Geelong Regional Libraries’ 2024 Local Word Writers Festival upon us and will kick off with a workshop from author Andy McNeilly.
Andy, a teacher at Ocean Grove Primary School, released Connecting With Your Kids in 2019 and Connecting With Your Teens last year.
He said his workshop, Forming Connected Family Relationships Through Storytelling, would be “fun”.
“It’s a workshop and presentation for parents,” he said.
“A lot of parents want their kids to learn a lot of different skills – gratitude, empathy, kindness, reading body language and nonverbal skills. But how do we teach these things to kids?
We ask ‘how was your day?’ and we get ‘good’ back. Or we can ask ‘what was the best thing about your day’ and the reply can be ‘snack, downball, playing with friends’.
“By telling stories you will get more out of your kids. Teach them your own gratitude. Instead of saying ‘you should be more grateful about what you have’, tell a story about yourself. ‘I’m really grateful to have my job or my family’.”
Andy said that by using personal stories not only helps children learn skills, it also helps us to build connected relationships. The workshop is filled with stories and examples of how to do this at home.
“It’s about being vulnerable about sharing your own stories,” Andy said.
“Not what you should do, but give examples of how to. It will be an engaging Saturday morning. Parents should be able to walk out saying ‘I can do that, that’s easy’.
“It will be fun, not serious. We take this job as parents very seriously and forget to have a bit of fun with family.”
The workshop is at Ocean Grove Library on Saturday August 24 from 11am to noon. See trybooking.com/events/landing/1246583 for more information.
