Training our kids for jobs that no longer exist?

Are we training our kids for jobs that no longer exist? Setting them up to live in debt with student loans that they won't be able to pay back? Is that expensive degree a guaranteed path to success? Mike Rowe from the popular tv show "Dirty Jobs" sure does think so.

Raising Children in the Digital World

i got to see Gordon Neufeld speak in Cranbrook last year when i volunteered at the Leading Our Kids with Heart 3-day event put on by Life Roots Consulting. he is absolutely inspiring and my parenting expert of choice. it you haven't ready his book, Hold onto Your Kids, it is an amazing read. interesting to see his perspective on the digital age!

i really want to remember... "eyes, smile, nod" - when i saw him speak, he said that it is the key before asking anything from your munchkins.

he quotes Sherry Turkle and her book Alone Together. Here she is a little more about her thoughts on how technology is shaping our relationships.

No more math worksheets?

i have memories of loving math. i recently looked back at junior & high school transcripts, and my marks didn't really show that. i remember totally thriving in college level math though. seriously loved it, like getting 100% on my finals loving it. i really want Kai to love it as well. we play math games, read stories with math involved (like Math Potatoes) and do 5 math worksheet questions a day. This video is making me rethink though ... really... is it necessary?

i just had to share that an old friend of mine just published his second book, The Inner Path: Awakening To A More Spiritual Life i can't wait to read it! it is said to be "An essential and insightful guide to finding greater happiness, fulfillment and a more spiritual life..." - can't go wrong there right? his first book A Mindful Approach to Parenting: Insights on Raising Our Children With Wisdom, Awareness, and Acceptance looks amazing.

This insightful collection of over three hundred original quotes on the subject of mindful parenting provides readers with a greater understanding and acceptance of the broad spectrum of experiences that they are likely to encounter as a parent. Combining humorous insights and timeless wisdom, this book shows how to embrace the moments that your child is providing you, instead of resisting them. It tells you how to learn from every situation, and as a result, better know not only your child, but yourself. It explains how to use whatever life offers as a way to grow within yourself and become an ever more effective and compassionate individual and parent. This refreshing and timely collection reveals how to parent with acceptance, courage, and compassion - to be mindful of our own emotions and experiences, as well as those of our children. It teaches us how to acknowledge reality; the reality of life as it reveals itself to us in every moment, so that we can learn from it and grow in awareness, wisdom, and equanimity.

Geoff Bell-Devaney is a graduate of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Teacher Training program at the Center for Mindfulness at the UMass Medical School and a former resident of the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. He has been practicing yoga and meditation for over ten years and holds a Masters degree in Education. He lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife and son, and is the author of “A Mindful Approach to Parenting: Insights on Raising Our Children With Wisdom, Awareness, and Acceptance.”

do schools kill creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson thinks so. He has amazing things to say about how we educate our children. Absolutely inspiring! He is an internationally recognized leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation.

Just do the Math

Learn the entire K-6 math skills in 20 hours? Is that even possible? It's been done by a group of 9-12 year olds at the Sudbury Valley School. They have also demonstrated repeatedly that a child could learn math - all of it grades K through 12 - in eight weeks.

Math is torture for most kids. The worksheets, the non-stop exercises. The thing is, math isn't tough, it's just extremely unpleasant if you're not ready to learn it. They say it's the same with reading too. Our favorite reading game is reading eggs, it's online and extremely funny gauging from the laughter I hear while it's being played.

I'm stoked to know my son's learning is filled with laughter, because that's what I want for my life as well.

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