[00:00:00] Carolyn Sloan: And, they're going to be like us just because they live with us and they're going to, and they look at us and they imitate us constantly. But they're also their own people. So I'm a big proponent of who is this person sitting in front of me? just that relationship of getting to know your student or your child in that way is really powerful. It builds enormous trust and that trust. Makes them more willing to try things more willing to fail and make mistakes.
[00:00:33] Carolyn Sloan: And that's really an important part of learning.
[00:00:36] Dori Durbin: Budget cuts are pretty common in schools now. And with so many schools under budget constraints. Means some kids appreciate music only through Spotify. This leaves, music, loving parents, wondering. How do I encourage my kids to have an appreciation, understanding, and love for music, or maybe your kids already love music? How do we encourage them [00:01:00] without completely overwhelming them? And what musical resources are available to families that are easy to access and fun to participate in. These answers and much more will be found in this episode. Next stay tuned.
[00:01:14] Dori Durbin: Today's guest is a music educator, songwriter, and musician who writes music for theater, television, and kids. She's an author of three picture books and the founder of her own online education company called teach me TV. She has a passion to share her love for music and a desire to help kids grow as people. Welcome, Carolyn Sloan.
[00:01:36] Carolyn Sloan: Oh, thank you for having me, Dori. I'm so happy to be here.
[00:01:40] Dori Durbin: Oh, thank you. And thank you for taking the time. I know you're an inspiration for kids who love music. But, it's also the first thing that schools will cut in their funding. How do we encourage our kids to continue to be interested in music, even if they don't [00:02:00] have it available to them.
[00:02:02] Carolyn Sloan: There are so many resources around, Dori. It's true that if a child doesn't have a music program in school, that maybe it becomes a little more challenging for the parent because you have to seek out those resources.
[00:02:16] Carolyn Sloan: But if you're close to any metropolitan area at all. There's usually a community orchestra or there's a community choir or sometimes there's just a choir in the church or your synagogue or wherever you're if that is part of your community. So I would say to parents that, it doesn't take, and now with the internet, it's a lot easier to find those resources too.
[00:02:43] Carolyn Sloan: One of the reasons that I wrote Welcome to the Symphony, my first music book for kids was that I realized that kids weren't getting enough exposure to all different kinds of music. And I thought the best way to do that is to put a concert in a [00:03:00] book, if you will. And I knew that with books, it would make it affordable for parents.
[00:03:05] Carolyn Sloan: It's to take their kids and have their kids experience this kind of music. So I think there are now, interestingly enough, there's plenty of books that also showcase different kinds of music. So I would say that if your child doesn't have a music program at school, do not fear. There are plenty of resources that you can find on the internet or in your local communities.
[00:03:30] Carolyn Sloan: You just have to look for them. That's
[00:03:33] Dori Durbin: great. And I think it's really admirable that you recognize that hole in literature. And you took that opportunity to create something that you felt would benefit kids.
[00:03:44] Dori Durbin: This is your third book, correct?
[00:03:47] Carolyn Sloan: Yes, it is.
[00:03:48] Dori Durbin: TEll us a little bit about your other two books
[00:03:50] Carolyn Sloan: sure. After the Welcome to the Symphony, which is still very popular and still selling and it's available on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles and anywhere [00:04:00] where you usually get books We wanted to switch to a different kind of classical genre, if you will, which is what we call America's music because there's the music that originated here.
[00:04:11] Carolyn Sloan: And actually in Louisiana and New Orleans. So it's called welcome to jazz. And we call that a swing along celebration of America's music. And I was thrilled to do that because it highlighted not only the incredible origins of jazz, but just jazz is so much fun and there's so many different kinds of jazz and so many different types of jazz, we couldn't highlight all of them.
[00:04:37] Carolyn Sloan: So we started at the beginning, which is traditional jazz, which started in new Orleans, which is that when the saints go marching in and all of that kind of. Call and response and swing rhythms and syncopation and all the earmarks of jazz music. And I think most people get intimidated by these kinds of music, like the symphony or jazz, or I [00:05:00] don't understand jazz.
[00:05:01] Carolyn Sloan: But what I like to do is demystify these mediums for people and to show them how easy it is to understand and also to enjoy.
[00:05:13] Dori Durbin: I was super fortunate and was able to get your most recent book, which is welcome to the opera. And it's so cute. And I was saying before the podcast, I wish that people on podcast could see what we're doing.
[00:05:26] Dori Durbin: But one of the things that I loved was the story was being told by dogs, adorable dogs, and at the same time as the dogs are having this conversation, there are tips and facts on the page about the opera, about the singers, and then there's a music panel on the side.
[00:05:43] Dori Durbin: So you can hit. And here right away. So tell us about your thinking behind all of that and maybe what's appropriate different age wise as the parents are reading through it.
[00:05:53] Carolyn Sloan: Sure. That's a convention we have in all of the books that there are animals that help to tell the story [00:06:00] or they're going through the concert themselves with you.
[00:06:03] Carolyn Sloan: So there's always one animal that's the total novice that doesn't know very much about anything in the idiom. So they're the ones that are always asking the questions. And then there's an animal that is the kind of the aficionado, the expert who has all of the answers and and asks important questions too.
[00:06:24] Carolyn Sloan: And then there's the appreciator, right? There's the animal that's the appreciator that knows a little bit about the idiom. But they're they don't know everything and so they can ask questions to and also respond to the novice. So that's the convention in the book. And also, we can make it funny for the kids and make it more almost like a graphic novel or a comic book, but, the sound panel came from the idea that you cannot teach such an abstract concept of or art form like music. Music's pretty abstract. When you start to talk about it, it's [00:07:00] hard to talk about. You need to give clear examples in music to demonstrate these concepts. And when my son was very little, he's grown now, but when he was very little, we would read A book about a violin, or we'd read a book about Monk, the jazz composer.
[00:07:19] Carolyn Sloan: And I was saying, there's no music in this book. So how does he know what they're talking about? I know what they're talking about being a musician, but he doesn't know. So I thought moms don't need something extra to carry. They don't need to carry around a CD and now computers don't even have a CD drive anymore.
[00:07:40] Carolyn Sloan: So how do we do this? And I said we need to just take an MP3 file. We just need to put it in the book so that. When we talk about a melody, you can hear a melody. Or when we talk about a soprano, you can hear a soprano and know what that is. Or when we talk about syncopation, which is [00:08:00] so hard to explain if you've never really studied music, just because it doesn't make sense to you, you don't have the prior knowledge to understand it, you need to give them an example of what syncopation sounds like, right?
[00:08:14] Carolyn Sloan: Uneven beats, swing rhythms, right? All those things You just need to give an example of, like, how would you explain the color red to someone? Think about that. You can't really. You could talk about it scientifically. It's the, and actually you can't even because the primary color.
[00:08:31] Carolyn Sloan: So you need to be able to show it to them. You need to show it to them. So I said, we need to have a sound panel in the book and that will make the whole thing come alive.
[00:08:42] Carolyn Sloan: And the fun thing about the book, and I didn't necessarily plan it this way, but it evolved and presented itself to me is that little kids, like as young as 2, Okay. Love the books because they can just push the buttons and listen to the music. And they'll do that all day long.[00:09:00]
[00:09:00] Carolyn Sloan: And then 4 year olds love to look at the pictures and then press the buttons. And it's a great way to also teach numbers because it will say press number 1 and then they have to find number 1 on the sound panel. Press number 2 and they have to find the number. So it's at that sort of good training for preschool.
[00:09:18] Carolyn Sloan: Kindergarten, they're starting to read a little bit and so they can read a little bit of the conversation among the dogs. In the voice bubbles. And hear the music and then in 1st grade, they can read a little bit more. So they might be able to read the story and the story is printed on each page on these little blue banners and and then when they're in 2nd and 3rd grade, and they're reading, they can read the whole book themselves.
[00:09:42] Carolyn Sloan: So it really does grow with your child and with your family. And, honestly, I've gotten a lot of notes from parents that say, Oh my gosh, I love reading this book with my kid because I learned something too. And that's the best. That's so much fun. That's
[00:09:58] Dori Durbin: so awesome. I [00:10:00] actually, it was funny when I read it myself, I played violin.
[00:10:04] Dori Durbin: I was in a symphony orchestra and I was like, I've never heard this term before. I never say I, it was new to me. I envisioned myself hitting all of the singing buttons and trying to create songs.
[00:10:15] Carolyn Sloan: People have done that. Little kids like to do that. It's like they're trying to be like a DJ and like patterns of things.
[00:10:23] Carolyn Sloan: Yes. Maybe that's a good idea for another book where we just have sounds and they can just press buttons and make up their own songs.
[00:10:30] Dori Durbin: I was really impressed with this book in the fact that I thought that those pieces were intentionally put in there. And from the teaching side of me, I was like, this is great.
[00:10:40] Dori Durbin: This is something, teachers can focus on different parts. For the parent side of me, I was envisioning that button pushing and, the laughing and those pieces, but it also presents music in a way that is not overwhelming.
[00:10:51] Dori Durbin: So yes, very awesome book. Now, let me also say, I know that you're a big proponent [00:11:00] of metacognition and kids. So maybe you can talk a little bit about that in case our listeners don't know what that is and maybe how that applies to the Teach Me TV as well.
[00:11:10] Carolyn Sloan: Sure. So just as I Kind of notice and really I have to credit my students because they are always an inspiration and they have been always an inspiration to me and my own child, right?
[00:11:26] Carolyn Sloan: You start seeing things that you wish were around and weren't and aren't and then, my, my MO is always, oh I'll make it or I'll do it myself, kind of thing. In terms of metacognition, that's it's a big scientific term for basically being aware of how you're thinking. So it's like thinking about your thinking.
[00:11:48] Carolyn Sloan: So it's understanding if you're, if a child is working on a math problem and they are aware of the fact [00:12:00] that they don't know, say, for instance, they're adding two digit numbers and they don't know. How to carry the 10 or regroup with a 10, right? If they can say to you I'm not really understanding this part of it and I need help with this particular part, then a teacher and or a parent can really help because they know exactly what's happening.
[00:12:23] Carolyn Sloan: They don't have to do the diagnosing first. That's the hardest part of the problem when kids are having trouble learning. Our goal with Teach Me TV is twofold. One, we want to engage children with multimedia, stuff that's super fun to interact with. So there's videos, there's interactive videos, there's video games, there's all different kinds of media to interact with.
[00:12:49] Carolyn Sloan: It's all learning media, so it's all based in learning. Everything from video read aloud. of Fables for K 2 and Greek Myths for [00:13:00] Grades 3 through 5 that are animated and they have music and they're really interesting to watch. But the pedagogy and the lessons and the learning behind it that supports it is very well researched.
[00:13:15] Carolyn Sloan: And it's very deep in the sense that we know that it works and it's been already vetted by teachers and researchers at Columbia University and from Carnegie Mellon and different different schools. But the metacognition part is really important because we want kids to understand how they learn. And that sounds heady in the sense that what does that mean?
[00:13:43] Carolyn Sloan: How do you learn? I don't know if you've ever had the experience where You're reading some very technical manual, say, and you're not understanding it. And you're like, what is what are they talking about? And this happens to me. I'm reading something. I'm like, I have no [00:14:00] idea what I'm reading.
[00:14:01] Carolyn Sloan: So what I will do, because I know that I am more of an auditory learner and that my, like, when I hear things and I can process things better. So I will read out loud and I will slow it down and I will read it out loud. I'm like, Oh, okay, got it. I know that about myself as a learner. So to know something like that about yourself as a learner is really important.
[00:14:27] Carolyn Sloan: Not only because it's going to help you learn better, but it's going to help your teachers and your parents help you learn better moving forward. So many kids and so much of the time. They can't ask a good question. They can say, I don't understand this part, right? They'll just say, I don't get it. And I would often say to my students which part of this do you not get because there's a lot here.
[00:14:55] Carolyn Sloan: Let's break it down. Small bites, right? Because as [00:15:00] learners, little ones, They're like infants, right? You can't give them big chunks of information to sift through.
[00:15:07] Carolyn Sloan: You have to break it down for them, but then they need to learn how to break it down for themselves moving forward. And if they can do that. Then they can learn anything. And that's our goal is to get kids to learn how to learn. that's
[00:15:24] Dori Durbin: fascinating. And I'm thinking about future musicians, about not only how to learn new things, but also how to make decisions in life and to be aware how their brain is processing the information coming in.
[00:15:38] Dori Durbin: Are they aware of it? Actually resonating. Are they taking the time to understand what's happening? And those kinds of skills are lifelong skills and they're coping
[00:15:47] Carolyn Sloan: skills too. Yes. And as you're saying that I realized there was a book I wrote early on and it wasn't for children. It was for adults and it's called finding your voice.[00:16:00]
[00:16:00] Carolyn Sloan: And it's called a practical and spiritual approach to singing and living because I realized that the concepts that govern good singing are also the concepts and rules, if you will, that govern leading a good life.
[00:16:14] Carolyn Sloan: So I divided the book into chapters of, in order to be a singer, you need to be a warrior, a scientist, a detective.
[00:16:25] Carolyn Sloan: And a spiritual master. And from all of those things come different qualities that you develop, right? The warrior, you need courage, you need to be brave. That's like the first step, you need to be a detective because you need to be able to look at problems and look at things and figure out what's happening.
[00:16:45] Carolyn Sloan: And then Coupled with that, a scientist is you have to have really great powers of observation. Oh, look, I'm doing this, but I really should be doing A, B and C. And then spiritual master is like the balance of all of those [00:17:00] things put together and knowing when to use which persona, if you will.
[00:17:05] Carolyn Sloan: Like, when am I the warrior? When am I? The detective, when do I need to be a scientist about this? When do I need to like chill and take a breath? All of those things are, as you were saying, life skills. And some of that is we communicate some of that on our site for kids too, because the first thing that a child will do.
[00:17:30] Carolyn Sloan: We are instituting, it's not live yet, but we are working on a conversational agent that looks like a little furry monster that will talk to the kids and they can talk to it. And the first thing that it will do is ask you, how are you feeling today? Because how you're feeling is going to affect how you're learning.
[00:17:52] Carolyn Sloan: And so it tries to connect their whole self. To their intellectual selves, [00:18:00]
[00:18:00] Dori Durbin: so will that dictate where they go on the site then, depending on how they're
[00:18:03] Carolyn Sloan: feeling? Yes. If they say, if they pick, oh, I'm feeling really tired, it will make certain suggestions, or if they say, I'm feeling great and energetic, it may make other suggestions.
[00:18:18] Carolyn Sloan: iT will also give them a choice to explore things on their own, which they're always have the option to do. Or if they're feeling angry, we may recommend different kinds of things to chill them out a little bit. But we don't, we always take our cues from the student. I want to make that really clear.
[00:18:36] Carolyn Sloan: There's a lot of technology out there that. Is technology driven and our whole idea is to totally turn that on its head and for the child always to be the director and the constructor of their own learning because we want to create more agency and empower learners to [00:19:00] learn for the rest of their lives.
[00:19:01] Dori Durbin: Your Teach Me TV is not focused just on music. It's focused on all the curriculum, right?
[00:19:09] Carolyn Sloan: Yes, it is curriculum aligned. We have plenty of music on the site. We have songs and videos and we have musical videos about jazz and they, that relate to the book and we'll probably do one on opera too.
[00:19:23] Carolyn Sloan: But, we have curriculum aligned activities in math and language arts in elementary science and music art. And we also have exercise. So we have yoga videos. We have calisthenics, but they're all really super fun. And kids like to do them. I got a note from 1 mom saying My daughter just wants to exercise now.
[00:19:51] Dori Durbin: Wow, that's amazing.
[00:19:54] Carolyn Sloan: So I think the breadth of it is important because [00:20:00] you never know how you're going to reach a child. And it's a wonderful and we have a parent portal which shows you which activities your child is spending the most time with. yOu can get a sense of what their interests are and then maybe where you need to encourage them to explore more.
[00:20:18] Dori Durbin: So if I was a parent that was trying to enable my child to pursue their passions, this actually would be a really good spot because you could see where they really. Resonate the most and then we're maybe they have some weaknesses and that's what you're saying when you're trying to shift them a little bit here and there.
[00:20:35] Carolyn Sloan: Absolutely. And we're always working on things, so we have plans for even more detail in that portal, but for right now, you can see. What your child has done, if they just started it, did they complete it? How many minutes did they spend on it? And that way, if you, for instance, if you see that, they like, did 10 math activities.
[00:20:57] Carolyn Sloan: In a row, you're like, oh they [00:21:00] obviously like numbers and math. So that's good. But they didn't read, or they didn't listen to any books, or they didn't play any word games, maybe you need to encourage them to read more, or maybe you need to encourage some more kind of, word games.
[00:21:15] Carolyn Sloan: And we have all different kinds of language arts activities.
[00:21:18] Dori Durbin: Wow. And do you work with just parents? Does the school get involved? How does that piece connect?
[00:21:24] Carolyn Sloan: Right now we're also developing it for schools. So we started out as a, like a B2C company where we're mainly aiming towards parents.
[00:21:33] Carolyn Sloan: And I want to say that it started out with the idea that aside from wanting to develop lifelong learners, we really wanted to create a safe space. For kids on the internet,
[00:21:46] Carolyn Sloan: I was appalled and am appalled at all of the stuff on YouTube and the advertising to children and the collection of data with children and social media and all that stuff.
[00:21:57] Carolyn Sloan: I was like, ah, so, [00:22:00] this was designed to be a place for them to be on their devices because let's face it. They all want to be on their devices. And that is just a reality that we have to deal with. But it's all good stuff.
[00:22:10] Carolyn Sloan: If your kids playing a math video game for an hour, I wouldn't worry because they're probably learning their math facts, and that's okay.
[00:22:17] Carolyn Sloan: Yeah, from my point of view, obviously, you can tailor it however you want. So you can, there's a way to set timers and things on your. Tablet or your devices where you can shut it down. 20 minutes or whatever. But yes so now we're making it ready and usable for teachers and school districts because it is curriculum aligned.
[00:22:39] Carolyn Sloan: And is this,
[00:22:39] Dori Durbin: A subscription based kind of thing? Probably since you're providing so much?
[00:22:43] Carolyn Sloan: Yes, we have a week where it's a free trial. So you have plenty of time to try it. And then we have a month to month subscription. And then we also have a yearly subscription.
[00:22:56] Carolyn Sloan: And we also have teacher subscriptions, which [00:23:00] are All right. Permanently discounted. So we're really encouraged teachers to join as much as possible because it's really reasonable right now. It's what we call like a freemium. So there's free, there's monthly and annual. And then when we have this furry talking creature that it, that will be instituted probably in the new year, like in January that will be an add on like a different price because it's a premium feature.
[00:23:28] Dori Durbin: Fabulous. Okay, so backing up a little bit to the musical piece of things, let's say I have a child who is interested in music, they're spending time on Teach Me TV, listening to all the musical pieces that they can find. How do I, decide whether or not I should, continue to push them in that direction.
[00:23:50] Dori Durbin: And then secondly, what should I watch out for.
[00:23:53] Carolyn Sloan: Okay. First I'll just say it really depends upon the age of the child. So I'm assuming if they're [00:24:00] on the platform that they have to be at least in kindergarten, because it's for kindergarten through like fifth or sixth grade. I would say if they really see music focused, for you to start exploring other musical activities.
[00:24:15] Carolyn Sloan: If they're young, then maybe a group, like a like a music together kind of class. I know that's for toddlers and little ones, but or some sort of thing you can do together. Cause here's the thing, little ones, you can give them music lessons, but I often say this to parents. You can't expect a five, six or seven year old to want to practice.
[00:24:36] Carolyn Sloan: By themselves. My mom was an extraordinary mom in the sense that for the first two years that I studied piano, she literally sat beside me. She didn't know any piano herself, but she would just listen. And I knew she was interested, so I thought that was cool and I wanted to practice because mom was there listening.
[00:24:58] Carolyn Sloan: So you can't just [00:25:00] like, even if you're just in the room and you're reading a magazine or something but if you occasionally say Oh, that sounded good. Can I hear that again just to show interest? And support them in their interest. So I would explore every family concerts, go hear chorus, sing together at home, listen to music together, listen to a wide array of different kinds of music Read music books, explore it with your child and then see where their interest takes them.
[00:25:33] Carolyn Sloan: I had parents who wrote to me and said, my, my daughter can talk nothing about anything except the cello. All she wants to do is play the cello. And I said, so are you getting a cello? You have to listen to your kids. I am not an indulgent parent by any means, but if your kid is repeatedly telling you something like, I really want to play the cello, mom, I think you got to listen.
[00:25:58] Carolyn Sloan: So there are places to [00:26:00] rent instruments. You do not have to buy one. Cellos come in all different sizes. Violins come in all different sizes, right? Piano is a good place to start, but don't, I wouldn't jump into lessons right away until your kid says, Hey, can I take piano lessons? You don't have to make a huge investment, but I would say you have to listen to your kids.
[00:26:22] Carolyn Sloan: I think it's really important if you do decide to give your child lessons that you really research the teachers enough because I'm sorry to say there are teachers and then there are teachers, so I would say a good way to find a teacher might be.
[00:26:44] Carolyn Sloan: Obviously, through another parent recommendation, you want to be careful because if you go too heavily in and expect too much of a young child in terms of practice, you're going to turn them off and you don't want to do that small bites, 10 [00:27:00] minutes when they're 5, 15, 20 minutes when they're 6.
[00:27:04] Carolyn Sloan: half an hour when they're seven, really it, it's not about sitting there and practicing for an hour with voice. I say no practice when they're children they should just be singing just for fun. Not until they're like 14, 15, 16. Can you really start? In earnest. And even then that's young.
[00:27:24] Carolyn Sloan: And for boys it's different, of course, 'cause their voice changes. So I would wait until their voice matures. But I think it's just about keeping kids active in music. So if you don't have a music program and they wanna study research, the teachers, go to a local music school, talk to your friends, who's the popular piano teacher in town?
[00:27:43] Carolyn Sloan: Make sure that there's a balance of reading an application. And small amounts of practice, I don't subscribe to only playing by ear or only reading music. You have to do both. You have to use your ear and you have to be able to read. [00:28:00] And too many teachers I think lean one way or the other. So I would say that's a big pitfall.
[00:28:06] Carolyn Sloan: So
[00:28:06] Dori Durbin: really you're having them follow their passion and their attention span again.
[00:28:10] Carolyn Sloan: Yes. And look, kids passions are going to change. So you that's why you don't make a huge investment right away. Like the reason I started playing piano was because my aunt didn't want her piano and my mother said, Oh send it to us.
[00:28:25] Carolyn Sloan: And I'll give Carolyn piano lessons she didn't know whether I was going to like it or not. buT I did, I loved it. And so then that was the beginning.
[00:28:35] Dori Durbin: That's good insight for parents who their kids have shown interest and it hasn't been something that they've really spent time letting them explore and see if it's worth getting a piano or not.
[00:28:46] Carolyn Sloan: Exactly. Yeah, don't invest in a real piano until you know for sure, unless you want to play it. That's different. But and also, actually that is like the best way to get your kids into music to be perfectly [00:29:00] Frank is for you to be the one who's oh, man, I really always wanted to play the guitar.
[00:29:05] Carolyn Sloan: I'm getting a guitar and I'm going to study and I'm going to take a lesson. I'm going to practice. It's the same thing they tell you with reading, right? If you want your kids to read, then they have to see you reading. If you want your kids to play an instrument, they need to see you involved somehow, some way.
[00:29:21] Carolyn Sloan: And, a big part of elementary education is modeling,
[00:29:25] Dori Durbin: right? That is so true.
[00:29:27] Dori Durbin: Okay, so I know you just gave us great ideas for parents who want their kids to progress in music. What about just parenting in general? What are three to five things that you feel every parent should be helping their kid
[00:29:40] Carolyn Sloan: do?
[00:29:41] Carolyn Sloan: Oh what sticks out to me is I think 1st of all, every child is different. Every family is different. And I hesitate to ever subscribe to a should write what we should do. But I think modeling is at the top of the list. We forget that we [00:30:00] teach. Every second of the day, we don't realize that we're doing it, but we are, and that was a big reason why I also started teach me TV was because kids are bombarded all day long
[00:30:17] Carolyn Sloan: stuff we don't necessarily want them to see and so we have to be more judicious as parents about what our kids see and listen to and hear and are exposed to as much as possible and that's why we are trying to create this. ecosystem, if you will, this world where kids can be on their own and you don't have to worry.
[00:30:43] Carolyn Sloan: But I think parents need to curate that kind of environment for their children. And I think most parents would agree that they try very hard to do that. So it's about modeling. It's about making sure that you create or curate an environment for your [00:31:00] kids. That is suitable for them, whatever that is.
[00:31:04] Carolyn Sloan: So if they love music, then it's like a music heavy environment. If they, love soccer, then, it's lots of games after school, or if they love to work on Sudoku puzzles, then they're like a math number logic kid, and and find things to make that universe for your kid that Really helps to bring out the best in them.
[00:31:27] Carolyn Sloan: I would say those are the two big things and then the other things are obvious, support them, love them, talk to them and get to know them I often would ask my son questions when he was very little as if I was not his mom and because we don't realize that we make a lot of assumptions about our kids because they're our kids.
[00:31:54] Carolyn Sloan: And, they're going to be like us just because they live with us and they're going to, and they look at us [00:32:00] and they imitate us constantly. But they're also their own people. So I'm a big proponent of who is this person sitting in front of me? And I didn't do the same thing with my students , a good part of the lesson would be like, Hey, what'd you do this week?
[00:32:16] Carolyn Sloan: And how do you, how are you feeling? And what do you, and just that relationship of getting to know your student or your child in that way is really powerful. It builds enormous trust and that trust. Really opens them up and makes them more curious, more willing to try things more willing to fail and make mistakes.
[00:32:41] Carolyn Sloan: And that's really an important part of learning. And I've learned this the hard way, so I don't want anyone out there to think that I'm just saying this. No, I learned this the hard way. I've made tons of mistakes and but I've been very metacognitive about these mistakes. Realizing there were mistakes [00:33:00] and have wanted very much to correct them, make them better.
[00:33:05] Dori Durbin: I Think most of us would say that we have our good parenting days and we have our bad parenting days. And if you can recoil and recover from your bad ones to make them good ones in the future, then you've done a great thing. So
[00:33:17] Carolyn Sloan: exactly.
[00:33:18] Carolyn Sloan: I'm really hypersensitive to some of this parenting, like we all get so much information about what it means to be a great parent.
[00:33:25] Carolyn Sloan: And I, first of all, I don't think there's one way to be a great parent and it really depends upon your kids to what's great for one is not great for the other. So you really have to trust yourself and get to know your kids and if you love them and listen to them and allow them to have some agency in their lives, I think you're going to do a great job.
[00:33:44] Carolyn Sloan: I often think about something that Jackie Onassis, Jackie Kennedy said. About her own life and her own Children. And because she's highly educated and very capable and people often asked her like, why didn't she [00:34:00] do more in her career and she said, if I don't raise two children that are wonderful. Wonderful, productive humans and good citizens, then I have failed. And I thought, I agree with that because if you're going to bother to have children they cannot be an afterthought.
[00:34:22] Dori Durbin: That's awesome. It's probably the best parenting advice you could have given. All right, good. Carolyn, where can they find your Welcome to Series and especially your Welcome to the Opera?
[00:34:34] Dori Durbin: Sure. Okay, so Welcome, the Welcome to Series, Welcome to the Symphony, Welcome to Jazz, and Welcome to the Opera can be purchased anywhere books are sold.
[00:34:46] Dori Durbin: And if you're a big, convenient person like I am, and I say that with a certain sadness, because I don't like that about myself, but it is what it is, you can purchase it on Amazon. It is on Amazon and there are reviews there and you [00:35:00] can see all of the books are there. So you can put in, welcome to the opera book or, welcome to the symphony or welcome to jazz and all come up. So Yeah, anywhere books are sold.
[00:35:11] Dori Durbin: Okay. And then how about your teach me TV? Teach
[00:35:15] Carolyn Sloan: Me TV, our website is www. teachmetv. org. C o not dot com. So please look for the C o teach me tv dot c o.
[00:35:27] Carolyn Sloan: And you can find us there. You can also follow us at teach me tv on instagram or facebook. We do have a tick tock channel, but it's very new. I'm doing that more as a necessary evil. I know there are Tik TOK fans out there, but I'm new to Tik TOK. And yeah, so you can follow us on social media and please find us on the worldwide web.
[00:35:53] Dori Durbin: Fabulous. Thank you so much for your insight and your passion for kids. This has been great.
[00:35:59] Carolyn Sloan: Oh, [00:36:00] thank you for having me, Dory. It was really so nice to talk to you.