Welcome to part 1 of a 4 part series entitled, “What If Wednesdays.” We’ll chat and dream big about the experiences we want for our kids. Podcast Transcript: Welcome to the Raising SmART Kids podcast! I’m your host Yong Pratt and each week we’ll explore ways in which the arts can help you raise a smarter kid. I’ll be sharing ways the arts can propel your child’s learning and interviewing top artists, educators and entrepreneurs. these guests will share why the arts are so very important to your child along with actionable ideas you can easily implement into your already busy schedules. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast here on iTunes and share us with a friend. For extra tips on raising smart kids head on over to artsmartparenting.com and click on the live tab. Hello and welcome back to the Raising SmART Kids 2.0 podcast! I’m so excited you’re tuning in today. I wanted to share a four part series but I previously shared with my performing arts academy but I haven’t shared with all of you podcast listeners and this four-part series was called ‘What If Wednesdays’ and it really let us as parents dive in to think about our kids and think about the experiences we want for them to have whether in school, outside of school or just in general. I wanted to make sure that I shared that here with you especially as we head into the holiday season, things get really really busy so I wanted 1. to keep these episodes really short and really bite-sized for you as we go into a very busy time of year and 2. because we’re getting close to Thanksgiving. This is sort of a way for us to take some time and reflect and be grateful for our kids be grateful for who they are and to really be grateful for the people that we know they’re going to be as they grow. So, over the next four weeks I will be sharing one little mini bite-sized pieces with you on our What If Wednesday series. If you have questions about any of the things we talked about on the What If series, you can head over to a different Facebook page, and as you may remember we are going to be presenting some amazing new changes in 2018 and one of the things we’re going to do is to merge two of our Facebook pages. I currently have a Facebook page for my Performing Arts Academy and a separate one for the podcast. At the time, that made a ton of sense to be able to keep them separate. But because the information that we share on the podcast and they guests that we bring on, the information they’re sharing is so, so good that I wanted to make sure that if you’re part of the Academy, you get to enjoy the podcast as well. So, as we head into the last few weeks of 2017, we’re going to start putting things over on another Facebook page which is currently called Elko Arts Academy. So if you’re a local to me, that name will make sense because it’s the location where I first opened up my studio 17 years ago. Ifyou’re not local to me, no worries. The things we’re going to be sharing on that page going into 2018 are relevant for parents of creators. And all kids are born creators-it’s just a matter of nurturing that habit of creativity. nurturing and allowing time for creativity in your home and helping kids and equipping them with skills where they can literally create their own brighter futures. With that being said, here’s episode number one of What If Wednesday. Cheers! Hey Academy families and future Academy families. I’m Yong Pratt and if I haven’t met you yet, I am the founder and director of Academy of the Arts, the author of raising a superhero: how to unleash your child’s eight super powers and propel learning through the Arts, and I’m the host of the weekly podcast Raising SmART Kids 2.0. well, it’s t-minus two and a half weeks for most kids here in Elko and Spring Creek until school officially begins. Do you have a plan of your kids activities? Are you looking for activities to engage your child’s body and their mind? Well, here at the academy we’re starting a new weekly series called What If Wednesday and today I have some questions for you. What if you could envision the perfect activities for your child after school? what would they look like? What would your kids learn? Where would they be held? How often would your kids enjoy these activities? These are just a few of the questions I’m curious to know more about and you can just comment below this video and tell me more about what you’re looking for. Here at the Academy, we believe that every student that walks through our doors has untapped super powers and together with you we’ve been put on this planet to help you unleash those super powers and find the right art form to do so if you have questions about classes or want to participate in our What If Wednesday series, I invite you to comment below and I would be happy to reach out to you to talk more about the types of activities that you’re looking for for your kids. Over the past 16 years we’ve helped thousands of families just like yours unleash your kids’ special superpowers and we use the arts as a vehicle to help teach kids confidence, instill leadership and teach them about serving their communities and using their talents to do so. Okay my friends, I am gonna hop off now but I want you to think about and comments below What If Wednesday. Today the question is What if you could envision your child’s perfect after-school activities? what would they be? When would they meet? How often would they meet and what skills and life skills would you want for your child to learn throughout their experiences? comment below and I will connect with you here on Facebook or I’ll give you a call personally. Cheers, my friends thanks for tuning into the Raising SmART Kids 2.0 podcast. We’re counting down to episode number 100 and we need your help. Head over to Elko Arts Academy on Facebook and vote for your favorite episodes. We’re going to count down listener favorites as well as my own personal favorites over these past 100 episodes. head over to Elko Arts Academy-our temporary page for the podcast before we unveil in 2018 our new name, our new mission, a brand new website, and the new direction for the podcast. Head over there and vote on your favorite podcast episodes. can you believe that by the end of 2017 we are going to hit 100 episodes? I have you to thank for that, so head over to Elko Arts Academy and let me know your favorite episodes. I’ll catch you really soon on the podcast. Cheers!
Listen to the episode (9:52)