Books on the Internet with Ale and Coco

In today’s episode of the “Helping Families Be Happy” podcast, host Dr. Carla Marie Manly, a practicing Clinical Psychologist, Wellness Advocate, and Author based in Sonoma County, California talks with guests Ale and Coco. They talk about how they use Instagram and the world of social media to help empower children, families, women, and everybody.

 

Episode Highlights

• 01:22 – Ale introduces herself and says having the internet for her has been this wonderful way of sharing things that she’s thinking with everyone and starting conversations, critical thinking, and picture books because that's what she’s really passionate about.
• 03:53 – Ale thinks that there's a lot to be said about how families are changing when they see picture books evolve over time.
• 05:03 – Coco introduces herself and says that she does a lot professionally. She talks about the theory-to-practice aspect of AR Education which is anti-bias, and anti-racist education.
• 07:30 - The whole idea of Librarian Fight Club is that she wants other people to start conversations as well, not just have it to herself, states Ale.
• 10:00 – Ale states that children's books are a reflection of society in general. 
• 12:39 – Coco says that picture books provide a very specific structure for the reader and the caregiver who might be a little bit unfamiliar with the topic that they're trying to address.
• 14:23 – Dr. Carla says, if one helps their child develop critical thinking, all that they’re asking or suggesting is that they teach the child how to ponder and assess what they hear, what they read, and what they see so that they can look at it from different perspectives.
• 16:00 – Coco explains how we can use that mirror picture book to facilitate critical thinking.
• 17:35 – We need to pick up the book, and have a goal in mind of what we want to do with this book, or have the goal in mind before we pick the book, and then come up with two or three questions that we can plant.
• 19:25 – Ale mentions that she and Coco were fundamentally a little bit opposite in their approaches to life. 
• 21:00 – Dr. Carla says that those who like to be preparing things, go with Coco's approach, and for those who like to fly by the seat of their pants listen to what Ale is saying. 
• 24:19 - Children should be allowed to be the expert of whatever they're talking about.
• 26:16 –Coco and Ale are doing great work in allowing adults to come and give their voices but also teaching children at the same time almost in a parallel way, mentions Dr. Carla.
• 28:33 - It's important that young people are given the space to not only state their opinions, but also to see examples of adults in their lives, says Coco.
• 30:20 – Ale says that if we're disagreeing with someone on the internet, we can engage with them, but we should try and engage with them as we would with a colleague or a peer.
• 32:57 – Dr. Carla says, we should give a child the chance from a very young age to learn. 
• 34:05 – Coco says, her mission aligns very similar to Ale’s where she wants families (biological or chosen) to be able to use books as resources to open up lines of communication and be able to find a space and a vocabulary for the things that may be going on inside of a tiny human.

 

Three Key Points

1. Ale mentions - it's important that we have spaces where people who have totally different ideas on things like books can talk and it's okay to not agree in the space. She does feel like one of her pet peeves with social media is that we all kind of exist in these Echo Chambers, like a bubble. We follow everybody who agrees with everything we say all of the time, and then every so often we get this weird reminder like a glimpse into this above all the people who are completely different, and every single opinion they have is different. There's never this time when we can come together and talk about something that is incredibly volatile. 
2. Coco explains - critical thinking or when we hear folks talk about critical thinking skills or development, they're talking about the ability as a human to stop and think about for a moment of fact. So, for instance, critical thinking can look a whole bunch of different ways. It could be us reading a newspaper headline that somebody shared on Instagram and being like, hold on a second. It's the ability to look at a piece of information and think about it from all angles, it is a good skill for any human to have. It's definitely a big goal to help kids develop those skills.
3. Dr. Carla says - social media ways and technology have made us a little more separate from each other and Ale and Coco have initiated such a beautiful movement. They both are engaged in helping people to come together through books and reading as well as by having healthy dialogues. Dialogue doesn't mean we need to agree, it means we can be absolutely opposing horses and still be respectful.

 

Tweetable Quotes

• “Picture books are just so important for families to start conversations to build literacy.” – Ale
• “My passion really lies in helping educators.” – Coco
• “Taking the theoretical concept, giving it real life flavor so we can put it to use in our lives.” – Dr. Carla
• “It's okay to have differences. In fact, we learn when we have differences.” – Dr. Carla Marie Manly
• “It's impossible to engage in critical thinking with children in families anywhere if you're not willing to accept the possibility that you could be wrong.” – Ale
• “We don't get as much engagement whereas the open-ended question invites at least one full sentence.” - Dr. Carla Marie Manly
• “You shouldn't be barraging a child with too many questions during a reading because it breaks up the narrative.” – Ale
• “I pick up books that I think look good, and I don't pre-read them. I read them for the first time with my kids.” – Ale
• “I don't see a lot of value in yes/no questions unless I'm checking for comprehension.” – Ale
• “One of the things that as parents we should be thinking of is how our behavior online is creating safer, unsafe spaces.” – Ale
• “We can have our opinions and still be respectful of somebody else's.” – Dr. Carla Marie Manly 
• “I try to empower people to question what they're reading home with their kids.” – Ale
• “The more I know me and understand me, the more I'll contribute to a healthy happy family healthy happy world.” - Dr. Carla Marie Manly 

 

Resources Mentioned

• Helping Families be Happy Podcast Apple
• Dr. Carla Marie Manly Website LinkedIn Twitter   Instagram
• Ale: Instagram Website Podcast
• Coco: Instagram Website
• Podcast Editing