Educating Matters

Did you know that England is one of the only countries in Europe without a specific entrepreneurship strategy for schools? 😫

Do you think schools are failing to give pupils entrepreneurial skills?

This is the conclusion made by a group of 250 entrepreneurs in a letter to The Times

Watching my kids go through school, I completely agree.

The current curriculum feels like an awful lot of rote-learning, with very little practical application. 👎🏻

What do you think are the key skills that entrepreneurs have /need❓

Off the top of my head, I would start with:

🔴Emotional intelligence

🟠Flexibility

🟡Communication

🟢Teamwork / collaboration

🔵Creative thinking

🟣Pitching ideas

🟤Work ethic

⚫Vision

What would you add?

How often do you think about what is on your child's agenda as opposed to yours?

For most young kids when they wake up in the morning, the number one thing on their agenda is to have fun. 🥳🎈

For teens, it might be just to go back to sleep! 🛌🏻💤

Acknowledging your child's agenda, does not mean you to have agree with them or give them what they want.

Simply recognising the existence of 2 completely different agendas on a daily basis, can help you look at things differently.🙄

For example:

........of course they don't care about you being ready for work on time. ⏲

.......of course they don't care about brushing their teeth. 😁

It's not about your child being 'naughty' or 'disrespectful' they just have different priorities.

WHAT IS ON YOUR AGENDA TODAY & WHAT IS ON YOUR CHILD'S??

What happens if you acknowledge and respect your child's agenda?

This can lead to a really powerful problem-solving approach teaching a crucial life skill.

You want this......

I want that.....

How can we make this work for both of us? 🤔

"Why does my child not listen to me?"

This is probably one of the most common questions parents ask me and I dedicate a whole module to this issue in my online parenting course.

If I throw the question back at you:

"Why do you think your child does not listen?"

If you think about it honestly, most of what you say is not that interesting and your child has heard it before!

The majority of interactions between parent and child are giving them an instruction or telling them what they have done wrong.

Would you be motivated to listen?

Have you ever tried making a conscious effort to notice, acknowledge and mention what your child is doing right, rather than what they are doing wrong?

Admittedly this takes practice and is a real mindset shift but it really helps to deepen you relationship and connection with your child and encourages more co-operation.

What have you tried that works or what do you feel isn't working?

What is your experience or observations of loneliness?

Loneliness is an often misunderstood concept. It is usually associated with physical isolation. We picture people confined in their homes by illness or age. This picture is not inclusive.

Loneliness is a profound feeling of sadness because of being alone. But, what does alone mean?

Being physically alone is easy to observe. There is a lack of physical interaction with others.

Emotional isolation is the hidden monster that plagues millions. This could manifest in a child who believes they have no friends. It could be an adult who is shy and ignored in a large workspace. It could be the parent on the school run who stands alone desperate for someone to talk to them. It can also be the older person who goes all day without talking to anyone.

However it shows up, we know that it has a significant impact on both mental and physical health.

The manifestation of loneliness is about the perceived lack of human connection.

Persistent loneliness is an unexpected repercussion of the pandemic leaving millions of people suffering from poor mental health as a result. It is no wonder that 'Loneliness' is this year's theme for 'Mental Health Awareness Week'.

If we can find ways to connect or even reconnect with other people, we can significantly improve the mental health and wellbeing of so many.

Please register for our free panel discussion on this crucial topic to join live or access the recording. https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TKTYUjNRQB-F5469UQCKpg

Does it feel as if you tend to focus on what is not going well in you life instead of what is?

As human beings are brains are actually programmed to focus on the negatives as these are perceived by our emotional brains as threats and our emotional brain is triggered to protect us.

This means that at work, you are more inclined to notice what your colleagues do wrong. At home, it will be your partner, children, flat mates or friends.

The issue with this, is that criticism is very demotivating and its very easy for poor relationships to get into a negative cycle.

Human being need help to shift mindsets and focus on the positive.

Are you aware of this?

If so, what practical tools do you use to remember to focus on the positive.

According to extensive research by Dr John Gottman, the magic ratio is 5:1

I have really struggled at times as a parent.

When I was a class teacher, I had all sorts of techniques and tricks up my sleeve to get my pupils to: listen, stay motivated, engaged, respectful and ready to learn.

Since I had considerable success managing hundreds of other peoples’ children, I was fairly confident that I was better prepared than most to become a parent myself.

I had my eldest 2 children in my late twenties, just 20 months apart.
In the early days, I felt like I was doing a pretty good job at parenting. My kids ate well, slept well and reached their developmental milestones.

I put my teaching career on hold so that I could be a more present parent. In 2001, I also founded Educating Matters and began delivering talks to working parents in large corporates.

Things changed when my eldest child started full-time school. I felt as if I was failing as a parent and certainly no longer an ‘expert’. I discovered lots of conflicting advice and began to question my approach.

Teaching other peoples’ children was a million times easier than being a parent myself. A lot of the advice I gave to parents when I was a class teacher, was totally and utterly unrealistic!!!!

I wanted to learn everything I could to be the best parent I could possibly be and get the very best out of my kids to help them thrive and set them up for life.

For the past 20 years, I have been obsessively reading parenting books and attending courses whenever I could carve out the time. I began to put into practice the techniques and strategies I was learning. I found that some things worked much better than others and I also learnt to trust my own parental instincts and appreciate that I was the expert on my own children.

I realised that the absolute key to being a successful parent was to focus on relationship and connection.

Deep, authentic connection is the only way to truly influence your child over time.

I WANT TO SHARE MY SECRET SAUCE WITH YOU
I have done endless reading and research for you.

My new online, self-study ‘Parenting Matters: Raising a Child to Thrive’ course is a combination of everything that I learnt on my journey as a school teacher, raising four children of my own and supporting tens of thousands of parents around the world.

I have witnessed time and again how practical positive parenting tools have the power to transform family life and enable a child to thrive.

For the next few days, I am offering this course at a 50% discount.
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When I was around 5 years old, like many little girls, when anyone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I would say “A mummy and a teacher”.

That ambition never changed.

By the age of 21, I was a newly qualified teacher. Standing in the playground on the very first day with my first class of 30 pupils felt both exhilarating and terrifying.

As I got into the swing of things, I literally had my pupils eating out of the palm of my hand.

…………A few weeks into my second term, a new pupil arrived.

His behaviour was extremely challenging and disrupted almost every lesson. I suddenly felt so naïve and lost all my confidence. I actually understood very little about children’s behaviour.

One Sunday, I walked into my local Waterstones and cast my eye over the parenting section, where I came across a book called:

‘How to talk so kids will listen and listen so kids will talk’

I started to share with parents the techniques I was using in the classroom, so they could reinforce them at home and learn how to get the best out of their children.

The most important place to start, to enable children to be able to learn anything, was to work on their mindset, attitude, social and emotional wellbeing. That is when my focus on teaching academics shifted.

It didn’t take me too long to realise that no matter how hard I worked or what I did in the classroom, most of the learning happens at home as: "Parents are a child's first and most important teacher"

I thought I would be so sorted when it came to having children of my own (more on that to come).

Almost 30 years later, I am still teaching those same techniques to parents all over the world, collating all my learning and experience and wrapping it up in a tangible, practical way to help parents raise children that thrive.

Look out next week for an exciting announcement.

Exciting few days filming for a corporate ‘Mental Health Awareness’ Training project that’s being rolled out across Europe and translated into 9 languages.
Hoping this content will really help our audience gain a deeper understanding of mental health.

So excited to be part of this panel discussion about:
Parenting in a pandemic!
Home-schooling more Miss Hannigan than Mary Poppins?
More walks and talks and quality time or just too much screentime?!
How has living La Vida Lockdown affected our children and young people?
21 May 11am TICKETS FREE

A Life More Extraordinary - The Kids are alright aren't they? A Life More Extraordinary - The Kids are alright aren't they?