095 - What If? [3 of 4]

Today we're celebrating 100 episodes! Tune in to find out what's in store for you and your kiddos in 2018. Spoiler Alert: new opportunities and connections coming YOUR way!!!

Ever wondered if I have a fav episode? Fav guest or fav topic? Tune in to find out which episode of the podcast is my personal fav.

Do you have a fav episode of the Raising smART Kids 2.0 podcast? Find out if your favs made it into our top 17 of 17 based on the number of downloads per episode.

Hello and welcome back to the raising smart kid 2.0 podcast. I'm so glad you tuned in for today's episode because I feel it's probably one of the most important ones that we've done in our almost one hundred episodes before we get to that if I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you yet. My name is Yaşam Prax and I'm the host of raising smart kids 2.0 podcasts. More importantly, I'm a mom of two daughters a wife and have. Had the privilege working with thousands of students along with their parents. In my 17 years as a performing arts educator, I'm glad you tuned in today because you failed.

Now for some people, those two words can be completely devastating which is really unfortunate because it's through our failures that we learn more. Thomas Edison the inventor of the light bulb is said to have failed 1000 times. However, he didn't see those 1000 failures as failures. He says the fastest way to succeed is to double your failure rate.

So what are you going to fail at today?

What will you allow your kids to fail at today?

In our society failure definitely is seen as a negative quality.

But in my 17 years as a business owner and my 14 years as a mom and 20 years as an educator failure is something that you need to instill in our kids as a positive quality and water. My favorite things to think about when it comes to failure is a little clip in the movie. Meet the Robinsons where the main character is devastated because something he created doesn't work. Louis is distraught. Meanwhile, the family around him start hooting and hollering and they are getting out the confetti cannons and celebrating his failure because of what they know is that the more times you fail the closer you are. At achieving that success. Over on this show notes page 4 of this podcast I'll include that clip from Meet the Robinsons because it really accurately depicts how we need to be able to see failure.

When my oldest was in kindergarten she came home and she was so excited because she had earned an eraser or something so some small trinkets from her classroom teacher. When I inquired about how she had earned this coveted trinket she said, "Mommy I didn't make any mistakes on my schoolwork and there were no eraser marks so I got a prize!"

And I thought oh man if kids are taught to not make mistakes we're not allowed to make mistakes and those mistakes aren't celebrated as part of the learning process. Wow. Our kids are going to have a hard time dealing with things as they get older enough to go into the world on their own. So today I want you to think about this. I have one of my favorite quotes and it's by Walt Disney in this quote he talks about not spending too much time looking back. Or in other words not spending too much mental capacity thinking about what you might construe as a failure because each of those mistakes leads to the success and leads you to where you need to be.

So he says around here, however, we don't look back for very long. We keep moving forward opening new doors and doing new things. It has. We are curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. And for me personally and in my 17-year-old business that couldn't be more true. When I opened our doors 17 years ago I did so with wanting to share my love of dance with my community as I progressed through my business and my kids desired to learn something new.

My oldest wanted to learn the drums and then she wanted to learn karate so it was my responsibility as a mom and really as a creator to make those opportunities available for her. So rather than just teach dance we offered more opportunities for more families to come together and enjoy all of our programs under one roof. Saving them time and money and really the hassle of having to take multiple kids to multiple places around town at the same time. And now as we round out 2017 heading into 2018 we're opening new doors here at the academy and here on the podcast as well. We're going to dive with both feet into the deep end and introduce ways to equip kids to fund their own future.

Now what that looks like is we're going to be offering courses on wine for kids across the U.S. and maybe even the world for them to learn marketable skills such as this putting together a podcast helping somebody else put out a podcast. Creating websites making videos taking photos all things that kids can do right now no matter what their age no matter what anyone else thinks. Kids are so capable and we just need to get out of their way and let them explore those things that light them up let them explore those things where their inner creator comes out and is magnified because they are loving what they are doing. And to end this podcast I want to close with another of my favorite Disney quotes and this has to do with kids and their potential and their ability to create their own Brighter Futures which is what we're helping you do here at the podcast and at the academy in 2013.

And here is the quote,

"To the youngsters of today.The world is getting better there still is plenty of opportunity."

Yes.

And as we head into the future a future where 65 percent of the jobs today won't exist when our kids are adults we need to equip them with skills to create their own opportunities create their own brighter future and create ways for them to fund those dreams are you with me head over to Elco Arts Academy.

The interim Facebook page for the podcast and in 2018 we're going to roll out a new name to a new mission and a new way of connecting and impacting our kids in a bigger way. OK, my friends, I will catch you very soon. I wish you a very happy rest of your day. And here is to equipping kids to create their own brighter futures.

Cheers. Thanks for tuning in to the raising smart kids 2.0 podcast

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-X78sx6gPg&w=560&h=315

In this fourth and final episode in our "What If" series, we're dreaming about "What if your child could fund their own future."

During part 3 of this 3 part series, we're diving into "What if...you could choose your child's ideal educators?"

On part 2 of this 4 part series, we're projecting 10-20 years into the future. Your kiddo is all grown and independent. "What If...you could choose the traits and characteristics you wish your child to have? Let's dive in, shall we?

Welcome to part 1 of a 4 part series entitled, "What If Wednesdays." We'll chat and dream big about the experiences we want for our kids. Podcast Transcript: Welcome to the Raising SmART Kids podcast! I'm your host Yong Pratt and each week we'll explore ways in which the arts can help you raise a smarter kid. I'll be sharing ways the arts can propel your child's learning and interviewing top artists, educators and entrepreneurs. these guests will share why the arts are so very important to your child along with actionable ideas you can easily implement into your already busy schedules. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast here on iTunes and share us with a friend. For extra tips on raising smart kids head on over to artsmartparenting.com and click on the live tab. Hello and welcome back to the Raising SmART Kids 2.0 podcast! I'm so excited you're tuning in today. I wanted to share a four part series but I previously shared with my performing arts academy but I haven't shared with all of you podcast listeners and this four-part series was called 'What If Wednesdays' and it really let us as parents dive in to think about our kids and think about the experiences we want for them to have whether in school, outside of school or just in general. I wanted to make sure that I shared that here with you especially as we head into the holiday season, things get really really busy so I wanted 1. to keep these episodes really short and really bite-sized for you as we go into a very busy time of year and 2. because we're getting close to Thanksgiving. This is sort of a way for us to take some time and reflect and be grateful for our kids be grateful for who they are and to really be grateful for the people that we know they're going to be as they grow. So, over the next four weeks I will be sharing one little mini bite-sized pieces with you on our What If Wednesday series. If you have questions about any of the things we talked about on the What If series, you can head over to a different Facebook page, and as you may remember we are going to be presenting some amazing new changes in 2018 and one of the things we're going to do is to merge two of our Facebook pages. I currently have a Facebook page for my Performing Arts Academy and a separate one for the podcast. At the time, that made a ton of sense to be able to keep them separate. But because the information that we share on the podcast and they guests that we bring on, the information they're sharing is so, so good that I wanted to make sure that if you're part of the Academy, you get to enjoy the podcast as well. So, as we head into the last few weeks of 2017, we're going to start putting things over on another Facebook page which is currently called Elko Arts Academy. So if you're a local to me, that name will make sense because it's the location where I first opened up my studio 17 years ago. Ifyou're not local to me, no worries. The things we're going to be sharing on that page going into 2018 are relevant for parents of creators. And all kids are born creators-it's just a matter of nurturing that habit of creativity. nurturing and allowing time for creativity in your home and helping kids and equipping them with skills where they can literally create their own brighter futures. With that being said, here's episode number one of What If Wednesday. Cheers! Hey Academy families and future Academy families. I'm Yong Pratt and if I haven't met you yet, I am the founder and director of Academy of the Arts, the author of raising a superhero: how to unleash your child's eight super powers and propel learning through the Arts, and I'm the host of the weekly podcast Raising SmART Kids 2.0. well, it's t-minus two and a half weeks for most kids here in Elko and Spring Creek until school officially begins. Do you have a plan of your kids activities? Are you looking for activities to engage your child's body and their mind? Well, here at the academy we're starting a new weekly series called What If Wednesday and today I have some questions for you. What if you could envision the perfect activities for your child after school? what would they look like? What would your kids learn? Where would they be held? How often would your kids enjoy these activities? These are just a few of the questions I'm curious to know more about and you can just comment below this video and tell me more about what you're looking for. Here at the Academy, we believe that every student that walks through our doors has untapped super powers and together with you we've been put on this planet to help you unleash those super powers and find the right art form to do so if you have questions about classes or want to participate in our What If Wednesday series, I invite you to comment below and I would be happy to reach out to you to talk more about the types of activities that you're looking for for your kids. Over the past 16 years we've helped thousands of families just like yours unleash your kids' special superpowers and we use the arts as a vehicle to help teach kids confidence, instill leadership and teach them about serving their communities and using their talents to do so. Okay my friends, I am gonna hop off now but I want you to think about and comments below What If Wednesday. Today the question is What if you could envision your child's perfect after-school activities? what would they be? When would they meet? How often would they meet and what skills and life skills would you want for your child to learn throughout their experiences? comment below and I will connect with you here on Facebook or I'll give you a call personally. Cheers, my friends thanks for tuning into the Raising SmART Kids 2.0 podcast. We're counting down to episode number 100 and we need your help. Head over to Elko Arts Academy on Facebook and vote for your favorite episodes. We're going to count down listener favorites as well as my own personal favorites over these past 100 episodes. head over to Elko Arts Academy-our temporary page for the podcast before we unveil in 2018 our new name, our new mission, a brand new website, and the new direction for the podcast. Head over there and vote on your favorite podcast episodes. can you believe that by the end of 2017 we are going to hit 100 episodes? I have you to thank for that, so head over to Elko Arts Academy and let me know your favorite episodes. I'll catch you really soon on the podcast. Cheers!

Today on the podcast we're celebrating a first. We're doing our first Book Club and Book Review. We're chatting about something "spooky" for some parents - raising a teenage daughter. We're reviewing Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood by Lisa Damour, PhD.

We're just days away from Halloween and today on the podcast we're chatting about getting creative, getting playful, and having fun with your kiddos this Halloween.