May the sun shine today on all your loved ones and a gentle breeze whisper words of inspiration that set your hearts a blaze.
The doors open today for Grow a Generation, an organization dedicated to giving parents the tools to prepare their kids for the 21st century. My name is Ellen Cavanaugh. I am the founder of Grow a Generation, a parent, a writer, a philosopher and mathematician, with almost 30 years experience working with families, youth and character formation.
Come and subscribe to my blog (click subscribe in the upper right corner). I will send you a weekly bouquet of 300 or so words of insight, resources, heroes, and a weekly question to ask the significant young people in your life. Reply to join the conversation and share your wisdom that together we grow a garden to refresh and feed all those who share our goals.
This week’s hero: You!!! You are the one who knows your child best: their gifts, their dreams, their strengths, and yes, their weaknesses. You spend beaucoup dollars on opportunities and camps, sports and technology; thousands of hours as chauffeur, coach, personal assistant, and audience; countless hours worrying about them or dreaming about their possible futures. You carefully cultivate seeds of potential within them. You are my heroes!
This week’s question to ask your favorite young person: “Who is your favorite hero? Name three adjectives that describe them.” Share with them your favorite hero and three descriptive words or phrases that describe your hero. Let me know in the blog post what you learned that surprised you.
The week’s free resource: http://www.ted.com/talks is a website that posts the nearly 1000 of the best talks and performances from the Technology, Entertainment, and Design international conferences. Sit down with a child or teen you love and engage in a dueling YouTube hour, showing them your favorite TED Talks and having them show you their favorite YouTube videos. My favorite is a celebration of the 21st century skill of resilience, Sarah Kay’s talk “If I should have a daughter…” So subscribe to this blog, and reply with your favorite. I can’t wait to hear from you.
