We were delighted to welcome Linda Stade as guest speaker for the second lecture in our Parent Series which is all about providing parents with practical support to be the best parents they can.
Linda is an education writer, speaker, and consultant who works with parents and teachers to help grow happy, healthy kids. Her theme for this session was ‘Friends and frenemies’ and focussed on how to support children through the inevitable friendship challenges that we all face at some stage in our lives.
Interestingly, Linda believes teaching social-emotional skills is as important as teaching literacy and numeracy skills as they will be important in every aspect of life. She is particularly interested in the relationship skills our kids need in order to have healthy friendships.
“People underestimate how many skills are involved in building, maintaining, and sometimes moving on from friendships. When children aren’t taught friendship skills, they ‘catch’ them from peers and siblings who are often as unskilled as they are. They also learn from television and social media which is far from ideal”, said Linda.
Of course, sometimes they get it right, but often they learn to behave in ways which might make them popular but are ultimately unhealthy and damaging to everyone involved.
So, whose job is it to teach friendship skills? Ideally, teaching social skills should be a collaboration between parents and schools, which is why we at St Stephen’s School feel so passionately about sharing parenting information with our whole community.
Fortunately, there is a wealth of information out there for parents seeking practical strategies to help them role-model positive friendship skills.
We are grateful to Linda for sharing her wealth of blog articles covering a range of topics including friendship. These are brief, practical, and targeted pieces with helpful strategies you can easily apply in your home.
Visit Linda’s website or follow her on Facebook for further details.
We are planning future Parent Series sessions for the St Stephen’s School community, so keep your eyes on our Facebook page and your campus newsletters for details. We’re also very open to suggestions for content, so please drop us a line with any requests.