Parent Podcast
Listen to The Parent Project Podcast Series
In the Spring of 2022, The Circle Education invited an assortment of parents and grandparents to come together to share their unique experiences of parenthood. Every week, we delved into themes to explore how we each have navigated the challenges and successes that arise on this journey. At The Circle Education, we believe that by sitting together and listening to one another, we are supporting growth and a deeper connection to ourselves in our homes and within our communities.
Episode 1:Â Building Relationships with our Children
What does it look and feel like to be truly connected with our children? We dive into our personal successes and challenges building connection within our families. Listen to learn more about the tools we can use to foster deeper relationships.
Meet the Parents
Kate Nash
I am Kate Nash and I have been working for the The Circle Education since 2010. It means that I work with kids as young as kindergarten, all the way up to high school, and adults as well. Building healthy relationships is the goal of my work. I have a husband who I have been with for 18 years and we have three teenagers. We live very rustically on raw land, which affects how I parent because we live in quite close quarters or outdoors. So that has really affected the way we parent and the dynamics of our family.
Laura Sol
My name is Laura. I have three kids, 13, 9, and 7. My eldest is in French immersion, and the other two are in an alternative program where they get to learn in all sorts of ways, from building shelters in the forest to writing their own play. My partner and I live in a yurt on a farm. I am the coordinator for a farm where we grow food for the food bank. I also have a small flower farm. We're a super-active family that loves to be outside and have adventures.
Hannah Munneke
I'm Hannah, a mother of three teenagers. I grew up on Salt Spring Island and I co-parent with my husband who grew up on the island of Grenada in the Caribbean. We have very different and yet similar upbringings, and kind of different and yet similar approaches to parenting. For the last 16 years, we lived on land with my dad and brother, where there's been a lot of children. And so, we've sort of co parented with a lot of other parents and our children have grown up around a lot of family, ours and other families.
Daniel Squizato
I'm Daniel, I am a teacher, and I previously worked with The Circle Education as an in-class facilitator. I've seen a lot of kids as a teacher, but having one in my own household is a whole other experience. I am the father of a two-year-old who I co-parent with my wife and I am grateful to say that we and I are very much on the same page in terms of a lot of the fundamentals. It's not something that we naturally slipped into, because the family dynamics that we grew up in are very different from one another.
Sue Earl
I'm Sue and I have two adult kids and two grandkids. We have a farm and both my kids work on the farm with me. My daughter also lives on the farm with her husband, so I'm quite close to them and I feel really lucky about that. I became a single mom when my kids were 8 and 11. The kids never had to move out of the house as my ex-husband and I took turns living there with the kids. It was pretty challenging because, and I cried every day for two years, but eventually, it got better.
Sue Baily
Sue moved to Salt Spring from Cornwall in the UK in 2009. She has one daughter, and two young grandsons, aged 7 and 9. She has an eclectic background. She worked in theatre, in London Zoo, lived on a boat for a few years whilst at university, worked previously as a residential social worker in a children’s home, and periodically fostered a friend’s son. She has experience as a single mother. Having just retired from 13 years volunteering and board work with Salt Spring Therapeutic Riding Association, Sue is enjoying exploring another stage of life, being busy with her varied interests, and her grandchildren.
MaryAnne Bird
While many aspects of her life have been interesting, enjoyable and demanding, the one that has been the most challenging, joyful and loving is her role as a mother of three and a grandmother of seven. It is an always an evolving experience! Over several decades, Maryann has worked as a community organizer, with immigrant women and their children and as an advocate for child care policy and services. She has also been active as a non-profit facilitator and volunteer.
Anne Millerd
My name is Anne Millerd. My husband John and I have three kids, who are in their late 30's and early 40's. Our kids are very different from each other which was both fabulous and challenging when they were growing up. John and I did not want to parent the same way we were raised. Society had changed, and we saw things differently from our parents. Now we have six wonderful grandchildren, also incredibly diverse. Our adult children are changing parenting again for the better, and we continue to learn from them and from our grandchildren.
Natasha Kong
My name is Natasha Kong and I am a co-parent with my husband. We have a 12-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son. Our son has a designation as well as an IEP. Although our daughter hasn't had a psych ed assessment, she also shows signs of neurodiversity, especially in the area of executive functioning. Our kids are of mixed-race ancestry which is different navigating in a small rural community versus my experience of living in and growing up in a larger urban center. For the past year, I have sat on the school district anti-racism committee and the district JEDDI committee.
Eland Bronstein
My name is Eland Bronstein, I live on Salt Spring Island and I spend my time running our family farm on Salt Spring Island. I also work for The Circle Education as a facilitator for the Pass It on Boys program. Pass It on Boys program takes place on a farm where we do many projects and encourage the youth to connect and share experiences. My wife and I have two kids, and parenting is a wonderful experience. We’re learning a lot along the way.
Katie Waters
Katie is a queer mom of 4 kids ages 8-14 years. She has lived on Salt Spring Island since 2007.
Janine Fernandes-Hayden
I'm Janine. I have four kids, aged 16, 14, 12 and 11. To give you a sense of reality, when they were babies, I had four kids under six. I parent with my husband and I'm often really grateful that we share similar philosophies and we parent really well together. It's a crazy ride, just always learning and figuring out who needs what and, and seeing how different they all are. My kids are biracial, part East Indian and part Scottish/Irish/English and I raise them Catholic, so that are other layers for me that I negotiate in.
Isa
My name is Isabelle, mother of two boys (7 & 11). My partner and I are celebrating 10 years of partnership in September. It's a great time to reflect on the last 10 years together and our life as parents. We have watched each other mature & evolve and have continued to learn how to work together for the greater good of the family. We have faced some challenges with decision making, as one of our families is in Edmonton and the other in Australia. Above all we are hopeful for all children and the harmonious future we can help create.
Zoe Fox
My name is Zoë Fox, and I am a mother to a 12-year-old and 10-year-old and co-parent with their father and my partner. My partner also has three children, who are 16, 12 and 9. Four out of five of our children are neurodivergent so I’ve immersed myself in learning about what that means for them and advocating for them when needed. I homeschool one of my children and work from home with children as a support worker.
Episode 2: Creating Agreements for Healthy Relationships
How can we use agreements as a tool to navigate the needs and desires of everyone in the family? We discuss the agreements we build to foster responsibility and care amongst all members and share the tools we use to develop them. Listen to learn how agreements differ from rules and how you can create them within your family.
Episode 4:Â Strengthening the Empathy Muscle
How do you role model empathy with your kids? We dive into our personal experiences of practicing and fostering empathy in our families. Listen to hear how you can help your children build their empathy muscle.
Episode 6: Communication to Connect
What does positive communication look like in your home? We share our communication challenges and successes with our kids, what it looks like when it works, and when it doesn’t. Listen to gain insights into how to overcome communication barriers to improve relationships within your family.
Episode 8: Consent within the Family
How do we, as parents, navigate consent within our families? We speak of the fine line between holding up boundaries, expectations and responsibilities within the family, while offering our kids the opportunities to practice consent. Listen to gain insight into ways that you can bring the language of consent into your family life.
Episode 3:Â Cultivating Respect within the Family
How can we learn to respect each other within family? We dive into our personal successes and challenges with creating respectful home environments. Learn tools to build your home as the ideal place for your children to learn respect for all people.
Episode 5:Â Mindful Families
How do we practice mindfulness in the day-to-day of our busy family lives? We talk about our personal experiences of practicing and fostering mindfulness in our kids. Find out how we can foster more opportunities to pause and be in the present moment.
Episode 7: The Importance of Boundaries
Setting boundaries is so difficult but so important! We share how boundaries can bring our families closer. Listen to parents share how setting healthy boundaries within the family can lead to deeper relationships.
Episode 9: Nurturing Gratitude in Our Families
How can gratitude be used as a tool to connect our families? We share why we use gratitude as a practice to foster connection, especially in the face of challenges. Listen to find out more about using gratitude as a way of validating and strengthening the bonds within your family.
Enjoy now on either Spotify or Apple Podcast.