
We didn’t know if the kids would be busy enough to keep them happy.
We didn’t know if the kids would be bored without other kids to play with all day every day.
We certainly didn’t anticipate it being as successful as it was!
Most people thought we were crazy for doing this because a month is a long time to keep your kids entertained and busy without going nutso. Many people questioned what the heck we were going to do with our kids for an entire month?!?
Well here we are! Survivors! We managed to slow down time and capture the most quality moments with our 2 children that we will never get back. We managed to shift away from work mode, and put that energy into time with our kids and each other. We both stopped moving and thinking so fast and adapted to our children’s paces. These were all choices we made. Choices that I’m forever grateful for. These are choices that I will continue to make on the days that I am home with my kids.
Why?
Because throughout the month of August…
My kids were happy. My kids were calm. My kids were relaxed. My kids were playful. My kids were compliant. My kids were kind. My kids slept well. My kids were healthy.
What more can a parent ask for?!?!?
…so what was so different in August from every other month of the year? no-doubt, there was a shift in quality, when we talk about our interactions with our children. For the most part, they had our undivided attention. We engaged in so many activities with them on a daily basis without the burden of our phones in our pockets or hands. We didn’t allow ourselves to get distracted by nonsense stuff that could wait until a later time. This was a true win-win situation for all of us.
If we look at this month away as a little social experiment then our results indicate that WE HAVE A HUGE PARENTING EPIDEMIC on our hands…. so huge that we don’t even realize it in the moment. I’ll preface this with the fact that the way you spend time with your child is directly related to your child’s behaviour. To keep it simple, if you keep your child’s attention bucket full then you will have a very happy child on your hands. If your child isn’t getting enough of your undivided attention on a consistent basis, then you will find yourself dealing with more defiant child.
I ask you this….
Do you spend time glancing at your emails when you are with your child?
Do you scroll through your social media platforms while your child plays at your side?
Do you multitask at home on your computer, while your child is hanging out watching tv in the same room?
If you answered yes to any of the above then please put down your cell phones and computers until your child is asleep. Your child needs your undivided attention.
Stop multitasking, stop checking your emails, and stop glancing at social media when you think they don't realize. They absorb everything about your non-verbal communication and behaviour.
I’m guilty here and didn’t realize the extent of it until August when I decided to shift gears during my children’s waking hours.
I challenge you to be more present with your child.
I challenge you to be more emotionally available for your child.
I challenge you to step outside of your comfort zone and feel silly when you play with your child.
Accept my challenge and I can guarantee you a very happy, relaxed and well behaved child.
Are you in?
-cori
p.s. if you accepted the challenge then I want to hear from you, let me know how it goes.
p.s.s. If you need strategies to help curb your own behaviour to make this happen then I want you to connect with me asap by booking in a free 30-minute consult right here! I’ll be posting lots of strategies around this in Behave it or NOT!
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Motivating the Unmotivated
How do YOU motivate a learner who is completely unmotivated? Here is a great strategy that can reduce your frustration when you just can't get a student to respond.
One of the best parts about being an educator is that you also get to be a student. Student learns from Teacher and Teacher learns from Student. It's a wonderful symbiotic relationship. I find myself learning from my students and clients all the time. This is not limited to all the typical learners out there. The same holds true for all my students and clients with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, executive functioning challenges, poor self regulation skills, motor planning issues, and the list goes on....
One of the biggest challenges as an educator who works with students with different exceptionalities, is trying to find ways to motivate the student to learn. There is no doubt that motivation is the key to successful teaching and learning. So... how do you do this with with a student who is labelled as "gifted" but has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), an anxiety disorder, extremely poor fine motor skills and very weak coping skills- all at the same time??? Sounds like a recipe for disaster (especially when his History assignment is due in 2 days). My approach to this is to identify the student's strengths and use them to boost the weaknesses. In this case- this particular student is very intelligent, has strong verbal skills, and loves technology. It just so happens his teacher has the class using Google Docs to produce and organize assignments. BINGO! Smart smart Teacher! He followed the classroom structure of doing his work on the computer in Google Docs- however had the brilliant idea to open his Google Drive app on his iPhone and use the microphone to dictate his thoughts, which we watched get automatically typed on the computer screen in front of us. By the end of our one hour session- his assignment was just about complete and he felt accomplished! I found ways to motivate him by tapping into his interests (technology), reduced the fine motor demand (no handwriting or typing), maximized his verbal skills (dictating), and kept him on task (because he was motivated). What a success! Here's the strategy we used- I hope it's useful to help you #educate #motivate and #accelerate your students!
-Cori
Once signed into your student's Google account on the computer- open up the Google Drive and create a new Google Doc (give it a good title). Once this is done open up your Google Drive app on your mobile device and find the new doc. you just created-open it up!
On your mobile device, pull up your keyboard and press the microphone button- start dictating those awesome thoughts and ideas. Make sure your student talks sloooow and clear. You should see those brilliant words appear on your mobile screen. After each sentence or 2- hit 'done' and they will appear on your computer screen.
The beauty of this is you don't have to remember to 'save' your document because Google does this for you automatically every few seconds. Tada! You did it!
If you want any further information on the strategies mentioned above, please don't hesitate to be in touch. I love sharing the goods! Looking forward to hearing from you.