Teaching flexibility is a core concept in our Social Learning groups at The Carruth Center, as well as in the classrooms at The Parish School. When I’m teaching flexibility to our youngest learners, I’m as in-decisive as Texas weather. I’ll start by telling the kids that we’re going to play with blocks. The kids get excited and start brainstorming ideas. Then suddenly, I decide we’re going to play with Play-Doh. But gosh, the Play-Doh is too hard! So now, I want to go outside. When the kids catch on that I’ve lost my way and maybe gone a little nuts, they either laugh at my antics or they get frustrated with my inconsistent plans. And then, they’re introduced to my favorite word – the name of the 2020 game – Flexibility.

This one-hour virtual adult education session features Renee Attaway-Storer, a nationally-recognized speaker on Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking® methodology and founder of the Social Learning program at The Parish School. Renee explores resilience and discusses strategies for helping your children creatively problem-solve to achieve success in school and in life.

Every parent looks forward to the day their child can read fluently. Society leads us to believe that this is the pinnacle of a child’s early academic career. We’ve been told it indicates children will be more successful in their overall long-term education. However, research has found the opposite to be true. Read on to learn how early reading is correlated with success in elementary school, but doesn’t seem to lead directly to college enrollment or success.

As parents today, we all feel pressure from society to push our kids to learn letters and numbers as soon as they start talking. Read earlier, learn math, write clearly and memorize facts about science or other subjects...Interestingly, this push for academic success at earlier ages has not led to better results. Research emphasizes that rather than grades, social competence is one of two indicators of success in adult life (the other is grit).