If you could only eat cake or pie for dessert for the rest of your life, which would you choose and why?
New to freewriting? Check out our online guide.
Podcast: Becoming a Parent-Coach to Your Child with Elena Aguilar
Parents often don’t see themselves as educators or coaches to their own children or communities. And yet, that’s exactly what they are — or at least what they aim to be. Coaching is a set of strategies you can use when you want to help someone learn and grow. Our role as parents is to enable our children to make good decisions once they are on their own.
Elena Aguilar is a writer, leader, teacher, coach, and podcaster. She’s the author of seven highly-acclaimed books, including The Art of Coaching, Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators, and The PD Book: 7 Habits That Transform Professional Development. She’s also a frequent contributor to Edutopia, ASCD’s educational leadership, and EdWeek Teachers, as well as the founder and president of Bright Morning Consulting, which helps individuals and organizations create the conditions for transformation.
On today’s Brave Writer podcast, Elena shares with us the ways we can use coaching strategies to help raise independent, critical thinking children.
Show Notes
The importance of coaching through emotional development
Being able to talk about or process emotions does not require specific spaces or a certain degree. Human beings all have emotions, and we all need to be proficient at processing them and moving through them. As parents, it’s important that we acknowledge emotions — both those that we are feeling and those of our children — and offer space for reflection around what those emotions mean.
The difference between learning and skill building
Continuous learning is not about consuming information. Learning goes beyond acquiring new knowledge — it requires skillful implementation and regular reflection, evaluation, and course correction. It requires deliberate, ongoing practice.
When we are learning something new, there is a “knowing-doing gap” between our understanding of a concept and our ability to perform it. One way we can close that gap is by practicing, getting feedback, and paying attention to what that feedback says about your progress.
Elena’s practical tools and breadth of experience give us the courage to be parents who coach our children to lead effective lives, to enjoy their educations, and to be prepared for life beyond the family.
Resources
- Elena’s website: brightmorningteam.com
- Listen to Bright Morning Podcast
- Read: The Art of Coaching
- Read: Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators
- Read: The PD Book: 7 Habits That Transform Professional Development
- Growing Brave Writers: store.bravewriter.com/products/growing-brave-writers
- Online Classes: bravewriter.com/online-classes
- Want help getting started with Brave Writer? Head over to bravewriter.com/getting-started
- Sign up for the Brave Writer newsletter to learn about all of the special offers we’re doing in 2022 and you’ll get a free seven-day Writing Blitz guide just for signing up: https://go.bravewriter.com/writing-blitz
Connect with Julie
- Instagram: instagram.com/juliebravewriter
- Twitter: twitter.com/bravewriter
- Facebook: facebook.com/bravewriter
Worry Time
In all your worrying, don’t forget to include worrying about worrying.
And if you forget to worry about worrying, maybe worry a bit about that too!
“What could that mean? Why am I not a first-class worrier who remembers to worry about the fact that I worry? Does it mean I don’t care? Am I too relaxed?” (Hint: you’re not)
Just for today, notice the worry and do nothing about it. It’s too big a step to NOT WORRY (heavens, the whole sky might collapse on your head!). But instead, feel the worry and let it ride sidecar for the rest of your day.
“Oh hey Worry! Need a snack? I’ve got yogurt with chocolate chips or maybe you prefer half a bag of Lay’s potato chips. No? You’re just glad I said hello? Wonderful!”
And go back to life.
I haven’t found a cure for worry. I have learned a technique that helps me not let worry shipwreck the day.
Schedule some worry time.
When worry pops up in the morning, say to it: “Oh hey worry! Let’s obsess about that Very Important Item at 4:00 PM when the baby naps. I’ll give you a full 30 minutes to unleash yourself.”
Each time the worry returns during the day, remind Worry:
“Yeah, I know how important that is. We’ll get to it at 4:00.”
Keep your appointment.
At 4:00 pm, park the kids in front of the TV, find a space for yourself and worry your head off! Really get into it. Make lists you’ll never accomplish, predict the disasters you are sure may unfold, tell off the person who won’t share your worries with you, cry, schedule all the things. Obsess for 30 minutes. Ding! Once the session ends, let your worried mind know you’ll pay attention to it again tomorrow at the appointed time.
We can’t get rid of worry but we can give it some boundaries. It’s not right that it robs you of poetry teatime or the joy of the read aloud. Put worry in its place! See how it goes.
This post is originally from my @juliebravewriter Instagram account.
Follow along for more conversations like this one!
Friday Freewrite: New Look
The kitchen table and chairs get a fresh, colorful coat of paint. What does the furniture have to say about that?
New to freewriting? Check out our online guide
Podcast: Finding a Homeschool Philosophy that Works for You
I am recording some of my Tea with Julie emails for the podcast for those of you who prefer to listen. These are brief messages of support for parents and educators. If you’d like to receive the weekly emails, they are free. Sign up at bravewriter.com/tea
In our attempts to find a philosophy of education that works for our families, we can feel batted around by the strong gusts of:
- the latest curricula,
- the current trends in home education,
- the program that solved whatever schooling issue over which we’d agonized.
And whenever we seek out advice, it always comes with a mixture of inspiration and guilt.
On today’s Brave Writer podcast, I’m going to share some strategies on how to integrate all of your aspirations without feeling overwhelmed.
Listen on Spotify. Also available on Apple Podcasts.
Show Notes
Complete Tea with Julie notes can be found HERE.
Resources
- Bullets to be duplicated after review
- Sign up for our Text Message Pod Ring to get podcast updates and more!
- Want help getting started with Brave Writer? Head over to bravewriter.com/getting-started
- Sign up for the Brave Writer newsletter to learn about all of the special offers we’re doing in 2022 and you’ll get a free seven-day Writing Blitz guide just for signing up: http://go.bravewriter.com/writing-blitz
Connect with Julie
- Instagram: instagram.com/juliebravewriter
- Twitter: twitter.com/bravewriter
- Facebook: facebook.com/bravewriter
