Parenting is an art form, a science, and a marathon all rolled into one – and none of us are handed a manual at the start. But what if you had a guide, someone who could shine a light on the path ahead? Enter DJ Stutz, an early childhood specialist who joins us with a treasure trove of insights. Together, we unravel the intricacies of instilling core values, managing tantrums, and nurturing the unique brilliance of children with special needs. From the heartwarming to the practical, our dialogue traverses the full landscape of raising kids, ensuring you walk away with strategies to fortify your family dynamic.
Every parent knows that the journey through childhood isn't without its hiccups and hurdles. We tackle these head-on, discussing how to tailor your parenting style to different ages, set the scene for educational adventures even in the aisles of a supermarket, and foster effective communication that leads to resilient sibling relationships. The stories we share, drawn from inner-city classrooms to personal family anecdotes, serve as a compass to navigate the challenges we all face – and prove that a calm and loving approach can transform the toughest moments into opportunities for growth.
In the heart of our homes, it's the connections we build that define our family's story. This episode doesn't just offer advice; it's an invitation to rethink how we relate to our children, from infancy to adulthood. With DJ's 'Imperfect Heroes - Insights into Parenting' podcast and resources, we delve into virtues like patience and understanding, while our live social media chats provide a real-time lifeline for parents seeking community and support. If you're ready to embrace the imperfect journey of parenting with open arms and a heart full of curiosity, this conversation is for you. Join us, and let's continue to learn and grow, together.
Parenting is an art form, a science, and a marathon all rolled into one – and none of us are handed a manual at the start. But what if you had a guide, someone who could shine a light on the path ahead? Enter DJ Stutz, an early childhood specialist who joins us with a treasure trove of insights. Together, we unravel the intricacies of instilling core values, managing tantrums, and nurturing the unique brilliance of children with special needs. From the heartwarming to the practical, our dialogue traverses the full landscape of raising kids, ensuring you walk away with strategies to fortify your family dynamic.
Every parent knows that the journey through childhood isn't without its hiccups and hurdles. We tackle these head-on, discussing how to tailor your parenting style to different ages, set the scene for educational adventures even in the aisles of a supermarket, and foster effective communication that leads to resilient sibling relationships. The stories we share, drawn from inner-city classrooms to personal family anecdotes, serve as a compass to navigate the challenges we all face – and prove that a calm and loving approach can transform the toughest moments into opportunities for growth.
In the heart of our homes, it's the connections we build that define our family's story. This episode doesn't just offer advice; it's an invitation to rethink how we relate to our children, from infancy to adulthood. With DJ's 'Imperfect Heroes - Insights into Parenting' podcast and resources, we delve into virtues like patience and understanding, while our live social media chats provide a real-time lifeline for parents seeking community and support. If you're ready to embrace the imperfect journey of parenting with open arms and a heart full of curiosity, this conversation is for you. Join us, and let's continue to learn and grow, together.
Welcome to the SJ Child Show, where a little bit of knowledge can turn fear into understanding. Enjoy the show. Hi, thank you for joining the SG Child show today. I'm really excited we have our DJ and SJ show today, so yay. Thank you so much for being here today. I'm really looking forward to our conversation. I know it will be great because we both are very passionate about parenting, about helping to guide parents from, I'm sure, all of the experiences you've learned from and that certainly from all the conversations and experience I've learned from as well. And it's when we can come together like this and collaborate and really, like you know, brainstorm, we can really create help and change for families. And so, without further ado, please introduce yourself. Let us know a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:Well, sure? So my name is DJ Stutz and I am a retired kindergarten teacher. I'm an early childhood specialist and I coach parents in how to identify the values and the outlooks that they want their kids to have, and we talk about implementing those and embedding those early on. So I concentrate on parents with kids from birth to age eight, and we just have a blast. I do some teacher mentoring as well, and I love doing that still.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. I heard DJ in the background while I muted really quickly. Dj. We're on a podcast, sir DJ. He says what are you doing in there? Dj's autistic, so he's home with mom all day. Yeah, we have different experiences than with our other kiddos, so, but thank you so much for being here today, and just as exciting as any other child.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. In fact, he was my first biological child. I do have a stepdaughter who helped me start my journey of parenting and learn a lot from that journey, but he is profoundly gifted. He was reading at one and writing at two Holy smokes, and now is 14. He has been homeschooled most of the time and self-taught in numerous things, including the 133 languages that he studies. Wow, really.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Someone I, you know, never thought I would know someone like him in my life and I'm his mom. Yeah, Isn't that exciting. Yeah, yeah, but, um, so I apologize if he does come in, but we call it a teaching moment and let people experience what autism might be like on a daily basis. Right, absolutely, um, but with, you know, with that in mind, for just all parents in general, understanding and learning how to maybe change your mindset from you know, resources, from principles that might have been embedded or taught or learned, that might not be what is needed in today's raising of children. How did that start for you, in kind of your beginning of your career, and what did you see? That importance for parents, you know, what did they need?
Speaker 2:Sure, you know, actually, when I very first got started, I was planning on teaching high school. I'm really good at English and history. I had connections with the kids, it was easy. But as I got going and doing some student teaching and stuff, I just saw that there were so many holes that the high school kids had as far as you know, just even work, ethic and manners. And although we got along great, you know, and we had a lot of fun, and although we got along great, you know, and we had a lot of fun, but I just saw some things that kids could really benefit from, and so I switched to early childhood and started teaching there, and most of my career I taught for about 20 years was in inner city low income, highly affected neighborhoods, and so I would have kids at kindergarten that came in and throwing their gang signs and, you know, dads coming in with their face tattoos and and a lot of just. These kids struggled, and so they struggled with how to manage themselves properly.
Speaker 2:We had to keep track of pencils a few years, because I had kids that would stab other children with pencils if they didn't get what they wanted fast enough. And so I started having parents come to me and saying why is you know Johnny in, you know, doing this behavior, or why is he acting? Why is he always hitting people and why is he always? And so I, that's kind of how I started with. Even parent coaching was just because I had parents coming to me and asking these questions and so I would tell them. First off, I said we can have that conversation, but it's going to take. If you want to switch it around, there's some things that you're going to need to do That'll. That'll mean changes for you as well.
Speaker 2:And I had some that were like, oh, yeah, we're good. And then I had others that were like, yes, talk, we're good. And then I had others that were like, yes, talk to me more, you know, I want to know more. Because they saw that I loved their kids, they saw that I was able to reach their kids and manage some of these behaviors, and you know, and so it kind of went from there. And so then I started getting even more education and certifications and all that stuff in how to what are the most important things for children to learn early on that are going to most benefit them as they get older. And so, yeah, we just started working on on those things and, uh, now that I'm retired from teaching, then um, and I started the podcast actually a year before I retired, but um, so now we're just moving along with with that. You know, 140 episodes in.
Speaker 1:Oh, fantastic Congratulations. It's so nice to have this medium to be able to share resources and information for families and it's easy access for them. You know podcasts are accessible in so many places these days. What do you think? Going back to what you were just saying, what might be maybe like three steps that you tell parents to start with when they want to change the journey that they're on with their child?
Speaker 2:It starts with them that sometimes we need to step back and assess well, where am I, you know, and what is the modeling that I'm doing for my kids? What are they seeing in me and how I handle things? And so, and being a teacher, I'm this data driven right, and so one of the first things that I do with parents is that first week that we're in coaching is I have them take time to keep track of when do I lose it, when am I yelling at my kids? That's when I get a lot. Why won't my kids listen to me? I have to yell at them for them to listen to me Well, we could talk about that. I have to yell at them for them to listen to me Well, we could talk about that. And so we like get down data and track. How often am I yelling at my kids, how often am I saying things that about other people? Even that my kids are hearing, so they're learning about whether we respect or disrespect, right? How many meltdowns are my kids have? How many do I have? We all have our days of meltdown, and so then the next time they come back, we can look at that and kind of look for trends and see, well, where are these things happening what time? Who are they with those kinds of things? So then we can start making a plan. But for me, so years ago, when my kids were very, very young in fact I only had two kids, I have five now but, um, I was working as a 911 dispatcher in Provo, utah, and you know, when you're working with police, I have a son that's a police officer language can get, even in Provo, utah, it can get a little exciting.
Speaker 2:And so I kind of started picking up curse words and it wasn't big ones, right, I just had three. But I started thinking, as I got working on this and working with my parents that you know, I was wondering if I eliminated cursing from my life, if that would have an effect on my own compassion, on my own sense of peace, on all that, and so I decided to work on it. It took me two years, but it's like with anything else, with parenting, when you realizing you have to catch yourself. How many times do we yell? And we have no idea when we started yelling and you're thinking, when did I start yelling? And so I did the same thing. I started tracking when I was cursing, what are the situations and what. And then I started catching myself when I did it, and then I'd have to stop and say, okay, nope, I got to turn this around, I'm, I'm not going to go there. And it took a while.
Speaker 1:You know, driving is yeah, number one place to use current words.
Speaker 2:Number one. Yes, driving was or being startled or you know, um, being afraid, being scared for safety, especially safety of my kids, and so we just kind of moved forward with that. Well, I use kind of that same approach with my parents. In all right, when you do get first off, you're making a great step because you're thinking I need to improve, Right. And then when we get to a place where we are better modeling the behaviors that we're looking at, and then we can come up with the plan, for we're going to do the thing for our kids as well.
Speaker 2:Who are they fighting, when are they fighting, and how am I setting that up?
Speaker 2:A lot of times, we'll do things like pick up our kids from school or from childcare or whatever, and go straight to the supermarket to go shopping because I'm out, I don't want to have to go out again, blah, blah, blah. And then we wonder why our kids are having the meltdown in the middle of the cereal aisle because they want the Cocoa Puffs, right, and so we've kind of set them up for that. Though how worthwhile would it be to just take even 10-15 minutes, stop at a park in between, let them run around, run around with them, enjoy them, have that fun time, give them a snack you know they've got something in their belly and then go to the store. Now you're going to have an easier time and you think, well, I don't have that 10 or 15 minutes. Well, really, because how much time are you spending then in managing your child, in that behavior? And it really does level out and which is better for your relationship with your kid and is it worth that 10, 15 minutes?
Speaker 1:I'm on. You know it's, it's great. I did the same exact thing in my early motherhood. After, you know, I'd raised my stepdaughter and was working with a non-speaking child. I had to completely change the way I was doing anything. I had no idea how to be a parent to someone in that case, and so one thing I remember was also saying why am I? Why do I yell so much Like why I knew why, okay, nevermind, but how can I stop myself from continuing this form of communication which was harmful for me? Why would I want it to be harmful for my kids? How do I stop? And I did the same thing. I gave myself a challenge and said every time I yell, I'm going to yell.
Speaker 1:I want to yell right now, and that's what I would yell out, and you start to sound so silly after a while and it really catches yourself. You know that I just it stopped it just completely over time. I mean this is now. You know, I don't know that I just it stopped it just completely over time. I mean this is now. You know, I don't know, been a long time 14, 13 years now that I've that's happened for me. But wow, what a change you can make for yourself and an environment you can help nurture and nourish for children, in taking responsibility and accountability for things that didn't go well for you in your childhood. So why do you want to repeat them, other than you know sometimes you just don't know when and when.
Speaker 2:We know we can do better, right, and that's, and that's the key is when you know you can do better, and so that's why maybe you want to spend a little bit of time with a parent, coach or something, and and it's, and it's often because you're a good parent, because you want to hone that skill even more. And having someone with those outside eyes, who's not involved in the middle of you, know the chaos all the time in your home, they can look and see especially when they've got the training and education and stuff, but they can look and see this this is kind of what I'm seeing, or this is what I'm hearing from you and you know, and you can learn a few new skills and and that that's how an artist becomes better, that's how a musician becomes better is, you know, they continue practicing and they learn new skills or new techniques to expand their ability, and so parenting is the same thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and really when you can get the understanding at least for me, when I really had the understanding that all of the behavior was a form of communication that. I was needing to give a better sense of perception, to a better open-mindedness, to understanding what it could be or what was causing it, and those types of things, like you said I think are in good parenting, and I love that you said that there's. Well, I don't know if you said, you said something about parenting at the beginning, like nobody's an expert, there's no perfect.
Speaker 2:There's no perfect. Yeah, that's what it was. That's the title of my podcast is Imperfect Heroes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I just love that. And I said to my husband the other day you know, I don't even think there's anything like good parenting, we just are doing our best, where you're just parenting, like yes, there's bad parenting, and don't do that, but there's like when you're just in it and you're trudging through and you're in middle school or whatever age group, you're dealing with toddler. I mean, every age group has their own set of challenges and that's why someone like DJ is so valuable in our community to be able to reach out to, to say, oh my gosh, my kiddo is, you know, having meltdowns over the music or something at the store. I don't know, that's an interesting comment, but you know just to be able to say, okay, well, how do you help people kind of narrow down what those steps are that they need to start working on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, one of the things I want to start out with is identifying age appropriate or developmentally appropriate, depending on. You know what's going on with your kiddos, but what is appropriate behavior? What is normal behavior? What are normal expectations?
Speaker 2:For a two-year-old to have a meltdown in the middle of a grocery store is normal. Down in the middle of a grocery store is normal, just how it goes right. So don't get all flustered and upset about it, but it's something, though. It's an opportunity for us to help them work through it, right. And so, oh, this is normal, but we're going to help you work through it. And we know, too, that when a kiddo is having their meltdown, their state of mind isn't in a place where they're going to learn anything Right, it's just helping them work through something. And so if you've got a little one and they're having a fit, then we're going to, you know, not worry about what other people are thinking or what other people are looking, because I will tell you that a lot of them are like, yeah, I've been there, you know they're not, oh, she's horrible. But, and if they are that way, we don't need them.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, who cares what they think? But then you can say I see you're upset and so you can continue to cry here. I'll sit down with you, we can go out. If you get embarrassed, we can go out and sit in the car, help you calm down out there, right, but we're not getting, they don't get the cocoa puffs from the meltdown, ever, ever, ever, ever Cause then you'll have more meltdowns. They've learned, learned. Oh, meltdown works right. And so you can say, um, I, I'd like to help you. Cocoa puffs isn't on our list, but maybe we can find something else that will work. Um and so, but we are calm. When we get upset, we're just adding to the noise, it's just more noise. So when you have siblings even that are arguing with each other and we come in and stop, right, and which is what we feel like doing, but you're just adding to more noise and and to the tension of the moment. But then you can say, if they're really, you know, getting very upset and it's not calming down, then you can say, yeah, it looks like we've got to go. That's okay, leave your cart there. They got people to take care of that. You can just leave the cart, go out to the car and then you may need to reassess. Do we need to go home? Maybe they're tired, maybe they're, and I'll just come back later at an appropriate time. Right, are we explaining expectations ahead of time? We're going into the store.
Speaker 2:I love lists, especially with the little guys, and so I always have a rule. You can get one thing that is not on the list. That saved my butt more than once, right, but that was a rule for me too. And you can give the kid the list and give them a job to do. Here's the pencil. You need to cross it off. I'll show you where cross it off when we get it.
Speaker 2:Now they're in charge of something. Now they have something to do, you know. Or they can help you count. I need three cans of, you know, pineapple. Help me count One, two, you know, and you're talking to them and you're engaged with them, and they have something to do, and and or they say, well, I really want this. Oh, that's not on our list. So you might use that as your one thing, but know that if you use this, you're not getting anything else. So you have to decide if you want to wait, and you know you're talking to them in things like that, in ways like that, and so then they have a better expectation of what's going on and you remind them ahead of time. Yeah Right, and if we have meltdowns then we can't have our one extra thing, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. You have to be. You really have to individualize it to the situation and, you know, really make sure that you are using, like you said, not using the moment that they're in a meltdown as a teaching moment, using that as more of a regulation and learning, showing how to get more regulated or options to self-regulate and then moving on to how it can be such a great learning experience and a teaching experience for both you and your child. I remember we would get like what were they? My head just went like not peck system, Like it wasn't actually picture exchange, but it was like the, the produce.
Speaker 1:It had pictures of the apples, pictures of the oranges, all that stuff, and we would almost do like scavenger hunt, like this is what we got to find, we've got to find this stuff. Then we'll go and we'll circle it and we'll. You know it's so exciting and I think when you, when you really add teaching in those moments with that fun element to it, it makes it so much easier. And not to mention, practice and continue, continue, try to be consistent in doing those same practices.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and two, when we are practicing and we're trying to get this thing in, we're regulating ourselves as well, and so we're regulating ourselves so that we have to make the list right so that they can hold it or be in charge. Or, if you've got multiple kids and as they're getting older, you can have a list for Susie and Jack, and then mom and Joey are gonna take this part, and so these are the five things that Susie and Jack need to go find, and then we'll do this. Now they're feeling empowered and I'm in charge, and they can do this as early as even, you know, six, five, six, seven. They can, especially if you team them up. Yeah, and so you know, just find ways to um, engage them and imagine how empowered they feel, how confident they feel when, oh, I'm capable of going and getting everything on this list or whatever, and I can be in charge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. It sets them up for really great success that way, and I do love the empowerment they get. I remember when my daughter was just kind of on the verge of wanting to pay for something, but being a little bit too shy or afraid in that moment, where she went and ordered something on her own and came back and said I did it. I wasn't afraid, I ordered it and I was like now you got this. Now you got this, now you know that you can go in, you can pay for something, you can go to a restaurant, you can go to Starbucks, you can order your thing and you know that, like you've like done it, so you know you can get. You, just practice it. That's your life. Right, that's your life. I love that. You mentioned something earlier that I really want to touch on, because I think every family might have not every family, but any family that does have siblings or multiple children how do we set up success for communication between siblings?
Speaker 2:We practice it one thing, and so that can even start very young. So when you bring that little sweet baby home and now you've got a big brother, big sister and you're going to allow them to help and hold as much as they can and to talk about, wow, you must really love your little brother, you must really love your little sister, because I see you behaving in this way. We're going to just specifically talk about what are those behaviors of loving. In fact, we've just finished up a series on love on my podcast, so we're going to set them up for understanding and for encouraging them. And oh, can you go get a diaper and thank you. That's how you show you love your little. You know sibling here and so it can start from there.
Speaker 2:But you know, friction is going to happen Sometimes. You need to step back and let them work it out. Don't jump in right away, because that's actually I think that's part of why God gives us siblings in some ways, because we need to understand in a pretty safe place that I can disagree with someone and I can still love them. I can be really mad at someone and I can still love them. But what does that love mean? Do we say unkind things, do we tell them you know you're horrible or you're disgusting or you're whatever? Is that loving language? And if you can start teaching them that early you know you're horrible or you're disgusting or you're whatever, is that loving language? And if you can start teaching them that early, early on, it's going to be a lot better.
Speaker 2:But another thing, too, is just find some joy in the moment, right? So one of the things that you can do is if you have two siblings and they're arguing about whatever it is and you hear it and you think I want to get involved, or you know, I just wanted to stop, please, just stop. So. But so do something to distract them. That's really bizarre. Like, put a pot on your head and then go in the room where they're arguing and just start vacuuming or whatever, or dusting, I don't know. But you're in the room doing something and you've got this pot on your head and they will be like mom, what are you doing? I'm just cleaning, sweetheart, you've got a pot on your head. No, I don't, I'm just cleaning, mom.
Speaker 2:There's a, you know, and you can start you. So you start with that, the arguing is stopped, you're being silly, and then you can go back and say, oh, I did hear some angry words. So what, what was that about? How can we work that out? And so that's something that you can do. That's kind of my mom bless her heart. So I'm the oldest of seven, I have five brothers, right, yeah. And so, and there was sure there was lots of fighting, lots of fighting, and so she would come in and start she had this opera voice she would use. She was always a beautiful singer, but she would throw into her opera voice and start singing this love at home song, you know, and we'd have to stop arguing just so we could make fun of her and she'd take that, you know, but it was a distraction.
Speaker 2:Another thing that you can do is I'm really a believer, a big believer, in meeting with the family at least once a week more of you can do it and having time when nobody's mad at anybody, right. But you're practicing these scenarios. So maybe you noticed that they were fighting over a screen, right? Or maybe they were fighting over a toy, or she took my shirt, those things. So now you can say, all right, how can we work that out? How can? And kids love role play, and so when they're younger, you can do a lot of role play and let them pretend you know, okay, I'm the sister mom's, the sister dad's the, and we're arguing no, no, no, no, no, no, what should we do? And then they're giving you the answers and oh, we need to practice. And so you can practice with the kids. And if you are doing that often, then it'll come more naturally to them when they have some conflict management that they need to work through on their own. So that's another idea. I love that. So that's another idea I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's always so important to just get in there and show up for them in the way that they need you to be.
Speaker 1:And sometimes that's really hard, especially in this day and age when everything is, you know, 30 second video form and you really want to have these deep, complex conversations with these kids that think that they know it all because they saw a 30 second video. So that's really tricky. Now you're working with newborn to eight years old, so in that what age do you recommend or not recommend that children are introduced to phones and screens?
Speaker 2:Oh well, you know, it happens, I think, kind of naturally. I've seen 18-month kids, you know, at 18 months of age, knowing how to open an app and have all of that. For me I would try to keep them away from phones until I'd say, I mean, the screen time is so nice to use, right. But we also know and this is scientific and studies have been done that the more time a child spends on a screen whether they're watching a movie or playing a game that they like or whatever, even if it's an educational game the more time they spend on that screen, the more angry they become and the more that they will pull away from their family. And that's by design. I'm just telling you. It's by design. And so we want to make sure that you know, if you're in a doctor's office and they have to wait quietly or something, that's okay, I think, to give them that phone while you're sitting in the waiting room or whatever, and they need to be quiet. But I wouldn't use it much at all, not even daily, and save that for those special times when they need to behave, or you can't give them your full attention, whatever. But those are special times and so I would rather have them have things that they can play with and do, and I know that, moms and dads, we have work that we need to do. Right, we get home, or even if you're home all day, kudos to you first off, but it's just a lot of work and you're doing laundry and you're cleaning things and you're making sure that germs aren't running around as much, and then you're trying to teach the kids and set the example and manage them through all of that and it's exhausting, I understand it, but we still need to understand that we need to be there for our kids and we need to be teaching them. We need to take care of ourselves too. Right, make sure that we have a date night, the best gift you can give your kids.
Speaker 2:I'm telling everybody right now, there's one gift that is the best gift that you can give your kids. And'm telling everybody right now, there's one gift that is the best gift that you can give your kids, and that is a strong and loving marriage to grow up with. And so concentrate on that. Have your date night. You know, and and um, when someone comes home, whether it's mom or dad, and it's like, oh, I need my babies, I've been gone all day or I've been gone for an hour and I've missed you and and you make it a big deal that and they see that you know you mean the world to me and I've missed you You're going to have kids that when you walk in the door they're going to run to you Mommy, daddy, right, and even if they've been in trouble during the day, that let that go aside for a few minutes and just love them and enjoy them and they're going to start making those connections and feeling more confident and comfortable and safe in your heart. And that's really what they need.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I completely agree. I'm a big proponent of kids are looking for connections, not attention, and the more connection we make with them, the less attention they're seeking, the more connections of course they still want to make, and that's how you build trust and nurture foundations and start to build those relationships with them. It was in a conversation I had a few weeks ago that someone said something I thought was just wonderfully profound, and she had said that if you look at the relationship with your child and you say, what do I want to have this relationship look like when they're 20? Yeah, they're only two, but what do I want it to look like? Do I want them to be? Do I want them to feel like they can come to me? Do I want to be, you know, in this relationship with them, learn, or maybe when they're not too, maybe when they're a little older, but it's still when you, when you that first year of life it has more to do with how they turn out as an adult than even those those years after.
Speaker 2:that first year is the time to make that connection and to love them skin to skin contact and you know the cooing and and giving them that loving attention. And so actually if you want that relationship when they're 20, you're developing it when they're two.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I love that and it's so that's so special for new parents out there, people that are just starting a family, like, take advantage of these ideas, take advantage of these resources, these um. You know ways to build these relationships with kids, because some of us are already, you know, teenage in and we have to make changes from where we're at. But it's also never too late to make changes. It's always a new day, it's always a new um. You can always start something new. There's never a time. I mean my grandfather, bless his heart, lived to 97 and was like roofing at 92. I mean he, you know the guy never he didn't stop learning, he was constantly doing like um college courses and stuff. And it was just this wonderful example of you. You don't ever have to stop, you can just always continue or choose to keep going and to make better. You know to keep learning, so right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Sure, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I love that. Where can we go to? Um, well, actually, let's back up. Show us the book, show us the book, tell us about the book, and then I want to talk about the podcast, and then we'll get the links and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:Okay, All right. Well, let's see, I have to put it close to me or else it won't show. Perfect. So I have a child, a children's book, and there's another one that's going to be coming out this summer, but this one is called Roman is bigger, and it's about a little guy that just has really big emotions, and so he's upset about something and his mom says you look like you're really mad. No, I'm bigger than mad, and he's trying to find the vocabulary to appropriately express how he's feeling. So it's a book about emotions and it's a book about vocabulary. One of the fun things about it I am, you know, a teacher's heart. There's a lesson plan in the back for teachers to use if they want to use the book in their classroom. There's also a parents page that has activities and ideas that they can work in their home to help build their child's vocabulary. And so, yeah, wonderful. So that's Roman is bigger. It's on Amazon, barnes and Noble Walmart's website, so you can get it pretty much anywhere online.
Speaker 1:And then the podcast. Like what was your desire idea for starting the podcast?
Speaker 2:You know, I just loved seeing the results that I got with working with the parents that I was working with and helping them out, and I thought that maybe with a podcast you know it's not the same as that one-on-one coaching or even group coaching, but at least I can get some key information out to parents about different aspects of raising these younger kids, and so I have episodes with special guests. There's some that it's just me. This year we started once a month I just have mommy or daddy, but that's just in the thick of it. They've raising those little kids. We have a theme for every month, so we just finished up love.
Speaker 2:Next month in March we're doing patients, and so we just talk about how are you working patients into your home, how are you teaching these little ones when you know you're exhausted, and so how can you build your patients, how can you build patients in your kids? So we give ideas on activities that you can do. I've got a newsletter that you can sign up for. That's free, and so if whether you go to the podcast website or my business website, you can sign up there either way. But it's called imperfect heroes insights into parenting and you can find it anywhere.
Speaker 2:It's, it's on all of the formats.
Speaker 1:Wonderful, oh, and what is your website where we can go and find all of that information?
Speaker 2:Sure. So there it's wwwlittleheartsacademyusacom and that is my business where you find out about the coaching and resources and all of that, and then the, the, and there's a link actually from there to the podcast. So yeah, and then the website for the podcast is just wwwimperfectheroespodcastcom perfect heroes podcastcom.
Speaker 1:Love that. Oh, I'm so happy that we connected and I think that we're both just doing, you know, the best that we can um helping parents to find these resources, find information and guide them to have the child's best journey that they can have.
Speaker 2:Definitely, Absolutely. Just one more thing I also do on Tuesday nights I do a Facebook Live and an Instagram Live. So, I'm on Facebook at 7 pm Mountain Time on Facebook and it's the Imperfect Heroes page and also Imperfect heroes on Instagram. I'm there at seven 30. So that's a chance to even come on and ask me some questions. Leave comments in the chat and you can get a little bit of that.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's fantastic. I'm going to make sure to follow you on those pages so that I can stay up to date, and I hope that we can stay in touch and, um, maybe get back together when your new book comes out. I would love that. Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for your time today and for sharing your wonderful resources, and thank you so much for your work with families. Yeah, it's just been a pleasure to get to know you. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Absolutely, and we'll definitely keep in touch.