In this powerful opening episode of Foundations First: The ECE Mini-Course, Instructor Mike challenges the myth that early childhood education is just glorified babysitting. Backed by developmental science and real-world insight, this episode explores why the early years—birth to five—are the most critical window for brain development, emotional wiring, and identity formation.

Whether you’re a parent, educator, family member, or someone who just “watches kids,” this episode will shift your perspective—and give you the language and framework to treat early childhood care as the professional, life-shaping work that it truly is.

Because you’re not just changing diapers.

You’re constructing futures.

In this explosive episode of Family Matters with Instructor Mike, we dismantle one of the biggest lies in modern parenting: that emotional expression is enough.

With only around 3,000 emotionally labeled words out of 170,000 in the English language, most of our communication is built on function—not feelings. But we’re front-loading children with emotion-first language and then wondering why they struggle with focus, decision-making, and accountability.

Instructor Mike breaks it all down:

• Why feelings belong in the background, not the foreground

• The danger of raising emotionally expressive but functionally weak kids

• How to retrain your parenting language using repetition, structure, and problem-solving

• Tools to defend against well-meaning teachers who unknowingly center emotion over execution

If you’re tired of soft skills without structure, therapy talk without traction, and emotional overload in education—this episode is your wake-up call.

Because it’s not that your kids don’t feel enough…

It’s that we forgot to teach them what to do with what they feel.

🎧 Listen now and get trained.

Why do children lie—even the “good” ones?

In this eye-opening episode of Family Matters with Instructor Mike, we dive deep into the science, psychology, and parenting wisdom behind why kids lie—and why that’s not always a bad thing.

You’ll learn:

• Why lying is a developmental milestone, not just a discipline issue

• What the brain is doing when a child invents a story

• How adult reactions can either train truthfulness or trigger fear

• Practical, non-punitive strategies to coach honesty

• Why labeling a child as a “liar” may cause more harm than good

With real-life insight and science-backed tools, this episode challenges the way we think about truth, trust, and childhood growth.

“A child who lies isn’t broken—they’re developing. Your response teaches them whether the truth is safe to tell.”