Yellow Parachute Blog
Yellow Parachute’s Blog Mission
Our blog mission is to share the research and resources that inform our unique approach to coaching Executive Function Skills, to advocate for neurodiversity, and to uplift students, parents, educators, and leaders.
How YP Fosters Student Success
Did you know researchers have found that students typically make poor choices when they attempt to learn information on their own? We discuss some of the biases that get in the way of learning in our blog post: [...]
Ties That Bind: How Perfectionism Keeps You From Moving Forward
Perfectionism seeps in and attaches itself to every healthy intention. It blinds a soul to what is good, normal, and right, resulting in a forced compulsion only to “perform” to the expectations outside our control. Rather than feeling [...]
How To Make The Most of Teachable Moments
How are the conversations with your kiddos going? I’m a little bit behind my goal. I had two ten minute conversations—really good ones—and the other was in bits and pieces throughout the week. I filled out one form, [...]
Setting Goals With Your Kids? Expect Push-Back
So. How did your goal-setting conversations go, everyone? Anyone? Okay, I’ll start: mine were...so-so. I talked with each kiddo separately and asked them to answer some written questions. My twelve-year-old did the most comprehensive thinking. The ten and [...]
Lost In Translation: How I Learned To Stop Co-authoring My Kids’ Dreams
For a long time in our house, the parental catchphrase, “Remember your goal” led to grumpy retorts, which led to tense “conversations,” which led to a frustrated family. My husband and I couldn’t understand our kids’ lack of [...]
What Exactly Does Yellow Parachute Do? (Almost) Everything
We spend a great deal of time telling you the how and why or our teaching, what inspires us, and how we hope to inspire our students. Now, we’d like to take a few minutes to talk about [...]
The Secret Of Life (Well, A Secret Of Life)
In the introduction to his international bestseller, The Alchemist, (a YP recommendation as a summer MUST READ for kids 13-130) Paulo Coelho writes, “The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight [...]
Hot And Cranky Wins The Nothing: Getting Along With Your Family This Summer
We’re not into the dog days of summer...yet. Maybe the puppy days? With June coming to a close, your house might be turning hot and cranky if you’ve got mosquitos to swat, kid activities to shuttle to, travel [...]
How Knowing Your “Why” Helps You Know You’re Enough
Newsflash: I’m an ultrasensitive, feedback-seeking individual. Try that on for size: I want to know exactly what you’re thinking about my work, parenting, friending, advice, actions or conversation, yet I recoil in terror (and shame and disgust at [...]
How Do We Implement Individualized Learning?
This May, I had the pleasure and privilege to take part in the Bush Foundation’s Individualized Learning Conference. I was moved and inspired by the speakers and participants who’ve dedicated their careers to ensuring that all kids have access [...]
Five Steps To Academic Success
I’ve spent nearly ten rewarding years as an ACT Test Prep Coach, preparing incredible young people for over 100 ACT and SAT tests. In addition to gifting me with great joys and challenges, this work has revealed valuable [...]
What Alpha Training Taught Me About Sustainable Living
I tend to push myself hard, in all areas of life. This tendency is what first brought me to Alpha training—I wanted to be as strong and fit as I could be, keep up with my kids, and [...]
Pause Before You Post: Can Compassion Protect Our Kids From Social Media Scrutiny?
Recently I was talking with a group of friends about our teenage years in the good old days, when the past stayed in the past. We didn’t know it then, but we were lucky, shielded from everlasting scrutiny [...]
On Teaching Our Kids How to Fail
Yesterday, one of my students came to our session almost in tears. She struggles with grammar, and lately, the teacher had been asking her to correct grammatical mistakes on the board in front of her peers. Failing publicly [...]
Coach Spotlight: Susan Bloom, Test Prep Beyond the Scores
Maybe Susan Bloom has always been “good at school.” Her impressive academic credentials suggest as much—a BA in political science and economics, an MA in public policy from the University of Minnesota, a Ph.D. in political economy from [...]
Introducing YP Virtual ACT and SAT Test Prep!
We are so excited to launch a new test prep program, just in time for summer! Combining our personalized tutoring program with a proven online test prep interface, this may be the perfect, flexible solution to getting your [...]
Calling in the Jump Squad Part 2: Finding the Courage to Ask for Help
Last week we talked about how you know it’s time to hire a tutor. Still, even when all the signs are pointing that way, it can be hard to ask for help. We know. We’re supposed to be [...]
The Domino Effect: How Math Tutoring Multiplied my Son’s Successes
We talk a lot about the transformative power of reciprocity between a student and tutor (learning coach!). It’s something we believe in at our core, and so we’re always thrilled to hear success stories from our clients. Of [...]
