The world has changed. The future has changed. Childhood is changing. Raising children has never been more challenging – or potentially rewarding. This presentation is suitable for anyone involved in raising children, from parents to teachers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and even parents to be.

Nikki Bush, creative parenting expert and author, explores what you need to know about tomorrow’s world and what you need to do to prepare today’s children for a world that doesn’t yet exist. The focus is on understanding the future, creating appropriate structures and developing characteristics in your children (and yourself) that will help them face anything that life might throw at them.

Raising children who will “be talent” is to raise children who are going to have what it takes not just to survive this new world, but who will be able to shape and influence it too. To be successful in the future, our children need to be “future-proofed” by influential adults (primarily their parents and teachers) in the foundation phase of their lives – from birth to age 10 – before they enter puberty.

This thought provoking one hour multimedia presentation will introduce you to the X-factors required for success in 2020 and beyond, providing many practical ideas to help children to develop them from an early age. It will highlight the critical importance of making choices, having conversations and choosing to consciously connect with tomorrow’s children today.

This presentation can be customised for educators. It is called Raising Tomorrow’s Talent Today.

As an Educator, I have a responsibility to the children in our schools.”As an Educator, I have a responsibility to the parents in our school. As an Educator, I have a responsibility to the school’s community. This is a daunting task as we face a future of uncertainty, a future of constant change and a future of technology where most of us are IT immigrants. Future-proof Your Child(Penguin, 2008) is one of the best books to read and one that I strongly recommended to both educators and parents. Education is one of a parent – school partnership where both parties are jointly responsible for their child’s learning. In the field of Early Childhood we constantly here the words change, technology and the challenges of 21st Century children! What are the implications for us? Future-proof Your Child gives us clear and comforting direction, practical ideas and an alternate viewpoint to stimulate different thinking and discover a different approach. Both Educators and Parents need to engage their children in their learning environment and understand how they learn and what they learn and how to use their learning. Future-proof Your Child gives practical guidelines; it encourages us along the journey of educating for the future, a future without fear, and shows us how to enjoy our child’s journey, overcoming the challenges and learning for life

SUE PILKINGTON-WILLIAMS , Principal, Crawford Pre-Primary School, La Lucia

It was a delight to have Nikki Bush present at our Annual Spring Parent Seminar! Her presentation focused on how to future proof your child and be a tech-savvy parent. Our participants found her to be both engaging and encouraging. Her use of both visuals and games were a big success. The feedback we have received has been positive because the information was relevant and inspiring. It was a pleasure working with Nikki, and I would recommend her talent and work to others.

CAROLINE BROWN, Wayne County Public Schools Title I Parent Facilitator / Compliance Specialist North Carolina, USA

Nikki, thank you for spending an evening with myself, my staff and parents of the SAHETI pre-primary and playschool. Your talk ‘Future-proof Your Child’ was both inspiring and terrifying. There were times when I wanted to put my hands over my ears to prevent myself from hearing and times when I sat at the edge of my chair riveted.”We at SAHETI have understood for a long time that we are educating our children for an uncertain future, but we did not realize that that ‘future’ is already here. The message we heard from you was clear ‘if we fight it we will drown’ but what you also hold to be true, and what we at SAHETI live by – is that HOPE lives with the family. Thank you for such a thought provoking and hopeful message.

TERRI OHANNESSIAN , Saheti School (November 2011)

Finally a course with practical ideas I could use! I really enjoyed listening to your talk on how to make the most of the time we have with our precious children. It reminded me of the games I use to play as a little child with no T.V. play stations, DVD, computers etc. I also liked the fact the you understand that we, as parents, lead busy lives so your suggestions of using bath/cooking/car times are most effective. My kids argue less and laugh more! All parents would benefit from listening to your practical. fun, effective and educational ideas. Ideas easy enough to implement whilst “on the run!”

HELEN JENNINGS