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Resilient Childrenwww.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 2025In The Book of Delights, poetand author Ross Gay coins thephrase “cognitive athleticism”which, he explains, is “figuringsomething out, which issomething we all go to school,some of us for years and years,to forget how to do.” His words challenge teachers andparents to face the question:Could our efforts to help our kidsbe getting in the way of theirlearning? Now, when mental health issuesin young people are at an all-timehigh, it can seem counterintuitiveto step back when kids arestruggling. Yet, the experience ofpuzzling through a low-stakes problem and arriving at a solutionon your own builds self-confidence and resilience. If we want to set our sights onbuilding “cognitive athleticism” inyoung people we need to entrustchildren to be in charge of theirown learning. And that meansallowing them to figure things outfor themselves and avoidingsolving problems kids can solve.The following pages of theParenting Resilient ChildrenHandbook offer ideas for how todo just that. As the child psychologist JeanPiaget said, “Every time we teacha child something, we keep himfrom inventing it himself.” Though it takes time andpatience, allowing our childrento struggle and learn forthemselves will help them buildthe self-confidence andresilience that will serve themwell in school, at home, and inall aspects of life. This kind of resilience isessential in navigating theunknown, and our childrendeserve every opportunity tocultivate these problem-solvingskills when the stakes are lowso they will know how toemploy them in the worldbeyond our care.One Way to Bolster Cognitive AthleticismHelp your children and yourselves to “right-size” problems and learn todifferentiate between those that require parental intervention or support (cleaningup broken glass off the kitchen floor) and those that are ripe for productive struggle(figuring out how to open a snack bag). Is this a problem about safety, or does itinvolve pushing through frustration into learning? When a problem is challengingdue to difficulty and frustration, one strategy that works well with children is to askthem, “If you had to put this problem in a box, show me with your arms how big thebox would need to be.” That mental translation of our feelings of frustration intosomething tangible can offer a useful pause for reflection and help us as adults toadjust our response in equal proportion.

Our children can be our greatest teachers but letting them live into this role requires us tostep back and really listen. Here are some ways to do that:Pay attention to how much you hear your own voice when you are around your children, and howmuch you hear their voices. This can be particularly useful in shared mealtimes, car, bus, or train rides, orother moments throughout your day when you engage in conversation. Try saying less and encouragingthem to say more. Offer your children a concrete place to express what’s on their minds and what they care about. Thenmake a point of reading what they have to say. Keeping a parent/child journal is one way of doing this.They write you a note at night and you write a response in the morning. This is also an excellent way tokeep literacy skills going! Prioritize your child's ownership of your physical space. Are there parts of your home that they can bein charge of organizing, decorating, or keeping in order? You may be surprised at how neat they cankeep a room when it's a room they care about and giving them ownership over a space boosts itsimportance in their lives. Put your child in charge of their own summer learning. Discuss something they are intrigued by that hasnothing to do with school. It could be worms, it could be family genealogy, it could be how to become amusic star. Whatever the topic, help them brainstorm how they can learn more and what they hope toknow by the end of the summer. Let their curiosity be your guide. Children as Teacherswww.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 2025

Judy insists her students find theexpert within themselves, insteadof looking to her for answers.Being a learner in her care is bothchallenging and exhilarating. Sheteaches students how to think,and avoids doing the thinking forthem. This practice is at the coreof Purpose, Persistence, andAction, one of InspiredTeaching's 5 Core Elements.Purpose, Persistence, and Actionmeans learners are fully engaged,intellectually, emotionally, andphysically, in what they aredoing. They persevere in solvingproblems, making discoveriesalong the way. They experiencefailure as a necessary part of thelearning process. As children deepen theirunderstanding of their ownlearning process, they not onlyexpand their understanding ofcontent, they also learn aboutthemselves. “Nobody learns quitelike you,” Judy says, and whenchildren are allowed to pursuelearning in their own unique ways“portals to creativity" open up.“I can see how quickly yousolved that problem.” “I cansee you’re taking your timewith that problem.” “What canI do to help you get started?”“What can I do to help youfinish?” These simple, yetpowerful, statements andquestions come from thetoolbox of Judy White. Sheuses them to offer specificfeedback and encouragementfor students at different stagesof the learning process.www.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 2025Learn more about Inspired Teaching'sInstructional Model in these posts: Mutual RespectStudent As ExpertPurpose, Persistence, and ActionJoyWide-Ranging Evidence of Student Learning

As parents we want our kidsto know we love them, andthat’s as it should be. Buttrailblazing feminist authorand change-maker bell hooks,challenges us to go to adeeper, and perhaps moreimportant place. She wrote, "Ifwe give our children soundself-love they will be able todeal with whatever life putsbefore them." What does itmean to “give our childrensound self-love”? How can weteach our kids to lovethemselves? Parenting Toward Sound Self-Lovewww.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 20253 Approaches to Try: Teach your children to see themselves as contributors andproblem solvers. For example, when a glass tips over and spills,point your child toward the materials they'll need to clean it upand offer guidance but don't do the cleaning for them. 1.Teach your children to look to themselves first for validationand approval before looking to others - even you as parents.For example, instead of, "Marta, I love the picture you drew,you're such a good artist" try, "I'm noticing these bold colors,tell me more about how you chose them." 2.Teach your children how to shape the world, as well asunderstand it. For example, if you choose to walk or ride a biketo run an errand rather than drive, talk with your childrenabout those choices and their impact on the environment.Enlist them as collaborators in finding ways to make youreveryday actions more environmentally friendly and providethem with developmentally appropriate resources tounderstand why this matters. 3.

Hooray For Monday is an award-winning collection of resources for educators that we share each week of theyear. Parents are children's first educators, so this is for you! Each issue features questions, ideas, reflections,and actions we can take to remodel the learning experience for students. Join our mailing list to get a weeklyHooray For Monday publication sent straight to your inbox. No time to read? Subscribe to our podcast!Walk At Their PaceWalking at our students' pace means willingourselves toward forward momentum.ISSUES HAVE INCLUDED...Engaging Parents As AlliesTogether, we have the power to shape ourchildren's school experience.Aspirations and ContributionsAsset framing redefines how we approachchallenges with children.Inquiry or InquisitionThe way we start a question, the context, andthe tone with which we ask it all matter. www.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 2025HOORAY FOR MONDAY

Watch it GrowClose observation of change in the natural world can help childrenbetter understand changes in their own lives. In this activity, theychoose something to observe and collect data over a period of daysor weeks on how it transforms. Ask your child to find a small plant that they will visit,photograph, and write about each day. 1.With your child, choose a time of day to make theseobservations. This works even better if you choose something toobserve as well! 2.Record observations each day and talk with your child aboutwhat they notice. What is different today from a few days ago?What is making these changes occur? What can we predictbased on what we've seen so far? 3. Find more ideas for this activity here. How Vigorous Is My Heart?Helping our children connect with the wonder of their own bodiescan build self-confidence while piquing curiosity. In this activitylearners make a connection between their heart rate and physicalactivity. Once you have explored this relationship together once, youcan refer back to it over and over again in future situations whenchildren are exerting a lot or very little energy. Teach your child how to take their resting heart rate. Have themrecord their observation. Take your reading too!1.Do five minutes of vigorous exercise together and take andrecord your heart rates again. Discuss what you observe. 2.Without resuming exercising, determine your heart rate 1 and 5minutes after the exercise. Discuss what you observe and whatlearning this information provides. 3.Learning OutsideThese activities engage children intellectually, emotionally, and physically and take place outdoors. www.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 2025

Make Way for the MonarchsFew lifecycles are as enticing to observe in their entirety as that of monarchs.Interestingly, the end of their life cycle often corresponds with the beginning of theschool year and the start of their life cycle (or at least that of the plants they need tosurvive) begins when school is ending. That makes summer a perfect time to observethese marvelous creatures and play a role in their survival. Butterfly Food and HabitatYou can create a butterfly sanctuary anywhere you have an outdoor spot large enough tohold a pot of flowers. Planting and caring for flowers helps pollinators like monarchs tosurvive. Monarch caterpillars feed exclusively on milkweed. If you have a spot where youcan plant milkweed, you should!An Interdisciplinary ExplorationTaking time to learn about butterflies in the summer can lead you into all kinds oflearning disciplines. Here are a few examples: Language Arts: There are many excellent nonfiction and fiction texts that can be usedfor learning about butterflies and having children journal about their observations willkeep writing skills sharp. Mathematics: Whether charting growth, studying statistics from migratory research,measuring change in weight and size, or considering exponents when calculating thegrowth or demise of populations, numbers abound in the information surroundingbutterflies. Social Studies: What role do butterflies play in different cultures? How does thegrowth of human populations affect the places where butterflies live? What doesmigration look like? What laws are or should be put into place to protect endangeredspecies? Science: This is, of course, at the heart of a study of butterflies but can getparticularly interesting and far-reaching when you study habitat destruction and itsantidote – local activism to reverse that destruction. Visual and Performing Arts: Watching the wonder of a butterfly’s life cycle, and thatof the plants they depend upon, offers an endless source of inspiration for every artform from dance, to painting, and more.Find links to lots of resources and more learning ideas here.www.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 2025

Seeing with Different EyesUsing basic observation and listening skills, this activity can serve asa catalyst for understanding how your child thinks, and for them tolearn the same about you. Multiple children and adults canparticipate, building awareness of how we all see things differently,but can learn from each others' perspectives.Choose an image for your child to observe that is complexenough that it will take some time to study. Photos frommagazines, advertisements, or pages of a picture book work well. 1.Take two minutes to study the image silently. If your child is oldenough to write, both of you can write your observations. 2.Invite your child to share what they noticed, listening withoutcomment. Then share your observations. 3.Discuss the following with your child: Why do you think we sawdifferent things even though we were both looking at the exactsame image? 4.Learning On the GoThese simple activities fuel social emotional learning and can take place anytime, anywhere. www.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 2025Zoom OutWhen things feel particularly daunting it can be incredibly helpful topause and situate the challenges within a larger perspective. Thisactivity is good practice for “zooming out” and can be accessed bychildren of many ages. Choose an object and ask your child questions about it fromdifferent perspectives. Questions for an apple might look like this:What is this? What is it for? How do you know? How would youdescribe its size? How would you describe its flavor? Now imagineyou are an ant. What would an ant think this is? How would an antknow? How might a horse think about its size? An elephant?Explore where to go next in this activity here.

Seven BikesThe more you “think outside the box” the better you get at doing so in other contexts.This activity presents a playful structure for doing just that.Begin by inviting your child to be a detective of the unusual. You might send themoutside with a notebook to jot down anything out-of-the-ordinary that they notice. Havethem craft a question based on what they’ve observed. What does it make them wonder? Questions might look like: Why was there a sock on the ground under that tree? How did that paper cup get up on that ledge? Why are there seven bikes in that yard? Choose one question to explore together using the following format:Child: Why do you have seven bikes?Parent: Because I am building a bike sculpture from the parts. Why do you have seven bikes?Child: Because I have seven dogs who all like to ride them. Why do you have seven bikes?Parent: Because they were on sale at our local bike shop. Why do you have seven bikes?Child: Because my friends traded me their bikes if I would do their homework. Why do you have seven bikes?You and your child can trade the question for as long or short as you like. Invite them to askclarifying questions along the way to help develop ideas and stories. Here is an example ofwhat that might look like: Parent: Why do you have seven bikes?Child: Because I have seven dogs who all like to ride them.Parent: Seven dogs who like to ride bikes? How on earth did you train them?Child: I took them to that place downtown, Paws & Pedals.Parent: Did you have to redesign the bikes so dogs could ride them?Child: A little bit, depending on the length of their legs.The activity is fun to do verbally and can elicit a lot of laughs. But as illustrated above it canalso be fodder for storytelling and it stretches the imagination in ways that can then beapplied to other questions like: What can we do to reduce the amount of time we spend on screens? How can we manage the laundry so it doesn't always pile up like this? What are some ways we can create more space when we're getting annoyed witheach other? www.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 2025

www.inspiredteaching.org Copyright © Center for Inspired Teaching 2025The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz FoundationCorina Higginson TrustEngland Family FoundationFerris Family FoundationLearn24: Office of Out of School Time Grants, DC Deputy Mayor for EducationJack Kent Cooke FoundationJack R. Anderson FoundationJ.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family FoundationShare FundChallenging Behavior? Try the ABCDE's!Special thanks to theCapitol Hill CommunityFoundation for makingthis handbook possible. @inspiredteaching @InspireTeach /inspiredteaching/Psychologist William Glasser defined five core human needs "which provide motivation for allthat we do." We've framed them according to these terms: Autonomy, Belonging,Competence, Developmental Appropriateness, and Engagement and, we've added Fun.Because humans learn and grow best when our needs are met, often when we’re not thriving these unmetneeds can be at the root of the problem. Identifying these unmet needs can be the first step to addressingthem. As we strive to meet our children’s academic and socioemotional needs, we’re wise to address our ownas well. This website offers a deep dive into each of the ABCDE's but we offer a brief overview here. Thanks also to the funders and numerousindividuals who support our work.