Tag: earnest family

Earnest Mom Approved: Our Favorite Podcasts for Little Ears

Earnest Mom Approved: Our Favorite Podcasts for Little Ears

by earnestmomblog ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

As a homeschool family who loves to read aloud together, we often are looking for some non-screen ways to find entertainment, ESPECIALLY when driving around on errands or traveling to the Great White North to visit family. Enter in PODCASTS! We have been enjoying podcasts for the last year or more, and we are excited to share our Earnest Favorites with you! NOTE: We love all of these the most, and are listed in no particular order!

Moment of Um – From Brains On! Universe

Moment of Um answers those questions that pop up out of nowhere. You know, the ones that make you squint a little and go ummmmmmm. This podcast offers a bite sized listen (usually 3-6 minutes) so for those quick trips in the car, The Moment of Um is perfect. Listen to one while you are waiting in the school drop off line or for the grocery pick up. Gets the kids giggling, learning and figuring some out of this world questions.

Nat Theo: Nature Lessons Rooted in the Bible – Hosted by Erin Lynum

Discover God’s wonderful creation rooted in the truth of his Word! Nat = Natural, Theo = Theology. Where kids dive into the study of Natural Theology—discovering God through nature! We love listening and learning along with real world science rooted in the Gospel, as a homeschool family this podcast has been a great resource. These episodes can be 20-30 minutes so we plan one or two for longer rides.

Culture Kids Productions

Inspired by Darren Hardy’s The Compound Effect, Culture Kids Productions believes that small, consistent actions can lead to extraordinary change. By introducing children to the wonders of global cultures in an engaging, heartfelt way; they plant the seeds of curiosity, empathy, and understanding that will grow into compassionate, collaborative individuals. We enjoy my sweet friend Kristen and her son Asher, as they explore countries, cultures and traditions, these episodes have been great when running around town, usually 15-25 minutes long. After the first few episodes my kiddos were begging to try bibimbap – we loved it!!

SMASH BOOM BEST from Brains On! Universe

Smash Boom Best is a debate show for kids and families from the makers of the award-winning podcast, Brains On! Every episode takes two cool things, smashes them together and lets you decide which is best. Our debaters use facts and passion to make their case — teaching listeners how to defend their own opinions along the way. We laugh sometimes to tears, then learn debate fallacies that weaken arguments, helping us defend our stance. This is an Earnest Family affair, we save these longer (usually 30 minutes) episodes for longer trips and we pause the episode numerous times to cast our votes for our favorites until the end. This podcast has been known to keep us in the driveway to finish the episodes (even keeps the teen engaged)!

Hey-O Stories of the Bible by Saddleback Kids

Hey-O Stories of the Bible podcast tells the stories from God’s special book, the Bible, accurately and in a way that is engaging to children of all ages. This one is super fun and fast, 2-5 minute episodes that are great when church is only 10 minutes away. Kids love it when we hear biblical accounts that match their bible lessons that day!

These are only our top 5, we have been exploring more and more, a few honourable mentions are: Who Smarted?, Forever Ago, Real Cool History for Kids, and Million Bazillion. If you are looking to shake up your podcast list, or just starting to listen to them with your kids – try one some of these, they are earnest approved and we know you will love them too!

Stay tuned as I share my top ten mom podcasts recommendations!

Love, Earnest Mom

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The Hands of a Parent

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The Hands of a Parent

Recently, I was walking with my 7-year-old, hand in hand.  As I was getting us from our parking spot to our destination I started to think about the action of our hands in parenting.  Our hands are essential in the process of raising children, from birth until they move out—they remain involved throughout our parenting journey.

Breaking it down into ages and development levels, our parenting approaches can be hands on or hand off if we choose.  From helping hands to cheering hands, let’s explore how we HAND-le parenting our little humans.

Helping Hands start from birth, your baby is born and right into your hands when they arrive.  When holding a baby, they are completely and beautifully dependent on us.  From holding bottles or breast, diapers or burp cloths, baby’s contact is holding hands all through those early formative months.  We stroke a cheek, wipe a bottom and lift to hold them heart to heart with us in comfort and love.  Cradling and holding are so intimate and build the parent-child deep connections in their growing brains.

The next stage is Hand Over Hand.  Baby begins to crawl and toddle, causing us to follow closely and help them to learn the safety and dangers of the world around them, keeping our hands over their hands.  Leading them directly by touch and our words we teach them as they explore their surroundings. 

The third stage is Holding Hands.  Just as I was earlier with my little guy, holding hands allows us to be side by side with our child.  We are holding to one hand, still guiding and leading but also allowing them to lead in small spurts as well.  We are still tethered to them hand in hand so when they misread safety signals, we are still there to stop to prevent danger but still a bit more freedom.  I love the image of side by side, next to one another, still intimate yet slightly more independent.

By the fourth stage we find ourselves with Guiding Hands.  We have led and shown over and over, creating neural pathways of routine, expectations and a life of relationships, working and playing.  As we guide our children, we gradually let go, and they may push us away a bit.  They will begin the stages of, “You do not have to walk me to the bus anymore, just watch from the porch,” or “Please do not hug me in front of my friends.”  We are quite hands off here, but we are close enough that when we may need to catch them, hold them or show them a safe way – we still can.

Parenting in the next stage is Waving Hands.  We are on the sidelines, allowing harmless mistakes where we can still scaffold and advise before leaving home.  We are coaching, up until now we have helped them develop an array of tools to use when facing life, but they are still in our home, so we can still come together and review and give help on an ongoing basis.  I always remind my children in the younger years, there is nothing they can do to make me love them less – nothing.  Building a foundation of trust knowing they can come to me with anything at all.  As we watch our children at this age, almost adult, we will get glimpses of the man or woman they are becoming and yet we can still offer tips and coaching as they grow – waving to remind them “I am here!”

The final stage is Cheering Hands.  Here our children are leaving home, finding their own path and growing their own family.  A parent’s role continues throughout their life, but during this period, they can observe and support from the sidelines – get ready to cheer!  Cheer them through post-secondary education or into careers, starting a family and becoming the man or woman they were called to be.  As a child, I remember my games, plays, and presentations at school, with two working parents, my grandparents were always in the audience – cheering me, they were also cheering my parents.  Celebration happens so much in adult milestones, graduations, job offers, big moves, showers, weddings, etc.  This is a time where parents get to celebrate and watch the hard work of those early blurry days pan out before their eyes.

Our hands play such an important role in parenting, and it is essential for children to rely on them. Whether it is the touch of a baby’s bitty fingers, holding hands while crossing a street, or applauding in support, our hands contribute significantly to our children’s development. In my indigenous culture, it is believed that every action has an impact for the next seven generations, which highlights the long-term role of parental actions – our hands.  You mama, you will be known by your 5-times-great-grandchild by what your hands do today.  How beautiful.

Every Child Matters. My Story.

Every Child Matters. My Story.

by earnestmomblog ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Warning. This article may trigger those who are victims of residential boarding schools in Canada and the US, and those who have been affected by all manners of abuse.

“For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them.” – Sir Thomas More, Utopia

I have written and rewritten this post over and over. Being a second and third generation of residential school survivors, as the news that broke from Kamloops, BC of the 215 children found in unmarked graves I was overcome with emotion. Grief, anger, sadness, shame and in some respect relief.

The news that Canada and the US had a horrific secret, that they took countless indigenous children forced from the arms into schools that beat them, cut their hair, degraded and verbally abused them, then ultimately sexually abusing them as well. The world was shocked, friends of mine reaching out and saying, “Is this true? We never knew.” The thing is, we knew. We knew all along.

Growing up in an Indigenous family and within the Indigenous communities of Windsor and Six Nations Ontario Canada, we knew. As a people who culturally share a verbal history, we were told of what happened to our family members, why our grandparents could no longer speak their language, why substance abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse and brokenness was prevalent. My father shared a story with us from his youth as we were children. He asked my great grandmother if she could teach him her language (Mohawk of Six Nations) and with tears streaming down her face she shook her head and said “I cannot make the words come from here (pointing to her head) to here (pointing to her mouth).” I can distinctly remember the first time my father shared this story with me, his eyes filled with tears as he remembered how broken his grandmother was. The truth is, they beat children who only knew their language (some as young as 3 or 4) until they spoke English. Heartbreaking.

I remember a story my mother shared of her father, who was in residential school until he was 16. He ran away, joined the US Army having lied and saying he was 18. His intent was to go to war and die, rather than return to residential school where he was abused beyond what my words can share. Let the fact that at 16, being killed in war was the better option, offer some perspective.

These children were then sent home, raised by abusers and not knowing any better themselves as they were “lucky” enough to some back home alive, and they in turn would raise broken generations. Today, our families, our people struggle to overcome this part of our history. Then these 215 beautiful souls cried out from the earth and gave a voice to what we have been carrying for generations.

I cannot speak for all children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren of residential school survivors, but I can speak from my own personal pain and experience. Intergenerational trauma has manifested in my family in the forms of verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse, alcohol and substance abuse, suicide and mental health issues and shame.

Heart in a bottle
High on a shelf
Fragile, but just out of reach
Cause you build a fortress
With the distance you keep
But when your heart aches
Doesn’t it cut deep?

You don’t have to suffer
Suffer in silence
You don’t have to suffer
Suffer in silence

Don’t you know that your
Heart can feel like an anchor
When you keep it all inside
No no, don’t suffer in silence

Withered in sadness
And hurting inside
But feeling afraid to impose
So you’re an island
But you don’t have to be
Cause if you’re inclined
You can talk to me

But you don’t have to suffer
Suffer in silence

– Susan Aglukark, Suffer in Silence

I remember sitting in the dark in the back of my parent’s car driving to Toronto and watching the headlights pass as I sang this song, Suffer in Silence, we all sang at the top of our lungs. This song echoed through my heart constantly. The burden that was the knowledge of knowing what happened to my family in those schools, the trauma that caused my stomach to flip when I had my first child and praised God that I did not have to face him being taken from me against my will and risk never seeing his round smiling face again. It welled up in me and grew into shame. The shame of the behaviors of my family, the shame from knowing their hurt. The shame from suffering in silence.

Every Child Matters brought light to the shame, and there was a relief that it was illuminated and cast out. The intergenerational shame of feeling like it was our fault, we were the savages and that is why it was kept out of the history books, the shame that anchored to me and pulled me down was released. I cannot fully explain why it is this way, but it is. It was a darkness that was tangible and visceral that was always there.

Today, as Every Child Matters, Orange Shirt Day (Canada) and Truth and Reconciliation (Canada) events will be held, I ache for the loss of generations but honor the voice they have given to this generational shame. It is only by sharing, given a voice to the broken, forgiveness and healing will we see true reconciliation.

What is Orange Shirt Day, Residential Schooling, Every Child Matters, and Truth and Reconciliation? See links below.

https://www.orangeshirtday.org/

https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/national-day-truth-reconciliation.html

https://boardingschoolhealing.org/education/us-indian-boarding-school-history/

https://www.nicwa.org/boarding-schools/