Growing Nimble Families: Recent Episodes

Melitsa Avila

Raising school age kids

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Tools and ideas about moving from guided homework to independent homework with school-age kids. Homework demands change. As kids get older, there are new skills to master with homework. Examples like time management on a project, using software and overcoming problems during the process of work. If our kids dine out on their natural […]

The post 7 ways to support your child at school move towards independence appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Our guest today Dr Michele Borba talks about how to help our kids tap into empathy. We talk about social and emotional learning and its value both now in school and as adults, the empathy advantage, how to talk about empathy with school age kids and what’s the most important thing to know about […]

The post Dr Michele Borba on Empathy and how to succeed in an all about me world appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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How about a different run-up to the start of back to school time? With a little planning and a little sharing, there’s a better way to have a successful back to school season. As the school age kids are getting older, there’s a possibility that they can share in the back to school systems […]

The post 3 Ways To Make Sure Your Back To School Season Is Not Crazy appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Middle and secondary school kids have a lot of new things to handle. We’ve talked about managing projects and how to study in previous episodes. Today we’re talking with Jessica Lahey, author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can […]

The post Rethinking learning, motivation and grades for kids that are 11+ appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Jobs are disappearing and lots of new types of jobs appear all the time. The path towards school age kids future career and job ideas doesn’t have to be random. With the student ratio of students to career counselor in many schools being 491:1 it is really important that parents are involved in supporting the whole […]

The post How do you help support and gently direct your child in choosing a career path appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Anyone else experiencing a new normal with the kids? Things are different. There’s more of things happening that didn’t use to happen like arguments or talking back. You know it’s part of growing up but this doesn’t seem like the kids you know. Where has my child gone? This episode is all about how to […]

The post Getting on with the changing school age kid without losing your mind appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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As school age kids mature they bump up against a few truths. They are not perfect or the best. There are others who are better. They have to work harder at some things than others and it doesn’t seem fair that others find it easier. Feelings are hurt. They question themselves. They wonder, ‘I used […]

The post Awesome Emotionally Healthy Kids appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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This episode we are looking for the good in the stage we are in. We love to look back and remember fondly especially when times are tough in our current stage. If you’ve ever been stuck looking back and worrying about the future this is the episode for you to see how to move […]

The post Rituals for Parents appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Did you know there are six scientifically better ways to study and prepare for tests and quizzes that will help kids learn? As kids are starting back to school many are experiencing those words, ” Study for the test on Friday!” and coming home and reading through their work the night before ( morning of!) […]

The post How to completely change how school kids study for quizzes and tests appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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School age kids have a lot of big feelings. Dr Carla Naumburg from  Carla Naumburg shares mindfulness practices families can do that help develop skills of listening, paying attention and empathy. Mindfulness sets the stage for dealing with stress and managing big feelings.   Growing Nimble Families podcast encourages the celebration of school age […]

The post Mindfulness practices for families to have peaceful homes appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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May is the season of testing. With testing comes stress and anxiety. And that’s just the parents! Just kidding. Well not really. There’s a different tone in the house as each child in the family prepares for tests. Whether they are elementary or Primary kids who just go in and test or middle and secondary […]

The post Positive Phrases all kids should hear appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Project work can really test the limits of modern families. We all tackle projects differently and each child is no different. Do you have a cram it all in at the last minute, stay up late child? Do you have a start strong and get sidetracked with the colours and font child? Chances are […]

The post Kids and project work not a breeze? Try these appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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There are some big changes for RaisingPlayfulTots and Play-Activities. Tune in and hear what’s up!   Would welcome your feedback   WHAT TO DO NEXT: So you’ve listened to this episode – if you liked it and want to hear other ones – and I really think you will….you should do this right now: […]

The post Big changes appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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That gap between loving them in a protective cocoon and letting them experience the struggles and hardships of life is so hard for parents.  Even a butterfly has to leave that protective cocoon and fly. Parents are often told they are overprotective. It’s not good. Do different. There’s a lot of fear around what […]

The post How to protect without being overprotective appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Routines and Rhythms become more important as our lifestyles change. In the early years there were a lot individual milestones like walking, reading first words, blowing bubbles, staying and playing with something for longer and longer times. As we move on into the school years we need many more whole family systems. Systems where […]

The post Nurturing Whole Family Systems appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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We know about Early Childhood, Tweens and Teens but what is that time between Early Childhood and Tweens all about? We discuss that school aged time I call Midhood that starts at aged 5 and goes through to about 12. Today I want to talk about the importance of the school age years and […]

The post Building Family Culture during the school age years appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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If you’ve not seen,Raising a digital kid without having been one by Galit Breen of theselittlewaves.net you are missing out. It’s a really good TED talk. Galit is our guest today and is author of the book Kindness Wins. In an age of grit, perseverance and growth mindset some of the other skills […]

The post Start with teaching kindness online with Galit Breen appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Today we’re continuing the theme of Life Skills but not the practical hands on life skills of mowing the lawn or following a system like learning how to use a washing machine. We’re going to look at 10 social life skills. Social life skills are trickier to pin down. Just like life skills over time […]

The post Tackling Ten Tricky Social Life Skills appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Tony and Alisa DiLorenzo, who are best selling authors and hosts of the world’s #1 Marriage Podcast, One extraordinary marriage.  share their tips on maintaining relationships, marriage and the art of balancing kids, the spouse and not forgetting yourself. We get into adult conversation about relationships so maybe this is an episode for headphones […]

The post How to thrive more with your partner and there’s kids about appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Part two of creating a family meal ritual that lasts for families. Listen to part one Now we’re at the table and beginning to eat. Listen in to hear ideas on how to create your family meal ritual full of memories and connection that grows with you from high chair to teens. […]

The post Developing your family meal ritual appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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New choices to make with the new school year for everyone. What will happen in your family this year? It’s really easy to just fall into a routine with back to school but our family is different each and every year. We made different priorities depending on our stage, where we live and what’s […]

The post How to prepare for the school year as a parent appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Families should gather together over a meal. Yeah yeah yeah! We’ve heard that before. Tried it before and it didn’t really work out. This week we we focus less on the why and more on the how we create a meal ritual so that family times run smoothly. ( For the family and us!) Leave […]

The post Start your family meal ritual appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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We only know what we know. This episode is a little different, perhaps in mindset as different education systems are shared. But the theme is simple parenting. We want all our children to make progress and achieve. The common measurement for achievement is usually solely high attainment or grades. The higher the grade […]

The post Progress as a better measure for children appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Do you get stuck in the loop of nag, complain, wait, nag, complain and wait? We know that learning from our mistakes and failures makes us a better person but it is so so hard to see our children heading for a fall or when failure is just visible.  Parents usual are quick to […]

The post When they make mistakes and fail-practical ways to help parents and children learn how to navigate this undertalked about topic during childhood appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Character Conversation Cards are available in two formats: task cards (pdf) and an audio file. The audio file is a downloadable .mp3 file of the 25 conversation task cards read with a special effect to signal when to stop the audio to answer questions. This set is all about developing habits,goal setting, unity and cooperation and is […]

The post Developing habits, Goal setting, Unity and cooperation Character Conversation Audio appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Summer is coming! What memories do you have of childhood? Often they are around summer. If you want to create lasting memories why not try some simple family traditions. Every season is a good opportunity to have special traditions just for that season. Summer is no different. There are lots of traditions to choose from […]

The post Simple Summer Traditions for Families appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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There are so many things that we are juggling with parenting. If this is you then this episode might be just what you’re looking for because if we’re so busy trying to keep all the plates spinning we may not realize that we don’t actually need all the plates spinning. There might be […]

The post Three things we don’t rotate in our parenting but maybe we should appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Who doesn’t love sleep? When I cut my sleep time I know what will happen and often we assume the same thing will happen to our children. We’ll just be a little blurry and we just have to get through it! Brain science is telling us differently now. Children with sleep loss have very […]

The post Why losing sleep is a big deal for kids appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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Screens are a magnet in some homes and not in others. Lisa Weiner from Handmade Parenting in this episode talks about what types of things children can be doing if they are not on screens. We look at other screen time woes in this interview and peek into a screen free home and ask […]

The post Solving Screen time woes and suggestions appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.

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If I want to have quality verbal interactions, what are 5 ways that I can improve that? The famous Hart/Risley study showed us the massive ( 30 million) word gap that happens between a low income family and other families in a very specific age group. Further down I have lots of resources to […]

The post 5 easy ways to close the “Word Gap” and have quality verbal interactions appeared first on Growing Nimble Families.