We are excited to share that we have Hannah Beach, an award winning educator, author, and keynote speaker to talk to SNCDSB Parents, family members and community partners on May 7th, 2024 from 6:00 - 7:30 pm. The topic is: The Power of Relationship and Play: exploring why kids are more anxious and aggressive than ever and what we can do about it

Parents, guardians, and community members are invited to join us for a warm and conversational workshop with presenter Hannah Beach via Zoom, exploring practical strategies we can use to help our children thrive. We will learn how play can reduce aggression, lower anxiety, and build resilience. And we'll explore the emotion behind aggression so that we can jump off the exhausting hamster wheel of trying to fix behaviours over and over again - and instead look at how we can work towards lasting change. Our educators learned with Hannah in November and we knew we wanted her to speak to parents as well.

Our current culture has replaced play with entertainment. We are now seeing the emotional side effects of the loss of play in the lives of children as aggression and anxiety in our young is at an all-time high. Faced with this epidemic of emotional health crises and behavioural problems, kids are struggling, and parents are exhausted. Many of our kids are anxious and glued to their phones/devices, seeking endless distractions and feeling isolated and disconnected. Aggressive outbursts have become common, and yet others seem to have stopped talking altogether. As parents, we are increasingly alarmed. We entice, cajole, bribe, encourage, and shout, but nothing seems to work long-term.

Hannah Beach is an award-winning educator, author, emotional health consultant, and keynote speaker. She is the co-author of the best-selling book Reclaiming Our Students: Why Children Are More Anxious, Aggressive, and Shut-Down than Ever—and What We Can Do About It, with Tamara Neufeld Strijack, a trauma-informed resource for educators and parents rooted in the relationship-based approach, that has been adopted by school boards across Canada (including ours). She was recognized by the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2017 as one of five featured changemakers in Canada. Her bestselling I Can Dance book series, supporting the emotional health of children through movement, play, and expression, won a 2017 Gold International Moonbeam Children’s Book Award.

This conversation has never been more important as we look at how we can support our children in growing, developing, and discovering their best selves!

Register for this exciting opportunity online at https://forms.gle/EjsAubEthqvLEKtKA or contact your school Principal by May 2, 2024