Kids might be gay, lesbian, bi, trans or queer – but how do kids figure out what these feelings are? Mercedes Killeen, an award-winning author and social media marketer, talks to us about her struggles with coming out as queer and mental illness, with a view to informing parents on how they can support their children to a healthier and happier LGBTQ life.

Coding is no longer something that we opted in to learn in computer class.   Instead, today coding is the basic literacy skill of the 21^st century – it is the language that makes everything around us actually work.  The issue, however, is where and how do we start?   In this episode, we talk to David Dodge, CEO of CodaKid, and veteran game designer about the importance and the approaches we can take to help our kids learn coding.

Kids like to spend money! But are they thinking it through?  As a parent, we all want our kids to do well in life; however, without a working knowledge of money, this can be hard. Pam Liyanage created MoneyPrep because as a mother of 4 she knew it mattered and wanted kids to benefit from learning about the universal language of money! In this episode, we talk to Pam about how we can prepare our kids to have a constructive relationship with money.

When people make you question your beliefs, decisions, or preferences in a way that causes shame, it is demoralizing. In this episode, we talk to Janette about her feelings on being judged, dealing with rejection, and how she channelled those negative experiences to make her a stronger person and a better mother.

If you have teens, you’ve probably seen anger, sadness, happiness, and other emotions. Getting to know our emotions better allows us to identify what we feel. Emotional awareness helps us create better relationships and recover faster. In this episode, we talk to Megan Saxelby. She discusses how teens can become more emotionally intelligent and aware. Megan is a career educator specializing in emotional intelligence, prosocial critical thinking, and dignity. 

Parents choose to homeschool their children for various reasons.  Usually, because they can give their child a better education than the local school can, integrate teachings on religion or there is some other reason that their child may not be able to attend school.

In this episode, we talk to Krystin Godfrey about the benefits and challenges of homeschooling.   Krystin is the owner and creator of Growing Up Godfrey — a family lifestyle blog.  She is also the mom and homeschool teacher of 4 children.

Over the past 20 years since the massacre at Columbine High School, there are more than 248,000 children at 258 schools that have experienced these unspeakable acts of violence, according to a Washington Post database.  Back in the 1950s, students did “duck and cover” drills in anticipation of a nuclear bomb. Today, students in K-12 classrooms do regular school lockdown drills.  Tizzie Nuss, of The Spark Project, talks about what schools can do to protect children and her unique bullet-proof shield that is a school folder.

As a parent, you want your kids to be confident and resilient with high self-esteem and ambition to achieve great things in life. People with Growth Mindsets understand the importance of persistence and realize that changing the way you think can help change the way you learn. This is not an easy task, and in this episode we talk to Alexandra Eidens about what it takes to create this growth mindset.

In this episode, Allison discusses the importance of developing a love for reading early and provides us with easy-to-implement tips to create a literate environment and build your child’s early reading and writing skills.  Allison McDonald is a teacher, founder of No Time for Flash Cards, and the co-author of the book Raising a Rock-Star Reader for parents and a subsequent book as a resource for teachers to help develop young readers.

In 2012, Sara Olsher, left her marriage with an 18-month old and was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017.   Life is not always happy times.   Every family has their challenges and struggles.

When we’re facing the worst times in our lives, it’s hard to know what and how to tell our kids.   In this episode, Sara provides us with strategies on how to talk to your kids about difficult situations like death, divorce, cancer.    Sara is the founder of Might & Bright, and author of six children’s books and a speaker.

Every parent has been there before – you need to find a babysitter for date night, or you wake up one morning to discover your child is too sick for school or daycare.   You call around to find someone to watch the kids but strikeout.  Many parents find themselves unable to secure their regular sitters, due to short notice and other commitments. Liz Oertle is the CEO and Founder of Nanno, an app that provides parents with an easier way to find safe childcare with short notice, so parents can get comfortable and confident in who they leave their children with.

Children can face significant childhood adversity: the loss of a parent through death or divorce, domestic violence, an alcoholic parent, sexual abuse, and bullying.  Meg Jay, in her book Supernormal, points out that these people are not abnormal, but beyond normal and extraordinary.  In this episode, we talk about the resourcefulness kids develop when they’re surrounded by chaos and trauma.  Meg Jay, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist, an Associate Professor of Human Development and the author of the books “Supernormal” and “The Defining Decade”.

Any current education system must continually adapt and change to keep pace with the needs of the future. For large schools with a “one-size-fits-all” curriculum, this change can be a struggle.  Micro Schools provide flexibility in terms of learning environments, schedules and curriculum and might do a better job teaching your children 21st century skills. In this episode we talk to Chris Bennett about the benefits and challenges of micro schools for your children.  Chris Bennett is a co-founder and the CEO of Wonderschool, a network of early childhood programs or micro schools.

In this episode, we talk about the positive and negative impacts of COVID on your children’s mental health.  Dr. Ashley Miller talks about practical tips for you to nurture positive growth and learning in your children during this time.   She provides ways for you to understand your kids’ behaviour and feelings, validate them, and support your children, so everyone feels better.

Dr. Ashley Miller is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the BC Children’s Hospital, speaker, award-winning educator and co-author of the book “What to Say to Kids When Nothing Seems to Work”

Your Tweens and Teens face many challenges – figuring out who they are, more school work, peer pressures, social media, romantic interests and changing bodies.   In this episode, Michelle provides invaluable advise on how you as a parent, can help them navigate their coming of age and steer clear of issues that shut them down.  Michelle Icard is a member of the TODAY Show parenting team and NBC News Learn. The author of Middle School Makeover and FOURTEEN TALKS BY AGE FOURTEEN, her work has been featured in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Time, and People.

Overparenting has the potential to ruin a child’s confidence and undermine their education.  Parents who rush to school to deliver forgotten assignments, challenge teachers on report cards, interfere in children’s friendships and on the playing field, might be depriving their kids of important life skills.

In this episode Jessica Lahey talks about how parents can step back from their instincts and embrace their children’s failure.   She provides advice for handling everyday school & social situations and how, by letting our children fail, we can set them up to succeed.

Leslie Josel, an ADHD-academic, parenting coach, award-winning author and a columnist for ADDtitude Magazine and recognized as a top 20 Time Management expert in the world.

Do your kids wait until the night before to do their homework?  Students don’t procrastinate because they are lazy, but instead due to deeper issues of fear and difficulty.   This can start a cycle of low self-confidence that sabotages success in school and life.

In this Episode Leslie Josel, author of “How to Do it Now Because it’s Not Going Away” dives into the deeper issues on why your child procrastinates and how you can help your kids overcome procrastination.

Melanie Levenberg is an author, teacher and expert in children’s fitness. In 2020 alone, over 1 million kids participated in PL3Y fitness programs that follow 3 rules: Be Positive. Be Fun. Be Yourself. Today, our ‘digitally distracted’ way of life creates a social disconnect, poor mental health, obesity and unhappiness. Basic movement skills, like jumping, running, skipping, throwing are difficult activities for some kids who don’t know how to move. This adds to issues of increased screen time and decreased outdoor free play.

In this episode, Melanie talks to us about teaching physical literacy in our children, which is a combination of motivation, confidence, and physical competence to be active.

Dawn Lopez is the owner of Cutefetti, an award-winning blog with over 300,000 members. Cutefetti provides practical resources that inspire families to celebrate life’s most important occasions.  In a pandemic year – your birthdays, thanksgiving and other occasions are very different. Who knew that large family get-togethers & group celebrations would be a risk to our health?

Online or physical – celebrations involve stresses of finding resources, coming up with ideas, figuring out online platforms, shopping, baking and gifting. In this episode, Dawn Lopez gives us ideas and time saving shortcuts for pandemic celebrations.

Monica Tanner is a relationship and intimacy expert. There are lots of ups and downs in a marriage and it feels too much.  A study at the U. of California found that after children, couples’ marital satisfaction declines & there is a gradual increase of conflict, negatively affecting kids. As children grow, there is a cumulative erosion of satisfaction.   Complicating this further are the demands of work & everyday life that leave you feeling guilty, unsupported by your spouse or resentful.

In this episode, we talk to Monica about how you can navigate these, work on your marriage, make it wonderful, feel better and make your children thrive.

Camille Walker is the founder of MyMommyStyle.com and host of the “Call me CEO” podcast, and a champion to help mothers find their passion and creativity, while balancing motherhood and being their own boss. Beth Berry, of MotherWhelmed says “Motherhood heavily engages some aspects of self, while leaving almost no room for the growth of other essential parts”.

In this episode, we talk to Camille about how she is helping mothers put their skills to work in harmony with motherhood, while feeling fulfilled and doing it on their own terms.

In this episode, we talk about the dangers of kids not getting enough sleep and what parents can do to help their children develop healthy sleep habits.  Lack of sleep has serious negative consequences for your overtired child including unhealthy weight gain, bad moods, accidents, trouble in school and bad judgement. If your kids don’t sleep, you as parents don’t sleep – and there are consequences to this also.

Copeland is a certified sleep consultant and the founder of SlumberFeed, a company she founded to help tired parents and kids figure out how to improve their sleep.

Teresa says: “as the holiday gift-giving season approaches, we often are filled with a sense of dread: How will we ever find the perfect gift for everyone on our list, the time to finish our shopping and the money to pay for all the stuff we need to buy?”  Her latest article “How to stop the exchange of useless holiday junk” was published recently and in this Episode. Teresa talks to us about holiday gift-giving and saving.

Teresa Mears has spent her career as a newspaper editor & writer for the Miami Herald and other publications including the LA Times, Boston Globe and The New York Times. Teresa is currently the CEO of LivingOnTheCheap.com – a network of hyperlocal websites across the USA that cover lifestyle, family and personal finance.

Social sites like Instagram, Facebook have negative effects, especially on young people’s mental health – negative body image, bullying, depression. However, there are also positive effects of social media – self-expression, community & emotional support.  Jessica is a bestselling author whose book Unfiltered: How To Be As Happy As You Look On Social Media was named #1 by Women’s Health on its list of self-love books & was in the official GRAMMY Awards Gift Bag.  In this Episode, Jessica talks about how to identify what makes you unhappy, how to navigate toxic relationships, and how to build a more positive life on social media.

JP Michel is the creator of the Challenge mindset and the founder of SparkPath, the company that helps kids answer the question “What do I want to be when I grow up?” A common answer parents get from their children to this question is “I don’t know.”. Now what.

In this episode, JP talks about how traditional career resources have failed young people by focusing on obsolete job titles. JP provides a better way for parents to help their kids understand themselves, what they enjoy, and figure out how to navigate the modern world of work, so our kids can have hope & confidence that the world needs them.

Diana Graber is the author of “Raising Humans in a Digital World”, a book about Helping Kids Build a Healthy Relationship with Technology. She is also the creator of the internationally recognized Cyber-Civics middle school program that is actively taught in schools across 47 US states and many other countries.

Today 1 in 3 children will use phones before they learn how to talk. Our average attention span is less than that of a gold-fish. Research tells us that a brain on games looks similar to a brain on drugs. In this episode, Diana’s provides guidance on how we can teach our kids to safely connect and collaborate with technology. Her Cyber Civics education reflects the true realities of what kids.

Julie is CEO of Wee School, and previously the founder of Baby Einstein, an infant products company sold to Disney, an Emmy-Award winning creator of children’s videos, and a New York Times best selling author of over 30 children’s books. Recognized by President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address, Julie has been featured in People, Oprah, Kiplingers, USA Today, The Today Show & The View.

In this episode, Julie talks about how we as parents are underserving our kids when it comes to education. She has devoted her life to educating children and shares her insights with us and provides a curriculum that can help parents better serve their children.

Carlee Krtolica is a stay at home mom, editor-in-chief and founder of Styled to Sparkle, a lifestyle blog for moms and parents. It is no secret that mothers working full-time always grapple with the guilt that they are not giving enough time to their children. Managing kids, taking care of the family and juggling responsibilities at home and at work creates lots of pressure. After working a 9 to 5 job, Carlee felt that her lifestyle did not suit her family ambitions, which led her to take more control of her life and find something she loves.

Carlee is an interior designer, loves DIY home decor, travelling, and wine. In this episode, Carlee shares with us her story, her journey to becoming a stay at home mom, a full-time blogger and family stresses.

My name is Jaison Dolvane. I am the host of this podcast, “Reaching Roots” and also the founder of WishSlate, which is a company I
founded to change the way we gift.

This is a short intro to who I am, my story, and why we are doing this Podcast.