Parenting Takes a Village: North Seattle College and You!

Tania talks to Lauren about nutrition.

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Lauren Leedy specializes in creating unique strategies and solutions for the busiest of people to meet their personal health goals. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Lauren has experience across a wide variety of settings and patient populations, including five years in pediatrics.  She now owns her 100% virtual nutrition practice based out of Seattle.  She believes that changes don’t last unless they are realistic, and she holds a unique toolbox of ideas to take the guesswork out of healthy eating. Lauren is a busy mom known for her 15-minute meal hacks, tried and true product recommendations, and ability to share the science of nutrition in a clear, understandable manner.

For more information visit Lauren's website: https://laurenleedynutrition.com

Episode 12 coming soon on 05-10-22

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Lauren Leedy specializes in creating unique strategies and solutions for the busiest of people to meet their personal health goals. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Lauren has experience across a wide variety of settings and patient populations, including five years in pediatrics.  She now owns her 100% virtual nutrition practice based out of Seattle.  She believes that changes don’t last unless they are realistic and she holds a unique toolbox of ideas to take the guesswork out of healthy eating. Lauren is a busy mom known for her 15-minute meal hacks, tried and true product recommendations, and ability to share the science of nutrition in a clear, understandable manner.

Tania talks to Kyle about the importance of exercise and sports with children 

Kyle Boyd is a former teacher who is leading fan development for the Seattle Kraken. He took on this new role after eight years of teaching history and social studies and is on a mission to ensure access to hockey for nontraditional hockey communities throughout Greater Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. Kyle grew up in Eden Prairie, MN, and started playing skating at the age of four. After graduating from Dartmouth College with a degree in History in 2012 he joined Teach for America in St. Louis, MO. After his time in TFA Kyle taught at Buckingham Browne and Nichols School in Cambridge MA, as well as Lakeside School in Seattle. As a classroom teacher and coach, he has seen firsthand the power of connecting with kids through sport. He sees hockey to encourage youth to step outside of their comfort zone and use on-ice and off-ice experiences to impart life lessons. The Seattle Kraken will be the 32nd team in the National Hockey League and have recently completed the Kraken Community Iceplex their practice and community rinks in Seattle. Kraken Community Iceplex will serve as a hub for youth hockey programming in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest Region and will be the largest NHL practice facility within a major cities’ limits. This year Kyle has led efforts to market the team to new hockey fans, and engaged local school districts, community nonprofits, and after-school partners to bring hockey to communities new to the game. As Fan Development leads for the Kraken he oversees the work of building a diverse and avid fan base across the state and region. Kyle is excited to work with a variety of community partners to address the gap in equity and access around the sport of hockey. When he is not focused on hockey, Kyle enjoys films (especially documentaries) and is still an avid historian. Kyle lives in North Seattle with his wife Archi, and the two were married in October of 2019.

Tania talks to Aly about Stuttering and Speech Therapy 

Alyssa (Aly) Vildósola, M.A., CCC-SLP (she/her) is a speech therapist, new parent, and recent addition to the North Seattle community. She realized early in her career that the most invigorating and rewarding work she could do was with kids who stutter and their families, an area most professionals, unfortunately, shy away from. In 2020 she opened a private practice to prioritize her work with this community and has been thrilled with her slow but steady progress. Aly is co-raising a bilingual (and cute!) child who attends the Northleaf Multiage Spanish class on Saturdays.

Tania talks to Monica Harris about the importance of music in early education.  

Monica has been teaching for over 25 years: first by teaching folks how to sing, and then later fell in love with teaching Co-op! She has a Bachelor’s of Music from the Oberlin College-Conservatory of Music, as well as a Master’s in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from Roosevelt University. She, along with her two children, participated in cooperative preschool for 7 years before becoming a teacher. Monica designs the curriculum and helps manage the classroom activities, and circle time is her specialty. She is very tuned in with each and every student and allows for class flexibility based on each student’s abilities and energies. Kids love her Huggy-Boo!

Tania talks to Melanie about Parent Involvement in School

Melanie Kay was born and raised in Idaho and attended Utah State University (go Aggies!) where she earned a bachelor’s and teaching certificate in Family and Consumer Sciences Education. She taught child development, cooking, sewing, and financial literacy to students in grades 8-12 for two years before meeting her husband and uprooting to Seattle; quite the change! Fast forward 9 years and now Melanie enjoys baking cakes, sewing quilts, teaching piano lessons, and being a full-time mom to four kids under 8. She loves being a part of the coop community and the associations nurtured there.

Tania talks to Megan about the Division of Household Labor 

Megan Wiebelhaus, LMHCA is a therapist working with teens and adults with ADHD, Autism, high sensitivity, and high intelligence. In her over six years of mental health work, she's: helped teens and adults struggling with addiction, taught classes on assertiveness and self-esteem, supported foster care kids and their caregivers, worked with clients one-on-one in school and camps, and even facilitated a Dungeons & Dragons social skills group! She startedMeganWiebelhausTherapy in 2021.Megan lives in Seattle with her spouse, two children, and her abiding desire for a cat. She likes book clubs, new recipes, smart conversations, public speaking, and finally finding enough time to organize her closet.

Tania talks to Tami about the awareness and understanding that children are not small adults.

Tami Brockway Joyce (she/her) is a parent educator, actor, podcast host, community activist, small business owner, and all-around dilettante, though raising her two kids is her favorite vocation.  She has a bachelor of arts in Theatre from the University of Washington, is a graduate of The Brian Utting School of Massage, the Seattle Midwifery School (now the Bastyr Simkin Center) birth doula training, and the Foundation for Healthy Family Living infant massage instructor program. Catch her comedy podcast, The BROADcast with The Famous Filson Sisters wherever you listen to podcasts.

North Seattle College Parent Education Instructors, co-op teachers, Dean of workforce instruction, associate dean, and Parent Education Instructor coordinator come together to send a message of gratitude. We encourage you to a challenge of gratitude for a month.  Have a gratitude journal to write all the reasons you are grateful for, make a gratitude list, gratitude poems, or text/call someone for a month to give gratitude.  

Research shows that incorporating the practice of gratitude strengthens the heart, mind, and soul.  Visit our northseattlecoops.org to see references to research about gratitude practices.  

Arya, 14 years old, reads the labor acknowledgment.  

Thank you to all the participants who participated in the creation of this episode.

Tania talks to Matt about respectful communication with children

Matt McKenzie is experienced educator with more than fifteen years’ experience teaching in the preschool setting. He has a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Early Childhood Education and currently work as the director of PRLC Preschool in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle. He been a guest lecture at North Seattle College in their ECE department on the topics of curriculum implementation and administrative roles in the field. Besides his full-time job, he work on several projects that include student support at NSC and a program called My Brother’s Teacher – an organization aimed at increasing the number of men of color in the field of Early Childhood Education. He was born and raised in Seattle and his wife and they have two young children: Cameron (2.5) and Maya (4 months). His passionate about creating systems to ensure every child gets the best start in life and is equipped with the skills and tools they need to thrive. When he is not working, he enjoys spending time with his family, hiking and exploring outdoors, and cooking.

Tania Hino talks to Kate Barratt about teaching children empathy

Kate has a B.A. in Early Childhood and Family Studies from the University of Washington, Master in teaching from the University of Washington, and with a Certificate in e-Learning and Instructional Design.

Kate is an innovative educator and instructional leader. Originally from Toronto, Canada, she has found her forever home in the PNW with her family. Prior to joining Meridian, she taught third and fourth grade and was an instructional technology/curriculum lead. Guided by her principle of always putting students first, Kate is excited to have joined the Meridian family’s SEL faculty. At home, you can find Kate chasing a very active two year old and taking long walks around Wallingford with her husband and dog, usually with a stop for ice cream.

Tania talks to Betty about modeling how to be an antiracist to your children. 

Betty S. Williams, MSW, NSC Parent Education Instructor/Program Coordinator

Betty is a determined advocate for racial justice and anti-bias work in order to create a more welcoming environment for children and families to thrive. She considers herself to be an accomplice with others also working towards justice, with an understanding that listening and being proximate with those most impacted by injustice and oppression is crucial to justice work. Learning when to be humble and step back to follow the lead of those most impacted, and when to effectively leverage her access to resources & power (as a white person) to speak up for change is a lifelong learning process.

Betty has a BA in Psychology from Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. She received an MSW with an emphasis on working with children and families from the University of Washington. Betty worked in the child care field for many years as an infant, toddler, and preschool teacher, program supervisor, and center director; during which time she helped found and served on the board of the Child Care Directors Association of Greater Seattle. She taught Early Childhood Education and Parent Education Classes as a part-time instructor at Edmonds Community College and Seattle Central Community College. Since 2004, Betty has been working as a full-time tenured instructor in Parent Education at North Seattle College. She coordinates the program as well as teaches 4 classes, and is active in the equity, diversity, and inclusion work of the campus, including co-chairing the Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the Seattle Colleges District. She has served as co-chair of the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) Seattle Human and Civil Rights Committee and on the AFT Washington Human and Civil Rights Committee. She co-chaired the Racial Justice Team at University Unitarian Church for many years.

Tania talks to Teacher Karen about the power of unstructured free play.  

Karen Murphy has been a teacher at Meadowbrook Cooperative Preschool for the past six years, but her experience in coop started 4 years prior as a parent. Karen has a BS in kinesiology, the study of human movement with an emphasis on motor development. She likes to bring lots of movement and play into her classroom and believes strongly in the power of unstructured free play. Before being a coop teacher, she taught preschool in Arizona and managed an after-school program in Connecticut. She lives in Seattle with her husband, daughters, fish, cats, and chickens.

Tania talks to Charisma about the Importance of having Teachers of Color 

Charisma was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She is the wife of Reid, the mother of two girls, and the daughter of Panamanian immigrants. She holds a B.A. in English and a J.D., where she had a special interest in Family Law during her time in grad school. Her family ventured to Seattle, Washington at the end of 2019 and have been enjoying the Pacific Northwest. She is thankful for the community of the Latona Co-op, and hopes to be the type of person who does justice, loves kindness, and walks humbly with her God.

Tania talks to Erin about Mindful Parenting

Erin B. Bernau, MSW, LICSW, is a licensed clinical social worker with more than sixteen years of experience working with children and families. She works as a psychotherapist at Northwest Family Therapy, as a parent coach with Sarina Natkin Parenting, and as a parent educator through North Seattle College’s cooperative preschools. In recent years, she worked as a parent educator at Seattle Central College’s Parent/Child Center and as a facilitator for Listening Mothers groups.

Tania talks to Antoinette about raising your kid bilingual

Antoinette Angulo is a mother, wife, public health practitioner, and activist in Seattle, WA. Having worked with Latinx populations in the U.S. and in Latin America for over 25 years in clinical and community health settings, she is experienced in developing, implementing, and evaluating programs and multimedia health promotion strategies including radio novelas, liberation theatre, photovoice, and digital storytelling. She is passionate about building a rich and nourishing multilingual and multicultural community ecosystem in which her bilingual and bicultural daughter can thrive.

Tania talks to Lea Evans about raising children bilingually.  

Lea has been a Parent Educator for North Seattle College for the past three years. She has a master’s degree in applied linguistics, essentially the study of language and pedagogy in language acquisition. She has previously taught both English and Spanish and has also worked in college advising. She felt drawn to start learning Spanish as a teenager because it had skipped her dad's generation in her own family. She sees language is an important connection to family and culture, and also feels a second language can be a window to other perspectives and cultures around the world. Now Lea is doing her best to pass bilingualism on to her child, much to her grandmother's delight. To this end, her little one attended the PCPE Spanish language cooperative preschool and is now in a dual immersion program in Seattle Public Schools. As a parent educator, she's pleased to be supporting four cooperative preschool classes, including one that is taught in Spanish with Northeast Seattle Toddlers, and is thankful for the chance to work with phenomenal teachers and amazing families!

Topic: Parenting Experiences 

Barbara Alfeo has been saving her sanity in preschool co-op classes for six years. She and her three boys (6, 4, and 10 months) have attended NEST (Northeast Seattle Toddlers), Latona, and Woodland Park Cooperative Schools over the years. When she isn't making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or cleaning spit-up out of her hair, she teaches art and environmentalism to kids at Seattle Recreative and writes a green parenting blog called Sunshine Guerrilla.

Topic: Connecting with Kids During Conflict
Presenter: Betty Peralta, MIT, MSc, IMH-E® (III) promotes an anti-bias, trauma-healing, neurodevelopmental approach to children's learning and behaviors called the NeuroRelational Framework. She is a Parenting Coach for a domestic violence shelter; Parent Educator for three cooperative preschools; Infant Mental Health Reflective Consultant for home-visiting early intervention therapists, doulas, and their supervisors; and Child and Parenting Partner Interaction Specialist in her practice, ALTA: Alternative Learning and Therapeutic Avenues. She can be reached for workshop facilitation, coaching, and consultation at altavenues.com

https://northseattlecoops.org/