The Things Children Say: Turning Children’s Hard Questions into Engaged Dialogue

In our fast-developing technological and global society, Native children are exposed to a wide range of information, experiences, and relationships, which they can find intriguing or challenging or confusing. Adults must help children navigate all that they see and hear, and the questions that emerge. How do we engage our children in thinking about their curiosities? How do we ask questions about the hard things children experience or observe in life in our communities? How do we turn children’s questions into engaged learning and moments of connection? What are the issues we, as adults, struggle with that children teach us about? How do we create space for our own learning as we teach our Indige-babies about the world around them? In this episode, we will explore these questions and experiences with panelists — parents, teachers, and program directors — who have insights and stories to share that can inform how we all can carve spaces for wondering with young children and finding answers together.

Turtle Talk is back! We invite Native parents, teachers, and caregivers, along with those working with Native children and families and those interested in the work of raising our Indigenous children, to join us for the third season of Turtle Talk: Collectively Raising Indige-babies, a BTC Family-to-Family Real Talk virtual conversation series!

All episodes are free and open access — register today for one or all conversations! All are welcome!

The series is convened by the Indigenous Early Learning Collaborative (IELC) Institute and is a fun way to engage parents and families in thinking forward about how we collectively raise Indigenous children and babies in a contemporary and fast-growing technological, global, Indigenous society. Turtle talk refers to our animal relatives speaking with one another and with us. The play on Indigenous babies, “Indige-babies” for short, in the title calls us to look just over the horizon and ask ourselves, “What will the world be like for our babies/children and families? How does being raised in this fast-evolving world with the increasing demand of digital, technological, and cultural engagement impact our traditions and approaches to raising our babies?”