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Tuesday Talks!
Join me for weekly discussions about ALL things education...from preschool through high school! As a mom, Speech Language Pathologist, and educator, I share my personal experiences related to each week's topic in relatable and informative ways.
My message about education is powerful: Reflecting on what is and making waves to cause change!
Tuesday Talks!
Back to School: Parent-Child Conversations That Matter
Send us your thoughts about this week's episode!
The first week of school is in the books — and today, I’m sitting down with my favorite 10-year-old (and special guest!) to talk all about it. 🎒
In this fun and honest conversation, we cover:
✅ What went well during the first week back
✅ What didn’t go so smoothly (and how he handled it)
✅ Goals he’s setting for himself this school year
✅ How we’re getting back into the school groove as a family
Whether you’re a parent looking for ideas to connect with your kids or a teacher curious about a student’s perspective, this episode is full of laughs, insights, and practical takeaways.
💬 Parents — try these reflection questions with your own kids after school!
💬 Teachers — share this with families to help spark conversations at home.
📌 Listen now and get inspired to kick off the school year right!
Tuesday Talks—Real conversations sparking real change in education.
New episodes every Tuesday!
Links to all episodes ➡️ https://linktr.ee/drtiffanyslp
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Connect with us via email at info@ourwordsmatterllc.com!
Tuesday Talks is hosted by Dr. Tiffany. She has been a Speech/Language Pathologist for 20 years. She's also a speaker and educational consultant. Dr. Tiffany hosts webinars and in-person workshops for teachers and parents.
Book Dr. Tiffany as a speaker for your teachers, parent groups and professional development sessions! Our Words Matter Consulting
Welcome to Tuesday Talks, your educational podcast, helping parents become strong advocates for their kids and teachers to make big impacts in the classroom. Here we go, hey, hey, hey, welcome everybody. Season three, season three. We made it to season three. If you caught my teaser from last week, you know that tonight is our first episode of season three. Dr Val has decided to focus her attention on her amazing youth girls events that she's putting together. So you just get me solo, solo, dolo. I feel like we used to say that when we were younger. So yeah, season three, I have some amazing topics lined up for you. We are back, so make sure you go ahead and hit subscribe if you're listening to me on it. The same information, same vibe from last year's episodes, last school year's episodes.
Speaker 1:This school year we are going to hit the ground running and I have a very special guest. I thought it would be great to have an amazing special guest for our first episode. I'm going to give you a little bio about our first guest of season three. He is an amazing fifth grader starting fifth grade for this school year. He is interested in sports, in technology. He has lots of opinions about a lot of things. Lots of spunk. He is interested in either going into the military, becoming a pilot, playing college football, playing in the NFL so many different things.
Speaker 1:I'm going to bring on my very special 10-year-old guest, Uriah. Special 10 year old guest. Uriah, Did you like that introduction? Yes, that was right off the top, I didn't have to write that out. So thanks for coming on our first episode of the season. I appreciate it. Uriah is always in the background giving me tips, suggestions. Do this mom, It'll make you look better. Do that mom, Make sure people see it. So I appreciate you, Thank you. So we are kicking off the new school year right. If you're here in Georgia, maybe in the Atlanta metro area, your kids probably started school this past Monday metro area. Your kids probably started school this past monday and uriah did too.
Speaker 2:So the summer went by. Do you think it went by fast or slow? Fast, it felt like as soon as I went to my dad's house and came back. And then where did we go? We went to dc. You could tell I'm a hat, this is Washington DC. We went to DC first, and then I went to my dad's house. It felt like in DC it was only like four days, but wasn't it like five?
Speaker 1:Well, it was four. We went there for our family reunion.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and then I went to my dad's house for three weeks, right.
Speaker 1:Well out of order. But yes, you did both of those things this summer.
Speaker 2:Oh, I went to my dad's house first, yeah, and then we went to the beach at Fort Walton and then I had to go to school wow you.
Speaker 1:You put your head down like and then I had to go to school.
Speaker 1:You weren't excited, I wanted an extra week of summer break, just one extra week, like all these other kids are getting yeah, but the other kids get out later than you too, so there's a trade-off. You know, gotta pick what's more important. You want to start early so you can get out early, or start later and get out later. Either way you're doing the same amount of school days, so it doesn't really matter. So I wanted to ask you your first week back. You're officially done first week of of fifth grade in the books, so how do you feel about the first week?
Speaker 2:If you watch the other video, I, like I said, decent.
Speaker 1:Decent? Yeah, that was the word you used to describe it, but that was kind of in the middle of the week when we posted that video. So now that you're at the end of it, would you still say it was decent?
Speaker 2:it was what's better than decent, but like not decent um, maybe good would good be.
Speaker 1:A good, would good be a good word to describe it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good would be a good word okay, so it was a good week.
Speaker 1:What was it that made it get better towards the end of the week?
Speaker 2:um. It got funner more fun.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, it got more fun, but what? What made it get more fun? What happened? We had?
Speaker 2:the forest games football sprints. I lost the sprint because people were pushing and shoving and I tripped and then I got in last place.
Speaker 1:Dang Well. I'm glad that it got better as the week went on and just so people know, you got a new guide this year, right.
Speaker 2:Yes, I got to get used to the new guide and Mr Gage.
Speaker 1:Well, you know change. We all have to deal with change. So this is a good way for you to learn how to handle it. But you were not a fan at the start of the school year. A start of the? Yeah, this past week, the first day.
Speaker 2:And I told you what you gotta give him another chance.
Speaker 1:Give him a chance, right y'all? Uriah went to school pumped. He was up early Monday. He was dressed lunch. Yes, he was up early. He was up even before I woke up to work out. So he was up early. He was pumped ready for it.
Speaker 2:He got out the car big smiles, the staff is all welcoming the kids. They walk in. I go pick him up and he was so sad you were looking like your puppy ran away or something and what did you say?
Speaker 1:I have to get used to the new teacher. Well, you first said you weren't feeling him. No, yeah, but what was it about him? That's different from last year's guide. What was it that you were like I'm not feeling him we last year we got into the fun stuff.
Speaker 2:We jumped into the fun stuff that first day. Like I'm not saying, learning at school is bad or anything but like usually on the first week of school, everybody doing something fun on the first, second, the first and second day of school what, oh you guys, so you weren't doing a lot of fun stuff.
Speaker 1:The first year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like the rest of the school.
Speaker 1:So what were y'all doing?
Speaker 2:We were doing like getting to know each other. But on the first day everybody knew each other because of that first knowing thing. But then next day we had to get to know each other again. I can name almost everybody in that class.
Speaker 1:So then I would say that that was an effective get to know. You set of days, because now you know even the new students.
Speaker 2:No, I know everybody's name in the classroom. The first day we had to say our names.
Speaker 1:And you memorize everybody's name. I think the new guy really wanted you all. First of all, he wanted to get to know you, so I think introducing yourselves many times was more for him than it was for y'all. Right, he's getting to know you, putting names with faces, all that stuff and I think he just wanted to set the tone. You know, I know for myself when I was doing speech therapy with the kids the first session, we might do something a little bit fun, but I also wanted to set the tone so that y'all knew the kids that I was working with knew I'm not a pushover. You can't just be acting crazy in here. We come here to learn. So I think he wanted to set that tone. So do you think he did that?
Speaker 2:Well, I have no words for that one. That was expected.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that that's why he did it. So if you think about this past week, you got to know your guide better. The week got better. What's one thing you're really proud of from this first week of school?
Speaker 2:I did a presentation on my summer. We don't say students, we say learners. I was a learner to do a launch. Launches are presentations. Kids can do launches, but mostly the guys are doing launches.
Speaker 1:Okay, so your launch was about summer vacation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my summer vacation. Some of my questions were like if you could go? You guys can actually answer these in the comments, but some of these questions were if you could go, where did you go for your summer? What would your dream summer vacation be? And if you could go anywhere in the world for summer, where would you go?
Speaker 1:and what was the feedback from your peers in class?
Speaker 2:that was wednesday, it's Sunday.
Speaker 1:So you're saying you don't remember? I mean, did they have good things to say?
Speaker 2:They answered every single one of my questions.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, so you do remember. I don't remember what they said. Yeah, I wasn't asking you for a quote, so you're proud of that. I'm glad it went well. I know you prepped a lot, even last minute in the car using my phone to get on Canva, cause you forgot to add your questions to the last slide, speaking of which I came in pretty clutch this week when you say wow, wow, can't even give me my props. Y'all delayed. Uriah forgot to put the questions on his last slide, so I'm like, just use my phone, get on camera. We on the way to school. Then what was it the next day? Y'all were doing tabletop games and you were supposed to bring a game.
Speaker 2:And then she brought she luckily, she had the mini games in her purse and she gave me those.
Speaker 1:That's right. Miniature Uno, miniature Connect Four Spotted Right.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I keep those mini games, the small games, in the car because you never know when you're going to be bored out of your mind and you need to play a game, and they came in handy for you to take to school.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I patted myself on the back for that one, because I feel good when I can help you solve problems. I can't do it all the time, but when I can I pat myself on the back. So thank you. But I want to talk about getting back into the groove of going to school, because summer is filled with late nights. It's filled with early, you know, like later mornings you're waking up later, but now, when school's back, you got to go to bed earlier, you got to wake up earlier, so how was that switch?
Speaker 2:I was, I would either wait on the first day of school I was up at like 2 o'clock. I couldn't go back to sleep because I was like and on the second day of school I kind of got used to it. No, no, no, no, I did not get used to it. No no no, no, I did not get used to waking up at 6.57. I'm used to sleeping in. Today, yesterday, saturday, I woke up and I was like, why isn't my alarm going off.
Speaker 1:That means you were sleeping good if you forgot what day it was, yeah, yeah. So in the mornings you have your morning routine. I know you're getting used to waking yourself up again with your alarm. Parents, pro tip, start setting that alarm so your kids get themselves up. That takes a load off of you in the morning. Make sure that you might need to go to bed early tonight. That was a big yawn.
Speaker 2:No, it was just that I was up at 6 58 I don't know why, but because I'm, like, used to um waking up at like on a school day. I'm forcing myself to wake up early on the weekends, to get used to it I got you.
Speaker 1:So, parents, if you're still waking your kids up and they're, I would say, third grade and older it's time to hand that responsibility over to them. Get an alarm, set it, start teaching them to wake themselves up, because if you don't, you'll be waking them up for forever. And if they get up, hit it, turn it off and go back to sleep. Set a second alarm, set a third alarm. They have got to learn how to do that for themselves. So, anyway, uriah is waking himself up in the morning, but you were forgetting some things. We were getting in the car riding to school, and I go through my same questions. I ask every morning what are they?
Speaker 2:Did you wash your face? Did you lotion? Did you brush your teeth?
Speaker 1:And did you put on?
Speaker 2:deodorant.
Speaker 1:Deodorant, because them 10-year-old armpits can get a little fresh, not in a good way. So I ask the same four questions every morning and you were forgetting to do many of those things.
Speaker 2:It wasn't brush my teeth, though.
Speaker 1:Okay, you get credit for that.
Speaker 2:I did lotion and put on deodorant and wash my face on the first and second day of school.
Speaker 1:Yes, my love, those are things you're supposed to do every day.
Speaker 2:So you see, here I was tired.
Speaker 1:So that means you can go to school ashy, with no deodorant and a dirty face huh we listen and we don't judge I listen to you say, no, you didn't wash your face, no, you didn't lotion, no, you didn't put deodorant. And then I judge. I judge your judgment because something is off. We've been doing this routine for many, many days and I know we're getting back into the school groove. So what did we decide to do on friday? I?
Speaker 2:mean, I had to make a chart. I did. You want me to go get?
Speaker 1:it? No, I don't. So your chart, what did it? Do you remember the things you put on it? You should, you made it and it's the things that you do every morning. Wake up. That was on the list.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's important wake up, go downstairs, talk to mommy yeah make my lunch yeah go upstairs, get dressed, brush my teeth, wash my face, put on deodorant lotion and then we leave.
Speaker 1:yeah, and then it's time to leave the house. Now, your list wasn't in the order of things the way I would do it, but I let you own it and put it in your own sequence, and we put some boxes next to it. We laminated that thing, so you're going to get your dry erase marker and my requirement now, since you weren't able to remember all these things every day consistently is that you are going to do what Check off everything while I do it.
Speaker 1:Check it off in the morning, and then you can turn the TV on.
Speaker 2:Turn the TV on. Turn the TV on.
Speaker 1:And then you can watch TV after you've done all of those things. So I'm hoping that that will minimize the use of lotion and deodorant in the car on the way to school, because those things should be done at home. So, parents, if you need help with your kid remembering to do the things, instead of you having to tell them every morning because I have my own stuff to get ready in the morning, so make a checklist, have them make a checklist, print it off, stick it, put it on a sticky note in the bathroom mirror, on their bedroom dresser mirror, somewhere where they can see it, and then they can go down that list to check things off. So I'm hoping that next week we have different results because you know you turn double digits. It's time to own a clean face, nice smelling armpits and well-moistured they always smell good.
Speaker 1:Until after school. Okay, I want to talk about goals for this school year. I know your school sets goals for everybody, but what are some personal goals that you are setting for yourself?
Speaker 2:trying to get to 6, sixth grade by.
Speaker 1:January. Okay, so how are you going to do that?
Speaker 2:Lock in on my work and probably sit alone.
Speaker 1:So why is that important for you to start sixth grade in January? Why is it important you to rush through fifth grade?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm trying to get to sixth grade and go to middle school with my friends, because, yeah, james will be there, my other friends will be there, and also, if I get to sixth grade early, I can work on completing my sixth grade. And if I do manage to complete my sixth grade before summer, I'll be in seventh grade for the next year.
Speaker 1:So that's a big goal. You're going to have to lock in, not just in school, but out of school too. So, just so you know, uriah goes to a self-directed learning school so they're able to complete their work as fast or as slow as they want and he can bump up to the next grade in the middle of a school year.
Speaker 1:but that requires a ton of work and I know last year you set that as a goal for yourself. I believe that you can do it, but there were some things last year that you guys switch up because you didn't make that goal last year. So what are you going to change and do differently?
Speaker 2:probably sit next to my friends in whisper core skills, but in silent core skills people still talk, so I'll probably still sit next to James, but he said he's gonna walk in on his work too. We'll probably sit together. I'll give him like a reminder if he's doing something.
Speaker 1:So I'm like work.
Speaker 2:You got this.
Speaker 1:Come on, work up, and by that time, if we work hard enough, we'll probably get to middle school, okay so I think that you made a really good point there linking up with a friend who's on the same path as you, making sure you're choosing the people to be around mostly throughout the school day that are on the same trajectory, the same path as you right, you're locked in, so you're linking up with a friend who's locked in. You're locked in, so you're not linking up with a friend who is just kind of like, whatever I can do my work or not do my work, and I choose not to do it. I think that's really important, so I think that's a really good change to make from last school year. Okay, big question, be honest, but you don't have to be brutally honest. Okay, okay, what is one thing that you would like me to chill out on this school year?
Speaker 1:that you would like me to chill out on this school year being on my back. Okay, so you want me to get off your back? Is there a specific?
Speaker 2:thing you want me to get off your back about. I don't know, but like last year, I wasn't able to do a lot of stuff. I think this year I've changed. I've got more mature with my schoolwork and stuff and maybe I'll be able to go through and still have the same privileges that I had on my first year of school going able to watch TV going home and making sure I stay ahead on my first year of school going able to watch TV going home and making sure I stay ahead on my work.
Speaker 1:Okay. So once you prove yourself to me that you can handle the responsibilities that come along with being a fifth grade student, then I'll back off some. But until then, I'm on you. I have to be, or else we're going to find ourselves in the same position as last school year, where it was December and you were like we both were like, oh crap. Now we got to like put our foot on the gas. So I am going to honor your request, but you got to hold up your end of the bargain. Sound fair, yeah, okay. Last question what's one thing that you wish adults understood about being a kid, as they're starting a new school year?
Speaker 2:give them like five, four, three weeks, check on them three, four weeks and make sure they're doing good in their school work. If they're not, then you need to get a little bit more, just a little bit aggressive, trying to like get them to work, because they'll get held back probably, um, and nobody wants that um, so like um, what you want to do is really, if it's like three or four weeks, you want to check on them in between those weeks, like in my school. What I think think is, at the end of my one-week break, at the end of the session, you should check in on me to make sure I'm doing good, check my badges, check my Lexi and Zern stuff like that.
Speaker 1:They'll give you all the way until the end of the first session. That's five weeks, so don't check in until then. I don't know if I'm capable. It's like not in my nature to not check in, so we gotta find a compromise. I can't go five weeks okay three why aren't we checking in on a weekly basis? That's what I'm confused about.
Speaker 2:Because you need to, like, give them, give me time, and then, like, if I'm not at a certain period that you want me to be at, like let's say, lexia, you say you want me to complete this unit in three weeks. Say, lexia, you say you want me to complete this unit in three weeks, and if I don't complete that goal this is just my opinion, not parents, this is just my opinion if I don't complete that goal by the end of the week, or I mean in three weeks then I have to do. I won't be able to do something like, let's say, I won't be doing work over the weekends, but I'll have to like, if I want to come home and watch TV on that day, I have to work double that school, okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, so how about the compromise is? I can do a light check-in at the end of each week and then at the end of three weeks. Then we like dive in deep and I check the progress.
Speaker 2:I'm asking very specific questions but week to week. I can just say how's it going. Okay, does that work? Yes, I also have a story, so I lost my tooth today. Yes, he did. It feels weird. It feels weird and it was wiggly. I wiggled it wrong and it was hanging on my friend. I wiggled it again and it was hanging on my friend. I wiggled it again.
Speaker 1:it got looser and then I just took it out with my finger which is pretty amazing that he pulled his own tooth out, because if y'all could have seen him, the very first tooth that was loose in his mouth, it was about 90 minutes to two hours that it took for him to let his dad pull the tooth. That was literally hanging. He couldn't even bite food like normal. It was causing him pain, but he went I mean it was so dramatic Pulled this tooth. Yeah, we don't have to go through, relive that trauma, but I'm glad that now you're pulling out your own teeth. Congratulations, all right. Well, thank you, uriah, for being my first guest. I'ma hold you to all those things that you said this school year was gonna entail what's your duolingo streak?
Speaker 1:oh my gosh, we don't need to get into that. I'm gonna get back on track. You're doing great I feel like a streak.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to learn spanish. It's a 40 duolingo streak.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to get to 350 so he's been doing duolingo for 40 days straight. I was on a good run for like two weeks and then I fell off, so so I'm going to get back on it. I appreciate you sending me a couple of freeze days yeah, to freeze my shit. Xp boost yeah, I appreciate it. So I'm going to get back on track.
Speaker 2:Wasting my gems.
Speaker 1:All right, thank you. See you later, uriah, bye, bye. So, parents, if your kids have already started the school year or are getting ready to start the school year, I wanted to leave you with some tips that I think will be really helpful. So, when you are getting prepped for that, back to school, ask them how they're feeling about it. Are you excited about going back? Are you kind of blah about going back? Let them be honest. If they're not interested, then let them not be interested. If they are interested, then feed that. If they're not interested, ask them questions about why a new friend making a new friend. Maybe they're going to transition into another school, like fifth grade going to sixth grade. Now they're going to middle school. Now they'll have team sports there that you can play. So, highlighting some of those things for them and then allow them just to answer with one word. I know I'm guilty of this too With Uriah. You can see he's very chatty, but sometimes he's just giving me one word and I'm like no, tell me more, tell me more. Maybe that's all they have, maybe that's all they got One word. So let them give you that one word answer. Also, ask them some concrete questions instead of at the end of the day, like how was school? How about you ask what did your teacher talk to you about today? How was the cafeteria at lunch? What did you all do at recess?
Speaker 1:Ask those very specific questions and then start to talk about challenges that they might come up with as they're working towards their goals. Because I know if you watched last season then you know you all should be setting goals with your kid, just like Uriah has set his goal to be done with fifth grade by January. I personally think that's a very lofty goal. I've reminded him that last year his goal was to be done with fourth grade before January and it didn't happen. He wasn't even like halfway through fourth grade by January. We had to have a whole come to Jesus moment. But that's his goal. I'm going to let him have it and I'm going to check in with him to make sure he's staying on track. And then, if he doesn't meet the goal, you know we'll address that and talk about what challenges prevented him. Maybe they were external, maybe they were internal and we got to take some ownership about that too. So encourage, ask those questions about what they plan to do to get ahead, to stay on track.
Speaker 1:Add some silly and imaginative questions to those talking moments that you have with them. Keep it light and enjoyable. Use some hypothetical questions to spark some creativity. If your teacher could have a superpower or be a superhero, what would you want them to have? If you could have a superpower or be a superhero? If your kids are older, what is one thing that you wish your class did every day to help get kids motivated? And maybe that's something they can talk to the teacher about? Maybe that's something you can email the teacher and suggest to help get kids motivated for the day, because you know how you start the day kind of predicts how your day is going to go. If you start off blah, probably everything you encounter you're not going to be able to see the beauty in it because you started off the day with a blah mindset. So starting them off with a great mindset at the top of the morning is great, and just allow your kid to feel heard. Maybe they don't have anything good to say and you leave it at that for that moment and then you come back and revisit it later. Give them the power to share as much as they want, but know that you can always go back later and take another attempt at getting them to share more. So I hope your kids had a first great week of school, if they already started. If they haven't started yet, start talking to them about some of these things to get them ready for the first day of school.
Speaker 1:Check in often. I know Uriah said he wants me to check in every what did he say five weeks? I'm not built like that. I'm going to have to check in weekly. I know Uriah said he wants me to check in every what did he say five weeks. I'm not built like that. I'm going to have to check in weekly. I'll do a light check-in, then we'll dive deep every three weeks and I'm going to put a phone reminder so that I can remember that. I said I was going to do that because life is busy and I have to set reminders for myself, otherwise I'm not going to remember. So take some of these tips, tricks and strategies and implement them. Leave some comments, some feedback. Let me know how things are going with the start of the school year.
Speaker 1:Remember that we are streaming on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I'm going to drop new episodes every Tuesday, so we're not doing the live stream like we were previously. I'm going to drop new episodes every Tuesday, so set those reminders. Go ahead and do it right now. Set the reminder in podcast, set it on YouTube so that you know when the new episode drops, because I have some amazing topics lined up and some amazing guests, and I think you will enjoy it. So thanks for watching, share this episode with a friend, be sure to keep checking me out every week and I will see you next week with a brand new episode. Bye, be sure to share this episode and join me next week for a brand new Tuesday Talks. See ya.