The Self-Reg View of: Freedom
Balance ⊢ Freedom I am still trying to understand the meaning of what we saw on the weekend of March 24, 2018: the March for our Lives. Teens around the world, rising up against – what [...]
10, 9, 8, 7… | A Self-Reg Look At Countdowns
Countdowns. As we're approaching the middle of June, there's no doubt about it that year-end countdowns will start soon. The warmer weather doesn't help with this. I often say that the weather puts children into [...]
The Girl In Red: Reframing a Management Strategy
By: Dr. Laura Cesaroni This happened recently, with a 7 year old girl. I asked, "How was your day at school?” Truly I wasn't attending closely, looking down, and busy taking notes. Silence. I pause, this feels [...]
Why I Love Hearing Dr. Shanker Speak Live
I have many reasons to look forward to the Self-Reg Summer Symposium each year. One of them is meeting people: I work on my own out of a home office, so I don’t get the [...]
Self-Reg Gets an Enthusiastic Response in New Zealand
By: Norah Fryer I have known and learned from Stuart Shanker for 10 years. I feel fortunate to have been to be influenced by Stuart, and I share his belief that our ability to engage [...]
Teens and Motivation: Are We Focusing On the Wrong Part of the Brain?
In some ways, Janus would be the perfect symbol for Self-Reg. Partly, because Janus was the god of beginnings and transitions; but mostly, because Janus’ two faces were supposed to represent looking to the future [...]
When And How Do Perceptions Matter?
My teaching partner, Paula, and I spend a lot of time discussing Self-Reg. We often talk about our students, and what we're noticing in the classroom. Is their behaviour changing? Why might it be changing? [...]
The Importance of Fun in Kids’ Self-Regulation
This post is part of our Everyday Self-Reg series. When I was 21, my buddy Tom and I had this half-baked, youthfully idealistic notion that a lot of the world’s problems and conflicts could be [...]
Girls, Body Image, and Food
Susan Hopkins initiates a discussion on how best to help girls develop healthy and positive relationships with their bodies and food. She shares some of her own experiences around this issue and talks about the [...]
Reframing Is Ageless
By: Nancy Niessen When I began formally learning about Self-Regulation I was an educator in the public school system looking for ways to better support my students. In particular, I wanted to find more ways [...]
When Not Complying Is The Self-Regulated Choice
Today was a Day 4, which means that I have a prep period at the end of the day: it's music. Since we don't have a separate music room at our school, our music teacher [...]
What Is the Most Important Factor in Good Parenting?
This post is part of our Everyday Self-Reg series. I have spent almost thirty years writing about parenting. That includes: over 150 magazine articles more than a dozen parenting booklets brochures, blogs and web content [...]
Can Self-Reg Help Me Brave the Before Care Program?
For the past 1 1/2 years, our Kindergarten classroom has been used for a Kindergarten After Care Program. As somebody that likes organization in the classroom, and the ability to come in early and stay [...]
Supporting My Daughter Through a Big Disappointment: How We Respond to Strong Emotion as a Self-Reg Parent
Susan Hopkins and Stuart Shanker use a situation from Susan’s parenting experience as a teachable moment about the Self-Reg approach to helping children deal with strong emotions. They discuss the difference between the cognitive approach — [...]
The Self-Reg View of Constant Craving
By: Dr. Stuart Shanker Experiments are all around us, if only we take the time to observe and reflect on them. We just had one with our 16-year-old son that would have been so easy [...]
Is It Our Fears That Are Stopping Kids? A Self-Reg Look At Risky Play
The snowfall over the winter holidays led to lots of amazing snow structures at our school. One morning, when we made our way out to the forest to play, students saw this structure that a [...]
See A Teenager Differently
A Self-Reg Reframe of a Teen "At-Risk" My teenage years remain a blur. I was one of the troubled ones. I was “THAT” teenager—the at-risk kind of kid that neighbours whispered about and relatives avoided [...]
Self-Reg: Looking to the Future
There is a widespread tendency to see resilience as a trait. For Self-Reg, it is an aspiration. We are constantly looking for ways to build a child or teen’s resilience: their capacity, as Ungar puts [...]
Our Top 10 Self-Reg Blog Posts of 2017
As we come to the end of another calendar year, Stuart Shanker, Susan Hopkins, and The MEHRIT Centre team have been reflecting with gratitude on our ongoing Self-Reg journey and the many lovely lessons learned [...]
Crisis Averted, Trajectory Changed
By: Cathern Lethbridge Four years ago, I was following a Twitter feed that literally changed my career and my life. I started seeing people posting tweets with photos of slides from a man talking about [...]