Educating Differently Wired Kids with Debbie Reber

This episode is a conversation between 4 dads with kids @ Galileo. At Galileo, there are families from all around the world who have chosen to home educate their children for a number of reasons. For some, it’s to suit a nomadic lifestyle or to break the status quo. For others, they’re fed up with the traditional schooling system and want to do more for their children. Listen in as we share our unique family journeys on education and everything in between. This conversation took place originally on Clubhouse, and Galileo was kind to let me share it with you all.

Have you ever reacted strongly to something your kid has done, and then later regretted how you handled it? Does this happen way more often than you’d care to admit? Include me in that camp! My guest today Hunter Clarke-Fields had her own breakthrough moment. Years ago, she noticed her young toddler was becoming fearful from momma’s yelling, and she knew something needed to change. Now Hunter is a mindful mama mentor. She is the creator of the Mindful Parenting course, host of the Mindful Mama Podcast, and Best Selling Author of Raising Good Humans: A Mindful Guide to Breaking the Cycle of Reactive Parenting and Raising Kind, Confident Kids. Hunter’s non-judgmental, practical advice helps parents to bring more calm and peace into their daily lives. She has over twenty years of experience in meditation practices and has taught mindfulness to thousands worldwide. She is the mother of two active daughters, who challenge her every day to hone her craft!

Dr. Jeannine Jannot is an academic coach and the author of The Disintegrating Student: Struggling But Smart, Falling Apart, and How To Turn It Around. She has over 25 years of experience working with children, teens, and young adults in both public and private school settings. In 2014 she founded The Balanced Student, which offers customized academic coaching for middle school, high school and college students. (and parents) Jeannine has a master's degree in school psychology from The Ohio State University and a doctorate in child and developmental psychology from the University of Connecticut. Today we'll explore: - Disintegrating students (students who hit a wall and fall apart - academically and emotionally). - Most anything parenting tweens/teens/young adults - communication, how we help and hinder growth

Covid restrictions have put enormous pressure on a lot of kids. One research study reveals that depression and anxiety in youth has doubled compared to pre-pandemic levels. One in 4 adolescents globally are experiencing clinically elevated depression symptoms, while 1 in 5 youth are experiencing clinically elevated anxiety symptoms." What we have is a global mental health crisis in youth. My guest today, Dr. Karin Jakubowski sees this first-hand. She’s a school principal, and has worked in education for over 20 years. She sees kids struggle in school. Some have behavioral issues, some just can't 'do school' as we know it. Through years of practice, she’s unlocked ways to help kids break through these barriers. Dr. Jakubowski is a well-respected international influencer on helping kids live happier, healthier lives, navigating through their most challenging moments. Karin now works directly with moms through her Momnificent program, so mom’s can build stronger and more meaningful relationships with their kids, and be the support their kids need. And ultimately, as a parent, sleep better at night! Today we’ll explore what you can do as a parent to help your kids be mentally and emotionally strong, no matter what life throws at them.

I’m really excited for today’s show, which is especially for parents raising differently wired children - children with learning disabilities, ADHD, twice-exceptional, autism, sensory processing challenges, anxiety, giftedness and more. I didn’t realize that more than 20 percent of today’s children are in some way neurologically atypical. My guest today, Debbie Reber refers to this as “differently wired.” And because the world isn’t set up to accommodate their unique way of being, these exceptional kids and the parents raising them, struggle to navigate their journey. This is the situation Debbie found herself in as she raised her child Asher. And despite her attempts to get support, she discovered little out there that spoke to her situation. In 2016 Debbie created Tilt Parenting to help parents like her get the support they need. Since then, she’s given a TEDx talk and published the book Differently Wired: Raising an Exceptional Child in a Conventional World. Her podcast has over 3 million downloads. Educating differently wired kids - no better person on the planet to talk about this!

My guest today, Shelby Kretz has a dream - to create a world where everyone is accepted for who they are. For her, that means we investing in the next generation. Alongside other topics like maths, sciences and the arts, they also need awareness of social justice. Parents play an important role in this, but talking about social justice issues can be hard. How can we make topics interesting? We might not feel we have enough knowledge on a topic. So Shelby created a fun program to help parents. Little Justice Leaders is a monthly box filled with conversation starters, activities, and other goodies, you can make these tough conversations fun and interesting for your little ones. Her passion is working with kids - she’s spent more than a decade creating fun learning experiences for kids and families. Today we’ll dive into the world of social justice education for younger kids, and how parents can nurture little justice leaders in their own home.

Yann wasn’t an ideal student. He struggled with school, mostly getting bad grades. Not because he wasn't smart... he just wasn't motivated by what school had to offer. He did try university, because that is what his parents wanted him to do, and dropped out after the first year. Nothing seemed to fit, and he was determined not to settle... he would find a passion to put his time and energy into. His is a story of perseverance, of finding his own unique path. He discovered cryptocurrency at age 16, and over time, a passion that turned into a living. He now owns an e-sports team, has a Bitcoin mining facility and educates others on ways to invest in crypto. Kids these days have an incredible array of opportunities outside the traditional path of post secondary education. Are we as parents open to our kids taking an unconventional route? Today, we’ll get to know Yann’s story, from struggling student to a crypto kid on top of the world.

For as long as there has been compulsory schooling, students have asked, “Do I really have to go to school through 12th grade? Isn’t there some other way?” The conventional answer most parents respond with is, “No, there is no other way. You just have to make the best of it.” That was what they did, and they survived. That answer didn’t satisfy Kenneth Danford. In 1996, he left his public school teaching job to help students live, learn, and grow in a different environment. He co-founded what became North Star, an alternative to middle school and high school. It’s not a school itself. It’s a Self Directed Learning education center for Teens. They help teens create a life that is meaningful and relevant to them. This experience includes a customized academic plan, weekly meetings with a personal advisor, quarterly family meetings, plus a variety of classes, workshops and tutorials. And they have provided this support to hundreds of students over the past two decades. Most North Star teens go on to college afterwards. Now Kenneth is spreading the North Star model across the world through Liberated Learners, a network of learning centers. He’s also published a book Learning is Natural, School is Optional, which tells the story of North Star. Yes, there are viable and often superior alternatives to traditional school. Today we’ll dive into what North Star is all about to see if that approach is a better fit for you and your family.

I’m excited to have on the show today a guest who has dedicated much of his life to reforming government and education. He’s on a quest to bring America’s public education into the 21st century, and there is one solution he believes is key to making that happen. Charter schools have produced what some experts believe to be the most rapid academic improvement in American history—and created a reform model that now other cities are trying. Now for 10 years David Osborne was a senior partner of The Public Strategies Group, a consulting firm that helped public organizations improve their performance. He worked with governments large and small, from cities, counties, and school districts to states, federal agencies, and foreign governments. He lectured widely around the globe and has advised presidents, ministers, governors, mayors, city managers and many other public sector leaders. David is currently emeritus director of the K-12 education work of the Progressive Policy Institute, a Democratic think tank in Washington DC. He is also an author or co-author of six nonfiction books, including Reinventing America’s Schools: Creating a 21st Century School System. Our main topic for today is how to modernize public education. We’ll take an in-depth look at charter schools.

Victoria Ransom, founder & CEO of Prisma, her middle school alternative to the antiquated education system. But don't call Prisma a school - she prefers a Connected Learning Network that aims to bring joy to learning today, and prepare millions of kids to thrive in the world of tomorrow. She's a highly successful entrepreneur from New Zealand, most known for Wildfire Interactive, a social marketing SaaS company, sold to Google in 2012 for $450 million. Ransom was listed as one of Fortune's Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs as well as one of their 40 under 40 in 2012. In 2015, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum Now a mom, her mission has become far more personal. How can she prepare her child to thrive in a tumultuous, ever-changing world where we can’t even begin to imagine the careers that will exist? Today we take a deep dive into this modern education model called Prisma.