(An invitation for parents of elementary school-aged kids…)
“How was your day?”
“Fine”
“What did you do at camp today?”
“Fun stuff”
“How was the field trip?”
“Awesome”
My daughter can talk non-stop for days on end… if allowed, she’ll even skip eating and sleeping to keep talking!
Often though it’s about her Lego inventions, magic potions, made up songs, whacky stories and flights of fantasy.
When I try to discuss with her something that matters in the Real World, all I get are monosyllabic responses.
Sounds familiar?
I know I’m not the only one. I have a friend whose son has this uncanny ability to turn any conversation into a silly/goofy joke (often about farting!) And another whose daughter can bring on the sass at the drop of a hat.
I am endlessly fascinated by how creatively imaginative, goofy, silly and utterly adorable kids can be…
And equal parts frustrated. Because as a mom, I want to be able to talk to my daughter about a few things in the Real World we live in as well!
You know what I mean?
I want to be able to discuss what happened in camp or school or a play date without having to pry every bit of information out with a crowbar!
I want to teach her about character and values. And money. And the good and the bad in the world around us.
I want to have conversations about gratitude. And growth mindset. And resilience. And responsibility.
I want to share with her the stories from my childhood. And hear about her friends and her life outside of home.
This is not something we can force on our kids though.
In some cases it comes naturally. In many others, it doesn’t.
What can we do then?
This has been the question on my mind for a while now.
After years of pondering, months of trying to wrangle ideas and thoughts into something that makes sense, and a LOT help from many, many parents like you, I think we’re finally onto something.
What if a simple activity you do with kids could open up the room for all these diverse conversations?
And, while you’re at it, what if it could also help you –
- Forge a strong bond with your child that can stand the test of time (yes, through tumultuous tween years, teen years and beyond!)
- Improve your child’s self-esteem
- Lay the foundation for strong emotional intelligence
- Cultivate in your child a gratitude and growth mindset
- Encourage self exploration
- Plus, leave your child with a wonderfully unique, absolutely one of a kind, keepsake?
Together, can we put together a product to do that?
Introducing…
Connected Hearts Journal:
A Beautiful, One-of-a-kind, Keepsake Parent-Child Journal
As some of you already know, over the past year, I’ve been looking to put together a product that will help parents and kids connect and form a strong bond.
Many of you have been so generous with your suggestions and I’ve enjoyed the many discussion we’ve had. This one-of-a-kind connection journal is where all those discussions and survey responses meet my idea of a dream project 🙂
The amount of thought and attention to detail that has gone into it already is unbelievable… And from what I can tell, it is still just the tip of the iceberg.
It has the potential to be so much! And I need your help to make it everything it can be!
The project is ambitious.
I want to build something that helps us connect deeply with our kids.
I want to build something that kids want to do. And practically beg us to do it with them.
I want to build something where we can have all kinds of conversations small and large.
And when completed, I want it to become our kids’ most cherished possession, and our most cherished memory.
I want it to be a very unique keepsake memoir. A custom made heirloom.
And their moral compass. And a tangible proof of our love for them. And a gentle guide and mentor they trust and return to again and again. And a pick-me-up when they feel down but are hesitant to reach out.
I want to build something that our kids will still keep with them even when they are 40.
Will you help me build that?
I understand that you are busy and won’t ask you for too much of your time.
So far we’ve got the overall concept of the journal fleshed out in great detail – you can read about it and see a few sample pages here (Password: Little-by-Little). I also have a list of prompts and questions that go in it, and am working with an amazing engineer-turned-kids-art-class-teacher for for the art work.
What I want from you is this: I’ve broken up the “beta” version of this journal into chunks, each of which will take less than 10 minutes of your time to look over. I want to give one of these chunks to you for free – to look over, comment, critique and provide any feedback you can.
If you can spare the additional time to complete your chunk with your kids, all the more better!
All ideas and feedback you can provide — from simple observations to typos to what your kids said about a particular prompt — are very welcome and will be taken seriously, and I will make the best effort to incorporate it into the final version.
We are now a community of over 21,000+ positive parents. Even if only a fraction of you volunteer for this, can you imagine the amazing product we can build by putting together our heads and hearts?
If you are the parent of elementary school-aged kid(s) and want to participate, please enter your email below –
Here’s what will happen next:
When you sign up, I will send you an email with 2 links
- One to access a section of the “beta” version of the journal
- One to access a simple 9-question feedback form that shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to fill out.
Take a quick look at the journal pdf and send me your feedback.
And I’ll take your feedback (and that from others who signed up at the same time as you) and incorporate it all in the journal.
And I will float that out to the next batch of volunteers. And repeat the process, until we feel like we have achieved the things we are striving for.
Sound good?
Sign up above and look for my mail. Talk to you soon!