Maybe you've heard of equine therapy but have you heard about "Cow Hug" therapy? Did you know that cows are matriarchal and take care of each other in birth, life and death?

We can all learn a thing or two about society, how to take care of each other and about a different way to heal from these amazing animals - cows!

Listen to this ground-breaking episode with Ellie Laks, co-founder of The Gentle Barn and the author of the book Cow Hug Therapy: How the Animals at the Gentle Barn Taught Me about Life, Death, and Everything In Between (ARC, May 21, 2024)

Cows are wise and compassionate animal ambassadors who have helped countless people heal from trauma with their gentle, calm manner at the 3 different Gentle Barn locations. Each animal's story in this book will touch your heart and maybe make you cry, like me.

Through the stories of Buddha, her first cow, to many other animals like turkey, pigs, dogs, horses and other cows, their unique personalities will leap off each page to share life lessons with all of us.

Ellie Laks is the Founder of The Gentle Barn Foundation, a national organization that rescues and rehabilitates unwanted animals and heals people with the same stories of abuse and neglect.

Ellie is a powerful speaker, celebrated animal welfare advocate, humane educator, animal communicator, and the author of “My Gentle Barn: Creating a sanctuary where animals heal and children learn to hope,” and “Cow Hug Therapy: How the animals at The Gentle Barn taught me about life, death, and everything in between.” Ellie founded The Gentle Barn in 1999.

She invented her own “Gentle Healing” method that allows old, sick, injured, and terrified animals to fully recover. Ellie is the creator of cow hug therapy and has hosted hundreds of thousands of people who have come to The Gentle Barn seeking hope.

Find out more about Ellie here at gentlebarn.org and find Ellie's newest book here

Book a session with Ellie for animal communication or find out more about here at her website here. Follow Ellie on Instagram here, Facebook here and X/Twitter here. Follow the Gentle Barn here.

Please like and subscribe to our podcast and leave a 5-star review so we can reach more parents like you!

Subscribe to our podcast by sending an email to subscribe@teachingyourtoddler.com

For more expert interviews, fun activities and story time podcasts, please visit our website at TeachingYourToddler.com

Check us out on Facebook at Teaching Your Toddler and on twitter at @TeachingToddler and on Instagram at @teachingyourtoddler

To support great future content, please click here and help us out with a $5 gift: glow.fm/teachingyourtoddler

Leave us some feedback on this show and your ideas for future shows!

Disclosure: I was provided a preview copy of Ellie's Cow Hug Therapy book for this interview

Maybe you've heard this word "codependency" but you don't really know what it means. In this very important episode, Teaching Your Toddler's Marijo Tinlin talks with Dr. Frieda Birnbaum, research psychologist, psychoanalytic therapist, author and podcaster - also known as "Dr. Frieda" about what exactly that means.

So, what does codependency look like in a family? Do you have trouble setting boundaries? Asking for what you want? Expressing your true emotions? And what effect does this have on your children both now, in their childhood, and also later in life in their own relationships? Dr. Frieda will talk about all of this in this episode.

Dr. Frieda is also a mom to 5 children and is known as the oldest mom in America, having given birth to her twins at the age of 60. She is the author of a book about this experience called Life Begins at 60: A New View of Motherhood, Marriage, and Reinventing Ourselves. She has also recently started a podcast called The Doctor Frieda Show: Pushing the Limits.

Find Dr. Frieda at doctorfrieda.com and on twitter/x at @doctorfrieda

Please like and subscribe to our podcast and leave a 5-star review so we can reach more parents like you!

Subscribe to our podcast by sending an email to subscribe@teachingyourtoddler.com

For more expert interviews, fun activities and story time podcasts, please visit our website at TeachingYourToddler.com

Check us out on Facebook at Teaching Your Toddler and on twitter at @TeachingToddler and on Instagram at @teachingyourtoddler

To support great future content, please click here and help us out with a $5 gift: glow.fm/teachingyourtoddler

Leave us some feedback on this show and your ideas for future shows!

#parenting #toddlers #moms #momlife #kids #podcast #toddlerlife

Wondering what the signs are that your child may potentially struggle with dyslexia? You HAVE to listen to our interview with Robin Zikmund, a mom-advocate from the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE).

It's estimated that about 20% of kids struggle with dyslexia; that's one out of five! AND - it's hereditary, so if someone in your child's family struggled with dyslexia, that could mean your child is more likely to struggle too.

There's a spectrum for dyslexia too so there's a huge range to how much it might affect someone. Early intervention is KEY, Robin says so this episode is even more important if you have little ones - like before age 5!

While this episode is not meant as a diagnosis, Robin will help you start looking for some of the earliest signs of one of the most common learning challenges - she will also help you understand what your next steps are to get the support you need from your child's school.

Robin's story of her son's frustration with reading and learning to the point of complete defeat, will break your heart, but also her drive to get to the bottom of what was happening and eventually "educating the educators" will inspire you to advocate for your child too.

She mentions the Orton-Gillingham methods which you can find out about on the IMSE's website here. https://imse.com/

She also mentions Emily Hanford's podcast called Sold A Story found here: https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/

Robin serves as the Dyslexia Advocate and Community Engagement Manager for IMSE, the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education - a literacy training company focused on the science of reading. She is also the founder of Decoding Dyslexia Idaho, a grassroots movement that aims to increase access to educational interventions and teacher professional development for dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities in public schools.

Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE) Website: https://imse.com/

Institute for Multi-Sensory Education (IMSE) Journal: https://journal.imse.com/

Decoding Dyslexia Idaho: https://www.decodingdyslexiaidaho.org/

Robin Zikmund LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-zikmund-50a379141/

Please like and subscribe to our podcast and leave a 5-star review so we can reach more parents like you!

Subscribe to our podcast by sending an email to subscribe@teachingyourtoddler.com

For more expert interviews, fun activities and story time podcasts, please visit our website at TeachingYourToddler.com

Check us out on Facebook at Teaching Your Toddler and on twitter at @TeachingToddler and on Instagram at @teachingyourtoddler

To support great future content, please click here and help us out with a $5 gift: glow.fm/teachingyourtoddler

Leave us some feedback on this show and your ideas for future shows!

The episode we've been dying to bring you - Potty Training, or as expert Kim West says Potty Coaching. Listen to the end for a fantastic parenting hack you MUST have when you're out and about with your little one in public restrooms.

All the things you've been dying to know about - when is my child ready? How long should it take? What age should I start? Along with some of the common challenges we face when we are working with our little ones.

Kim, aka "The Sleep Lady(R)", is a Jool Baby Potty Learning Coach, licensed clinical social worker, working mother, and a leading authority in gentle sleep and potty training. Her sleep and potty coaching programs have supported hundreds of thousands of parents globally, offering a stress-free, non-punitive, and bribe-free approach.

Kim is dedicated to making her potty training method widely accessible to parents. Through a collaboration with Jool Baby potty products, available at major retailers including Walmart, Target, Amazon, and Babylist. Kim shares a guide to her gentle, proven approach to potty coaching for everyday parents.

Her podcast is called The Gentle Parenting Show Podcast and her website is sleeplady.com.

Her free Potty Resources are available here. Find her on Instagram at @thesleeplady

Learn more about Jool Baby and the product Kim mentiones in the epsiode here.

Find Jool Baby on social media at:

https://www.instagram.com/joolbaby/

https://www.facebook.com/joolbaby

https://www.tiktok.com/@joolbaby

Please like and subscribe to our podcast and leave a 5-star review so we can reach more parents like you!

Subscribe to our podcast by sending an email to subscribe@teachingyourtoddler.com

For more expert interviews, fun activities and story time podcasts, please visit our website at TeachingYourToddler.com

Check us out on Facebook at Teaching Your Toddler and on twitter at @TeachingToddler and on Instagram at @teachingyourtoddler

To support great future content, please click here and help us out with a $5 gift: glow.fm/teachingyourtoddler

Leave us some feedback on this show and your ideas for future shows!

A new survey called "Couples, Money & Retirement" surveyed 1,510 American couples and found that while they trust each other to make decisions, they also face several issues when it comes to planning for retirement.

Join us for this mini-episode interview with Marcy Keckler, Vice President of Financial Advice Strategy at Ameriprise Financial about the survey's findings and what couples can do to better communicate about these very important financial issues.

About Marcy Keckler: Marcy Keckler, CFP®, CRPC®, RICP®, is the Senior Vice President of Financial Advice Strategy at Ameriprise Financial. She leads the overall strategy for financial advice at Ameriprise, enabling thousands of financial advisors to help millions of clients achieve their financial goals and dreams.

Keckler has been with Ameriprise Financial for 27 years in a variety of positions in financial planning, marketing, and interactive development. Her commentary and quotes on retirement and personal finance have been featured in numerous media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MarketWatch, Forbes and US News and World Report.

Keckler is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER certificant (CFP®), a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC®) and a Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP®). She also holds Series 7 and Series 24 FINRA securities licenses.

She is a graduate of Georgetown University. Keckler serves on the board of directors for the Angel Foundation, which provides financial and emotional support to adults with cancer and their families.

For more information visit https://www.ameriprise.com/

Please like and subscribe to our podcast and leave a 5-star review so we can reach more parents like you!

Subscribe to our podcast by sending an email to subscribe@teachingyourtoddler.com

For more expert interviews, fun activities and story time podcasts, please visit our website at TeachingYourToddler.com

Check us out on Facebook at Teaching Your Toddler and on twitter at @TeachingToddler and on Instagram at @teachingyourtoddler

To support great future content, please click here and help us out with a $5 gift: glow.fm/teachingyourtoddler

Leave us some feedback on this show and your ideas for future shows!

#parenting #toddlers #moms #momlife #kids #podcast #toddlerlife #financialeducation #financialplanning

Did you know crafting is actually teaching your brain engineering principles? You are designing, measuring, coordinating and putting things together. It's helping your brain!

Listen to our short episode with Leticia Barr, founder of savvytechmama.com as well as STEM teacher and parenting expert.

If you'd like to see the examples she's talking about, find this broadcast on our YouTube channel here.

Leticia is an award-winning technology, education, and parenting blogger who founded TechSavvyMama.com in 2008. Her site combines her knowledge of child development, psychology, education, technology, and parenting to provide useful advice for families. Leticia has taught first grade, middle school computer science and engineering, and served as Technology Magnet Coordinator.

She spent most of her public-school career providing professional development to teachers, training them how to integrate technology into their classrooms. Leticia is passionate about STEM education and provides resources to parents encouraging them to foster a love of STEM in their kids at all ages through her blog.

In addition to blogging, Leticia currently provides education thought leadership to nonprofits, professional development to teachers, writes standards-aligned curriculum, and presents to PTAs about digital safety topics.

She also serves as a parenting expert for Brainly, providing advice about today’s technology tools for homework to parents. Leticia has been a columnist for Parents.com, has had her writing syndicated on Scholastic Parents and MSN.com, and written for Common Sense Media.

She advises YouTube as a member of the YouTube Kids Parents Panel, serves on the Education Advisory Board for Responsibility.org, and is a Mission Partner for the Center for Parent and Teen Communication. Leticia was awarded the 2020 Iris Award® for Mom Blog of the Year and is the 2018 Iris Awards® winner for Philanthropic Work of the Year for her work in Haiti.

She is also a St. Jude Hero, fundraising, training, and running half marathons benefitting St. Jude Children’s Hospital since 2016. Leticia is the mom of a college sophomore and a senior in high school, both of whom are pursuing degrees in engineering. She lives just outside Washington, D.C. and loves to unplug to ski, garden, and spend time hiking with her overly enthusiastic Labrador Rescue pups.

Find Leticia on her blog and connect with her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. #parenting #stem #education #crafts #crafting

Learn more about Cricut here.

What if you could leverage a parenting expert anytime, any day and that expert would remember everything you've talked about to help you build your knowledge and process your thoughts?

Well, now you can with the app called Era from Parent Lab. Our guest today is Josh Iwata, the CEO of Parent Lab who tells us how this app can help parents not just with expert advice but also with help journaling and processing your thoughts.

Parent Lab, the industry leader in holistic parenting, announces the launch of their AI-enhanced product called Era, the first app offering parents immediate, personalized support based on the distinctive identity of their children.

Era closes the gap between learning a parenting framework and implementing their new understanding by personalizing the application of proven strategies to their child or different children in the same family. With foundations grounded in attachment theory, mindfulness, and behavioral science, Era empathetically and efficiently processes parents' goals and struggles in real-time.

Get the app here: https://getera.onelink.me/evQM/teachyourtoddlerpodcast

Find out more about the Era app here: https://getera.app/

Please like and subscribe to our podcast and leave a 5-star review so we can reach more parents like you!

Subscribe to our podcast by sending an email to subscribe@teachingyourtoddler.com

For more expert interviews, fun activities and story time podcasts, please visit our website at TeachingYourToddler.com

Check us out on Facebook at Teaching Your Toddler and on twitter at @TeachingToddler and on Instagram at @teachingyourtoddler

To support great future content, please click here and help us out with a $5 gift: glow.fm/teachingyourtoddler

Leave us some feedback on this show and your ideas for future shows!