Special Guest: Sue Atkins Each one of us, as a parent, teacher, coach or mentor wants to help raise and inspire kids who are happy, well-adjusted, confident and resilient. But, in today’s world, it’s not always easy! The messages we receive as parents and educators can get confusing and don’t always know the right thing to do. We hear; “make sure to encourage your child—but don’t give too much praise or it will backfire!” “Let your child fail—but balance it with pointing out strengths and successes—and for goodness sake don’t tie in achievement with self esteem!” “Give your child responsibilities—but don’t forget to allow them to have free time and play too!” So much to balance. So much to remember. And still, of course, we all have our bad days when we throw up our hands and wonder if we are getting any of it right. Who hasn’t been there? So to discuss and tease through how we can raise happy, confident, resilient kids- we have Sue Atkins on the show today

Special Guest: Carrie Goldman
Carrie Goldman has written for everything from The New York Times, CNN, Psychology Today, Huffington Post, and more. She has made appearances on NPR, BBC, MSNBC, CNN, along with countless other media outlets. Carrie writes one of the nation’s premier adoption blogs, Portrait of an Adoption, which has followers in more than 45 countries. Her acclaimed children’s chapter book, Jazzy’s Quest: Adopted and Amazing, came out in June of 2015, and the sequel, Jazzy’s Quest: What Matters Most, came out in November of 2016. In addition to her adoption expertise, she is also the award-winning author of Bullied: What Every Parent, Teacher, and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear (Harper Collins) which we discussed in a previous podcast episode. Bullied has received a National Parenting Publication Award and a Mom’s Choice Award, both at the gold medal level, for excellence in educational skills and tools. You can find more out about our fabulous guest, Carrie Goldman at CarrieGoldmanAuthor.com

Special Guest: Devorah Heitner
Devorah Heitner, PhD is the author of Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World and the founder of Raising Digital Natives. She passionately believes in the power of mentoring kids in creating a positive tech culture and she is delighted to be raising her own digital native.



Special Guest: Jill Castle
Jill Castle is a registered dietitian/nutritionist and a specialist in pediatric nutrition. She currently works as a private practitioner, online educator, consultant, and speaker. She is the author of Eat Like a Champion: Performance Nutrition for Your Young Athlete and co-author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School. She’s also the creator of The Nourished Child, a childhood nutrition blog and podcast, and The Kids Healthy Weight Project, an online course for parents. Jill is a national and international speaker, focused on topics including childhood nutrition, feeding, picky eating, youth sports nutrition, and childhood obesity. Jill is regularly quoted in popular print and online publications as a leading childhood nutrition expert and is a regular contributor to US News & World Report, USA Swimming and Bundoo.com. You can find out all about Jill Castle at JillCastle.com

Special Guest: Sage B. Hobbs
Sage Hobbs is a women’s empowerment coach, speaker, and author of the book, Naked Communication.  She’s known for her bold, insightful, and dynamic approach to communication, relationships, and personal growth. Sage works in both individual and group settings to create experiences of courage, self-expression, and freedom.  Sage supports her clients to unleash their voice, take action, and transform their status quo when they feel stuck, dissatisfied, or stagnant. Prior to creating her current work, Sage received her Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology and spent a decade working with teens and families to navigate the wild path of growing up.  She’s also a mom of two, a cancer survivor, a proud teacher’s wife, a “retired” school counselor, a world traveler, a living room dance party aficionado, and a book lover.

Special guest: Dawn Heubner, Ph.D

We all want our children to feel safe, secure and engaged in their lives. But when big, bad things happen in the world- from mass shootings to natural disasters to other tragedies detailed on the news and filtered through the adults at the restaurant, the neighbors on the street, the kids on the bus and friends at school- the world can feel a little less safe and secure for many of our children. How can we reserve our kids feelings of optimism, safety, security, strength and that inexplicable feeling that comes with a carefree childhood when scary things happen across the world, across the state or across the street? For this important topic, we turn a second time to past podcast guest, Dr. Dawn Huebner who you’ll remember from our discussion about worry and anxiety and how to help our kids when they worry too much—a great and helpful podcast episode that I urge you to listen to after this one.

Dr. Dawn Huebner is a Clinical Psychologist and Parent Coach specializing in the treatment of anxiety. She is the author of 9 books for children including the perennial best seller, What to Do When You Worry Too Much, and more recent, Outsmarting Worry. Dr. Huebner's newest book, coming out THIS WEEK called Something Bad Happened, provides support for children learning about big bad things happening the world. Dr. Huebner has been featured on news and information outlets including the TODAY Show, CNN, Parent's Magazine and more. She maintains a private practice in Exeter, NH.

Special Guest: George Couros
George Couros is a leading educator in the area of innovative leadership, teaching, and learning. He has worked with all levels of school, from K-12 as a teacher, technology facilitator, and school and district administrator, and is the author of the book, The Innovator’s Mindset; Empower Learning, Unleash Talent, and Lead a Culture of Creativity. He is a sought after speaker on the topic of innovative student learning and engagement and has worked with schools and organizations around the globe. George is also the creator of Connected Principals.com, an initiative that brings educators and leaders together from around the world to create powerful learning opportunities for students.  Although George is a leader in the area of innovation, his focus is always on the development of leadership and people and what is best for learners. His belief is that meaningful change happens when you first connect to people’s hearts. You can connect with George on his blog, The Principal of Change (georgecouros.ca) or through Twitter @gcouros.  

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Special Guest: Annie Fox

Annie Fox is an Award winning writer, app developer and Educator Focusing on Social-Emotional learning and character development. Annie aims to teach kids to be good people because we need more good people. We are all villagers, so it's up to us. Some of her books include: Teaching Kids to Be Good People, Too Stressed to Think?, the Middle School Confidential book and app series, and the Raymond and Sheila picture books series. Annie’s latest book, The Girls’ Q&A Book on Friendship, offers 8-12 year old girls (and their parents/teachers) 50 ways to fix a friendship without the DRAMA. And that topic, talking to girls about friendship, is what lands her on the show today and we couldn’t be more excited.

Girls and friendship. For some, this topic makes them smile and think of the most endearing, close, meaningful relationships of their lives. For others, it makes them sweat and feel a little sick. Maybe it’s a little bit of both!

Special Guest: Dr. Sue Cornbluth
This podcast provides tips, scripts, stories and steps to help parents and educators understand the unique challenges of children who feel different, cast aside or devalued because of experiences in their childhood. Sue Cornbluth talks about children who were in the foster care system or who were adopted and how many of these children can have challenged self esteem due to unanswered questions about their identity or internalized frustrations about their life circumstances. How can we help kids who are being fostered or who have been adopted (perhaps later in life), cultivate the high self esteem and self worth they deserve?