Dear Reader,

Today’s guest, Lindsey Goff Viducich loves kids. She is an author and educator who spent more than a decade teaching young children before moving into school leadership and student support. Lindsey is the coauthor of ‘Love Does for Kids’, ‘Everybody’, ‘Always for Kids’, and ‘Dream Big for Kids’. Her newest picture book, ‘The Amazing Brain Club: God’s Special Design for All Brains’, celebrates the creativity, strengths, and wonderfully different ways kids’ brains work. Lindsey lives in San Diego with her husband and their two kids. When she isn’t writing or working with students and teachers, you can usually find her painting or heading off on an adventure with her family.

Lindsey is giving away 3 copies of her book ‘The Amazing Brain Club.’ To enter the drawing send her an email: lindsey.viducich@gmail.com

Very early on in my teaching career, I had a student who forever changed the way I see kids.

He came into my class with a reputation. He was the kind of kid who was always moving, always talking, and quite literally bouncing off the walls. He had so much energy in his little body he could have powered Chicago.

Around that time, I heard our school was starting a jump rope club. I asked his parents if they would be willing to let him join, and we made a plan together. I would go to every meeting as his behavior support and, more importantly, his fan club.

And then I watched something beautiful happen.

He got a club T-shirt that matched the other kids. He started practicing jump rope with them on the playground. He learned new tricks. He had teammates. He had a place to belong and shine.

And this kid who could have such a hard time making it through the school day was the best kid in jump rope club.

It made me realize that all that energy had never been the problem. It just needed somewhere to go.

I think of it like a truck without traction. You can press the gas as hard as you want, but if the tires can’t grip the ground, mud just flies everywhere. Give those same tires something solid underneath them, and suddenly all that power can take you somewhere.

That kid had a lot of power. Jump rope club gave him traction.

I’ve never forgotten it, and even now, more than a decade later, I can’t think about that precious kid without a lump in my throat.

Since then, I’ve tried to look differently at the things kids do that can feel tricky to manage as a grown-up. What I’ve come to believe wholeheartedly is that kids’ behaviors are, more than anything, a signal of their greatest strengths waiting for support. The kid who never stops talking is a gifted public speaker. The kid who tattles has an incredible sense of justice. The kid who interrupts, argues, or negotiates has confidence and determination that will serve them beautifully someday, if they are taught how to use those skills to cause positive change in the world.

Kids need safe grown-ups who can look beyond the mud flying everywhere and see the amazing strength underneath it.

Because of one little boy and a jump rope club, I find myself asking a different question when a child is struggling.

Not, “What is wrong with you?”

But, “What is everything that’s right with you?”

What is the gift here, and how can I help you put it into action?

— Lindsey Goff Viducich

Lindsey is giving away 3 copies of her book ‘The Amazing Brain Club.’ To enter the drawing send her an email: lindsey.viducich@gmail.com

Thanks for reading with me. It’s so good to read with friends.

* I hope you enjoyed reading today’s guest column. Start writing, because your story could be featured in one of Suzanne’s daily columns, if you’re a First, Second, Third Place or Honorable Mention winner in this year’s Write a DearReader contest. Cash prizes, rules and deadlines, along with last year’s winning entries, read all about them here.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com