Empowered 4 Growth

Creating memories with your kids, teens and young adults is not always easy to orchestrate.

I can tell you first hand that these are the things they will talk about for years.

Remember the time we did …

Remember when that happened and we all ended up…

Remember the time we all wanted to … and then …

Remember how we all got on the … only to find out …

Whatever you do as a parent, create the memory that tells the story that gets repeated for a lifetime and into the next generation.

The learning that comes from creating those memories will never be forgotten and will only bring your family closer to you and have them yearning for the next adventure.

Live the one life you have with purpose and intention, don’t waste a minute second guessing or having the thoughts of “what if?”

Your kids will thank you, I promise. ❤️

I’m updating my bio today!

4 months…

40 hours of in class-room training…

Countless hours of homework and practice…

.. leads me to celebrate the completion of the post-graduate teacher-training course: The Orton Gillingham Approach: Practical Linguistics Remedial Therapy for Students with Language-based Learning Disabilities and Dyslexia – Part 1

Its a mouthful, isn’t it?

Its the first step in being certified in a reading program that has been invaluable to my family, and that I believe will be to many others as well.

I love to read, and it was heartbreaking watching my kids struggle!

They love books but would get so frustrated trying to decode words on a page that made no sense to them.

There were many tears, and many homework battles before I began to understand that their brains worked differently and that they needed different support.

This understanding and journey is the basis for Empowered 4 Growth and our belief that all kids should be celebrated for their superpowers, not for their weaknesses.

That doesn’t change the reality that reading is important and can unlock opportunities and adventures for children and adults alike. It just means that I had to meet my kids where they were.

We balance supporting them in acquiring basic core skills, like reading, with emphasizing the things they LOVE and want to learn about.

The Orton Gillingham teacher training program is knowledge and understanding that allows me to meet my kids and my clients needs. I strongly believe that kids with dyslexia are one of the groups most likely to suffer when they are not in a system that supports their strengths. When they have the proper support their self-esteem, confidence and joy of learning is limitless.

With a research-based, proven program like this in my tool belt I can understand these kids and their learning better. I can support their struggles AND encourage their strengths.

Embolden Teens Summer Camp ⛺️

Do you worry about the 8-weeks of FREE time your teens have over the summer?

Are you looking for something valuable for your teens to do?

We’ve got you covered for at least one of those 8 weeks.

With our 5-day summer camp experience your teens will:

🕵️‍♂️ Unlock their unique superpowers

Build a toolbox 🧰

They’ll find the key 🔑 to their hearts ❤️ desires

Dream 💭 of a future

🔗 Make lasting connections 🔗

With the proper guidance, tools and support network, your teens will blossom forward with:

✨ confidence
✨ healthy rituals
✨ strong relationships
✨ clearer focus
✨ support network

We’d love to get to know your teens.

We’d love nothing more than having them join us the week of July 12th.

For more information on our programs visit us .4.growth ⬆️
Link in bio ℹ️

Need more information or want to chat with a human, we’d love to hear from you.

Email: [email protected]

☀️ 🔥🏖️🏕️

How are you planning to make memories this summer? 😎

We’ve been hearing a lot lately from clients that they are struggling to connect with their kids. They want their kids to know that they can talk to them about anything that’s on their minds.

Over this past year, with COVID and various stay-at-home guidelines, we’ve had more time together with family than anyone could have asked for. Yet so many are reporting a lack of feeling connected.

Spending time together as a family is great, but individual bonds are important too. Think of it as a spider web: all the individual links need to be strong for the overall web to be sturdy.

If you want to build connection with your kids so that they open up and share what’s on their minds, then you need to set the stage for that to happen.

Try breaking out of your routine and invite one of your children to spend the day with you one-on-one. Plan it together, let your child take the lead, choose an activity that they love and want to share with you. Set off for the day on a large or small adventure. Share a meal together and please, leave the technology at home!

As the day unfolds, you’ll both open-up to each other. It will feel natural because the stage has been set…

You’d be amazed at the fun that can be had, and to what depth the conversation and connection can reach.

Some of the activities my kids have chosen are theme parks, trampoline parks, indoor rock climbing, and strawberry picking, just to name a few. Occasionally we’ll do something that extends beyond the day, and into a longer trip. This one ⬆️ was on a glacier in the middle of summer!

It has helped me to get to know my children as individuals. To see their strengths, their challenges, and their uniqueness. And its always a good sign when I hear them ask when the next one is coming up!

Are you planning to curl up with a good book at the beach this summer? 🏖📚

Here are two amazing personal development books that should be on your list. One for parents, particularly parents of middle-schoolers or close to that age. The other is so good it should be required reading for any human being!

📖The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed by

Going through the natural transition of letting go and giving kids more freedom – is hard! After all, many parents have built solid habits of looking after their kids. And, then the rebellious middle school and high school years hits and it is scary. This book provides great insight into how parents can help their kids learn to fail (in a healthy way), be autonomous, make decisions, and be resilient.

Jessica Lahey is a middle school teacher. She gives parents a solid plan on how to support their kid’s autonomy with practical applications such as: how to work with teachers; how to help with homework, friends, and tough decisions without taking over; and, how to get kids contributing around the house.

I loved this book so much I’m reading it again!

📖 Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by

I have not read a Brene Brown book that I have not loved, and this is no exception. She has such a wonderful way of reaching into each of our hearts and understanding what we, somehow, think we are the only ones experiencing.

She speaks of this incredibly deep subject with storytelling and humour making it a pleasure to read. True belonging is different than fitting in. With true belonging we don’t need to try to be someone we aren’t, people please, or pretend. Brene speaks to 4 practices of true belonging:

⭐️ People are hard to hate close up. Move in.

⭐️ Speak truth to BS. Be civil.

⭐️ Hold hands. With strangers.

⭐️ Strong back. Soft front. Wild heart.

While this book is for all humans, it is incredibly important content to understand for parents of teens who are trying to help their kids navigate the pressures to fit in.

If I could give this book to my teenage self, I would in a heartbeat.

Do you ever wonder how a dogs tongue 👅 works?

After this snap, I became curious and thought you and your family might be too.

Dogs are fascinating to me in so many ways.

Since becoming a dog owner for the 1st time in my life, there have been tons of things over the past year that surprise and amaze me.

Training an animal like Revy has been both rewarding and challenging. Mostly it’s given me confidence!!!

How you ask, let me tell you.

Taking on Revy has been a lot like having a another child. There are so many proud parent moments.

Now I’m not saying it’s totally the same but there seems to be some common threads.

Puppies are a little like having a child, they NEED “you” to keep offering new and challenging things to stimulate their brain development and keep them busy.

Give them some TOOLS and an ACTION, then watch them thrive on achieving the goal.

I’ve been amazed at how attentive she is when learning something fun that she likes to do.

When she accomplishes a new trick or skill, I see it in her body language how proud she is. Her head goes high, chest proud and she literally prances.

I’ve observed some similar behaviours as when my children learned new things. Revy loves to:

⭐️please me
⭐️learn new things
⭐️make sure I’m involved
⭐️practice her skills
⭐️be with me (even if it’s just in the same room)
⭐️be praised
⭐️be involved with us

We’ve had a good day when her brain has been fully engaged, she’s had exercise, and been given good nutrition.

Her tongue doesn’t talk back but it’s very handy for drinking water, just one of the things a dogs tongue can do.

© this link to watch: https://youtu.be/63Ch2pNkZwU

It’s been a very rewarding experience. I’ve learned so much from Revy and together we keep learning every day.

Today we learned how to hug. Stay tuned for the photo op!!!

All my love,
Melanie xo

P.S. there is a real reason NOT to let your dog lick your face other than the obvious LOL - ewww

❤️🐶 🐾 ☀️ ✨ ❤️

We’re hiring! Do you know someone we should speak to? 📣

We are excited to find a partner that we can outsource a few of our more tech oriented tasks to.

You know, how it goes – you try to take on ALL the tasks, but we’re coming to the realization that some things are pretty far outside of our zone of genius and would be better left to the experts!

And, since we tell our clients to lean into their strengths … we know we need to as well!

We need help from one or more people with the following:

👉 Website changes and additions using wordpress and divi builder. Possibly optimization of what we’ve currently got on the website.

👉 Executing on email and newsletter strategy (e.g. formatting and sending one-off emails; setting up sequenced emails) – we use Mailchimp currently, but are open to changing.

👉 Setting up a payments workflow, and the necessary technology.

👉 Tech connections between website and mailchimp (or whatever email marketing system we end up with – currently on mailchimp).

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

If you know someone who is great at any of these things and would like a few more hours of work per week or month please put them in touch with us!

The Boy, the mole, the fox and the horse

It’s important that we say out loud how we feel about our relationships to those we love.

We all need to hear that we are loved.

Everyday one of my rituals, besides carefully preparing my coffee is to read for 15 minutes while I enjoy my heartfelt warm drink.

Today I read this book and I wanted to take the time to share how it made me feel about those that I loved.

I think it’s safe to say that we all have at least one relationship we can say: I love you! This book proved that it doesn’t have to be a human relationship.

Relationships come in many forms. We have a relationship with ourselves, with our family, with our pets, with our friends, with nature. Whomever your relationship is with, prepare your heart and be out loud with your feelings — everyone needs to hear that they are loved.

After reading this book and taking some time to reflect this is what I want to say:

I love you, but I love myself more. The things that are important to me I share with you. I’ve prepared my heart for you many times because I want you to know you are important to me and that I love you.
I am far from perfect but I put my best self forward.

Choose happy over unhappy, choose kindness over hate, choose love over fear, and embrace the uncertainty.

You cannot take back your words, choose them wisely.

A friend can forgive you but they will never forget how your words or actions made them feel. Tell them you love them, prepare your heart for them.

You will have to live with your choices, choose wisely and embrace the love within you because you are the only love you can guarantee.

Love will fill you up and love will tear you apart — keep the heart filled love moments and brush the love hurt behind you.

It is true that we can’t change what’s in the past or behind us. Lead forward and embrace your love relationships empower your dreams — with the right fuel they will ignite and take you soaring into tomorrow.

Most of all let someone know today that they are loved.

With all my love,
Melanie xo

We’ve been working hard and we want to make sure you don’t miss a thing. 👇

Here’s what we shared with our readers yesterday.

Today we want to give you the opportunity to never miss the important things we are working on. Make sure to sign up to receive the full view.👇👇

Hi Friends,

This month our theme at Empowered 4 Growth has been growth.

We’ve grown personally, we’ve grown as a business (with new programs and resources for you!), and we stay dedicated to our mandate to help you, your kids and your families grow to be happier and more fulfilled.

In this email we are thrilled to introduce you to our new monthly newsletter format. Once a month we will summarize all that we’ve been up to and send it to you along with other resources, recommendations, tips and news. We’ve organized it so that each month you can quickly scan the email and see:


New programs and resources from Empowered 4 Growth

👉Resources for parents
👉Resources related to kids and teens
👉Resources related to learning, school and education
👉Client Love: stories and words directly from other parents, teens and kids

We hope you enjoy the new format. And, as always, we’d love to hear your feedback.

Also, in the theme of supporting your personal growth we want to call special attention to a new and FREE offering, our Empowered Parent Mastermind group.

We’ve heard from so many parents, that more than anything, you miss having a chance to interact with each other – a place to have those school yard chats where you can commiserate, or bounce ideas off each other. That's why we decided to offer a forum for conversation. Once a week we'll hold a small group chat to talk about all things related to kids, parenting, and families. Check it out in the ‘What’s New’ section. There's only a few spots available, we’d love to see you there! If you have any questions, feel free to drop us a line to our [email protected] email address.

Love always,

Melanie & Lisa

How Does Your Garden Grow?

This spring, as a family, we dove headfirst into the veggie gardening craze, and I can’t even tell you how excited I am every time I see one our little seedlings poke itself out of the dirt for the first time. My excitement has been equally matched by the kids as they proudly display their basil, peas, and zucchini to anyone who will listen.

There is something so magical about the learning experiences in growing vegetables or flowers as a family.

First, it is peaceful and calming to play in the dirt. It offers time for introspection and connection both to nature, and to each other when we are out playing in the garden.

Second, we are connecting with our farming heritage. The kids and I talked about my grandparent’s garden and my memories of that as a kid, as well as our ancestors who farmed the land.

Third, the value of consistently adding the right ingredients to support healthy growth. Water. Sunlight. Fertilizer. Anything living needs this. We had a few tiny sprouts dry up on us from lack of water and / or sunlight. We learned our lessons and started again!

Fourth, we learned about the need for transition time. Plants, like anything else, need time to transition from one environment to another. With plants it’s called ‘hardening off’. As you move plants from their indoor, cozy-life, to the outdoors you gradually increase the amount of time they spend in the windy, sunny, harsher environment.

I can’t get over how relevant of a lesson this is for parents as we help our kids through their various transitions – whether it is back to school, off to middle-school, or off to high school. Kids and plants both need transition time!

Fifth, we are embracing the silver linings in another COVID year. We would probably not have had the time in previous years to do this. As I continually remind my kids, staying at home is not all bad, and there are many things, like gardening, that we have been able to experience and learn from that wouldn’t otherwise have happened.

Who else is putting together a vegetable garden this year? What are you learning as a result?

👀We are looking for 6 more parents to join our Empowered Parent Mastermind Group.

Starts: Tuesday, May 25 EST

ℹ️ 8-week commitment
ℹ️ via Zoom
[email protected]

Empowered parents want to talk about their kids and learn strategies to tackle life’s challenges.

In this Mastermind we’ll tackle any subject you want to bring to the table.

Email inquiries or questions to: info@empowered4growth

We want to have lively discussions about all things kids!

Don’t wait secure your spot.

Please share on your feed or with anyone you think might be interested.
💕🙏💕

SCHOOLS OUT but the BELLS ARE RINGING!!!

Teens are stressed and frustrated.

When I saw this image, I immediately thought about the skills that we teach in our Embolden Teens program for young girls.

Some of the things the girls come up with are powerful!!!

The exercise goes like this — I am on a mission to:

💡help others
💡live my best life
💡be an interior designer
💡help the environment
💡stop racism
💡become a lawyer
💡be an orthodontist

Do you know what your teens dreams are? Do they have aspirations to become a Prime Minister / Astronaut? Have you noticed that they have a unique ability?

Or do you have a teen that struggles to figure out what courses they are going to take in high school or simply struggle day-to-day and have no idea what's in their future.

Imagine the stress that comes with a changing body, peer pressure, healthy body image, deciding what you want to do for THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.

If you have a teen that needs to build self-confidence, find their purpose, learn tools to safeguard against feelings of hopelessness, then you are in the right place.

School lends to the pressure as early as grade 8 for kids to think about what career choices to make. Today’s kids are not going to have a 25-year career with one company that supports a pension plan and all the things to support retirement!

Pre-teens are forced to pick a "stream” — academic or applied based on their primary school achievements — it’s very linear and limited!

Our teens spend four years trying to achieve the highest grades possible with the hopes to attend the “best” post-secondary schools.

The pressure is real, and they’re dropping like flies…

Most won’t end up going down the path they studied. They’ll be heavily in dept still trying to figure out what they want to do.

Let's EMPOWER kids to build on their natural abilities early. Let's help them choose a path to success, not an unknown journey of doing what someone else thinks best for them.

At Empowered 4 Growth, we guide teens towards their own inner power. We help them figure out who they are and what they want to learn, build their confidence using strategies, tools and rituals that create powerful life skills.