I am so stoked to share the news with you firsthand:

The first edition of the NewKid Days is happening next June 20, in the heart of Europe’s largest tech event : VivaTech 🔥

What will it be like?

A full day, a large space, incredible speakers, addressing the burning topic that will just keep on growing : raising children in the age of AI.

This event will be designed for families - yep, I expect you to come with your children, that’s actually the whole point.

We will:

• Learn alongside the most brilliant and passionate practitioners, a mix of public figures and outsiders.

• Expand (our horizons) alongside families, educators and schools exploring different paths.

• Play alongside experts at crafting unforgettable moments.

Why am I doing this?

Right now, the conversation about AI and children is mainly happening in two places: high-level policy summits, and complex - or else extensive - academic reports. Both are important. None of them truly is accessible to parents nor feels connected to our everyday realities.

The opportunities to genuinely engage with these questions are scarce, and the questions themselves could not be more important. We are raising the next generation of citizens and decision-makers. Who do we want them to be? What role should technology play in shaping them?

I want to create an unforgettable time for families : I want them to feel welcome (at any age), present, listened to, empowered to build tomorrow. I want parents to feel connected with their children and vice versa. I want to help shift the mindset from passive to active, I want them to bring back pieces of that event back home.

Meanwhile, I want to create an unforgettable time for speakers, too : I want them to come with their families, stay and hang out for a while, connect with one another and with the public.

There will be insights, emotions, connections, all at once.

Will you be there too? ♥️

ASKs

🎤 know an audacious, wise and optimistic voice on this topic? I would love to meet them, send them my way!

✨ know a company, organisation, foundation, person willing to support this event? I’d love to speak to them!

👋 want to contribute / help in one way or another? reach out!

I am so beyond excited to see this idea coming to life in no time.

Taking this new catalyst role of mine damn seriously. Stay tuned.

Yours,

Mathilde

I’ve been absorbed in two things lately, a never-ending “inbound” of articles and podcasts (I made a selection for you below), as well as meeting new folks at an exponential pace for the Paris event I am preparing: “Parenting and Education in this AI era”. It is thrilling and I’ll tell you more below!

OK, on to the favorite content I digested lately:

tl;dr

• what’s left for human beings in this AI world? and the role of education - and teachers - in that matter

• meet the critical thinking bot that helps you sharpen your arguments

• ever heard about the “algorithmic agnotology” framework?

• slice of my parenting journey 👋

  • should we keep drawing cringe animals for our kids, or outsource this to an AI?

  • are you on the self-served dictionary team or need-parent AI bot team - or a mix of both - when it comes to your child seeking knowledge?

what’s left for human beings in this AI world : the crucial role of education

The Displacement of Purpose is the best article I’ve read recently and that I discovered in the excellent Dense Discovery newsletter.

The author, Peter Adam Boeckel, claims that in a world driven by three simple principles - speed, time and money - AI is not a curse but a “dream come true”. When AI fully performs most of our work, what is left for us to mean?

Education might be the guardian of our humanity, though will have to radically evolve when knowledge is free and purpose no longer found in employment.

***

A few snapshots to tease you a bit (but really, read the full article):

The response must begin where all transformation begins: in education. If work once taught us rhythm, learning must now teach us coherence. The systems we build to instruct the next generation will determine whether the age of hyperautomation leads to collapse—or evolution.

…

If automation dismantles the architecture of work, education must become the architecture of meaning. The challenge is no longer how to prepare people for jobs that may soon vanish, but how to prepare them for a life where purpose is not delivered by employment. The future classroom will not exist to transmit knowledge but to cultivate orientation—to teach people how to stay coherent as the ground beneath them shifts.

…

Critical thinking, creativity, and emotional intelligence—once considered supplementary—will become the new core curriculum. Yet even these are not ends in themselves; they are the training ground for something deeper: the capacity to stay human in an increasingly synthetic world.

…

When knowledge is free, presence becomes priceless. And perhaps that is the paradoxical gift of automation: by taking over everything that can be taught without us, it forces us to rediscover the things that can only be learned together.

…

The next generation will not ask, “Where did you study?” but “From whom did you learn?”

…

The role of the teacher will shift from dispenser of truth to curator of experience—to hold the space where insight might occur.

the critical thinking bot…

is one of my favorite writers these days. She’s obsessed with helping humans cultivate agency and critical thinking in the age of AI. She has developed the Critical Thinking Bot, a free tool to help you play with your thoughts:

… and the algorithmic agnotology playbook

Shae recently attended the International Association for Safe & Ethical AI summit in Paris, and generously shared a 17min resume here. She reports a thought-provoking concept called the “algorithmic agnotology” playbook. According to some, a game of power played by the AI labs?

fyi, agnotology is the study of (the deliberate production of) ignorance.

It consists of 3 core mechanisms:

• design opacity (the undisclosed training data) as a shield against accountability

• generated uncertainty (hallucinations are due to AI systems being deployed before they’re ready), that positions the companies as both the problem creator and the only solution

• claims of unknowability : big tech playing the game of either epistemic uncertainty (= we don’t know yet but we could with more time, research,..) when seeking investment, or stochastic uncertainty (= the system is fundamentally probabilistic) when facing accountability

Inscrutability is a choice, not a necessity. And this is a power problem.
Are we interrogating opacity or are we legitimising it? - Dr A. Nelson

I invite you to hear Shae’s recap of day 1 too (about “a race that nobody actually agreed to run”), and follow her work on Substack and Youtube.

✨ The NewKid Days ✨

1st edition : Paris, June 2026 [dates tbc]

What is it? A pause in the tumult. Two distinct moments to question, think and connect around the most important topic of our time : how do we raise the next generation of human beings in this AI era?

Also, here’s how you can help:

📌 who is the most passionate, insightful person you’ve heard on that topic, that should absolutely participate as a speaker? whether they’re in France or not

📌 know any specific foundations or companies looking to support this movement? (either as their core mission or for employer branding purposes)

Merci! I am so beyond excited to get this in motion!! Stay tuned.

Parenting in 2026

keep drawing?

I don’t know about you, but this week again, I’ve been asked ordered to draw characters in a homemade colouring book. Because ‘all colouring books are lame’, and because ‘we suck at drawing’ (and you don’t, mum). While the later could absolutely be discussed, here I am, inventing wild animals for them to colour.

Meanwhile, I came across this new tool that consists of prompting a box out-loud and it instantly prints a sticker ready to be coloured. Fantastic, right?

Stickerbox is the AI for kids that doesn’t talk back. Its founders claim that AI should be designed for kids from scratch, instead of built-for-adult first, like most AI toys today, consisting of “wrapping ChatGPT in fur.”

While I must admit this idea-to-sticker-in-a-second is pretty irresistible, I can’t help but wonder: what learning opportunity are we taking from them, as we hand over this apparently harmless toy? (it only listens when the top button is pressed)

drawing skills => if you can press and prompt, instead of sitting down with your pen and your imagination, how will you improve your drawing over time? (And should we even care about this at all? I am drawing for them now, after all.)

precise intentions => maybe the child had a really sharp idea of what they wanted to draw, but the AI doesn’t get it, it has its own biaises. Should they accept and conform? Prompt better? Leave the box behind and embrace the fuzzy attempts to make their hand clumsily draw the exact thing that was in their mind, at all cost?

relationship => the need, expressed by my child, for me to come and sit next to him. Cause maybe, the drawing is just an excuse for bonding, and I am not seeing this.

What should we celebrate as parents? The imperfect drawing? And the following, slightly better versions? The accurate vocabulary used to prompt? Them refining their prompting skills, one attempt after the other?

I am growing convinced that we should celebrate friction more. I also know that if we adults do not embody it, well, good luck passing it down to the kids.

What I can see here though, is yet another tool to remove friction - for the child, and let’s be honest, for the parent, too.

What do you think?

Le Robert vs Perplexity

Last week, we bought our kids a dictionary.

Who cares, right? Well, our kids probably. Their growing sense of autonomy. Starting now, they will be able to look up through the 1532 analog pages of this huge book full of words to decipher, instead of asking us to get our phone and ‘ask Perplexity, she knows’.

Our 7 y/o son’s teacher actually raised the point when she asked me and Kev, during our quarterly meeting “he absolutely loves to go check the dictionary, I bet he does the same at home”. Ah? We looked at each other, confused.

I could shame ourselves but what’s the point. We’ve moved in and out so often in our lives that clearly, a 3kg book which content you can find online in a second didn’t make any sense to carry around.

Now it’s different. Both our children can read. Both are old enough to go seek information on their own. Welcome home, Le Robert Junior 🥂

Bonus : toys rebelling against AI companions

Get ready for Toy Story 5, mid June, where Bonnie meets Lilypad, the AI friend. And disposes the good ol’ toys. If the concern isn’t here already, what is it?

Yours,

Mathilde

I wish you thousands of opportunities to learn alongside your children, to learn from your children, and to grow and blossom as a person, a parent, a partner.

I am starting this year reinvigorated, excited and determined to be this person myself.

Highlights of 2025

💃🏻🕺🏻 Kev and I got officially married (like you know, the paperwork), a great excuse to gather four of our best friends, share meals and embark on a dancing journey that keeps on calling us. This is so damn good. Dancing (again) has made us closer as a couple.

🎂 We also celebrated 20 years of loving each other!

🎙️ I kickstarted NewKid and enjoyed every minute of it. I published 7 episodes. Digging deep into education choices with 14 thoughtful parents, which I now feel close to, in a pretty unique way. How grateful.

Sandra, Yotam, Eamon, , Lindl, , Carina, , Natasha, , , Simon, Lydia,

🚅 For the first time since our kids were born, we parted ways, work wise, and physically, too. Kev spent most weeks in Paris, travelled 3 times 2 weeks+ to the US on his own. It’s been - and still is - weird to introduce each other separately or to kiss the kids goodbye on Monday night. We stretched our family balance, but nothing broke.

🏆 Wins as a parent:

• we held steady on two things our boys really fought against : holiday camps every six weeks (for both) and first extra curricular activity, capoeira (for the eldest). They said they didn’t want to go. They cried. They hold our arms. My mom brain was screaming “take them back home, you horrible prick of a mom”. But just like we sleep trained them a few years back, we endured the process, repeating to ourselves “we are teaching them a skill, a very important one” : surviving thriving in a brand new environment. Every single time we picked them up: the largest smile on earth, already excited to go back. (For whatever reason they had forgotten the following morning…)

• we dug deeper into Maria Montessori’s texts and grew convince that their school was a fit for us/them now, two things particularly: the mixed-age group effect (our eldest is now the youngest of a group of kids aged 6 to 12), and the fact that a teacher will not stop a kid from learning something even if commonly labelled for an older age group (there is no such thing like “within program”)

• we built LEGO countless times with our kids (yes, I do enjoy that, haha!): watching the youngest in his highest state of concentration, building brick over brick while the oldest carefully organises the characters, their outfits and accessories, and works through the scenario

• I stood up for my boys in a way I thought my well educated self would never dare doing (by design, I am the ‘whatever 🙄’ type): telling an old bitch to mind her own business and speak decently to children for god sake. It felt liberating. And the astonishment in my boys eyes made it all worth it

🤯 Still struggling here: addressing our kids bursts of anger without getting angry ourselves, helping them manage frustration without the whining, sulking and insulting (yes they’re learning that quickly). It’s hard.

📚 I’ve read books that moved me. My favorite (among many good ones): Free Range Kids by ; a damn serious topic (empowering our children) in a not so serious tone.

🎵 (I will probably regret sharing this) Did my Spotify wrap. Turns out I am 65 years old. F*** it, 80s were the best. Fado #1❤️ (told ya)

🏡 We now have routines that stick ; Wednesday afternoons between my mom and one boy, Friday nights out for Kev and I, Saturday movie nights at home with the kids. As much as we embrace (and somehow thrive in) chaos, I will not emphasise enough on the peace of mind rituals are to a family.

🏃🏻‍♀️ I ran my first marathon. Conditions were ideal : sunny autumn whether in France, children, husband, parents and friends cheering for you and even running by your sides during crucial moments. 4h37 of pure pain joy. 2026 will be the year of my first triathlon!

📰 I’ve (re)discovered the work of inspiring people who make me think, avidly opening every one of their newsletters / episodes, in no particular order : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

🫶 I was interviewed by the most gracious host : . Thank you for this opportunity, for helping me make time to think and write about inspirations, happiness, family.

💫 Last but not least, it seems that I wrapped up 2025 knowing where I wanted to go make an impact. Somehow it showed up in front of me, crystal clear, obvious, as Kev and I were talking about (his) work.👇

So yeah, there is this nagging question in the back of my head:

Where can we talk about raising children?

I mean, not only by reaction. But by looking ahead and forward, teaming up to stand for things that we care about.

Not by rejection either. Not by withdrawing into ourselves but by sparking possibilities.

Yes, there is Substack. I met 4/7 of my guests here.

How about gathering IRL? Making it a moment we all look forward to join.

I crave this. Do you?

2026 announcement: The NewKid Days.

🇫🇷 Paris, June 2026
🇺🇸 San Francisco, December 2026 (👋 friends at !)

Real moments with real people. You know, awkward introductions followed by ‘aha’ moments, laughs and astonishment.

I am fascinated by what’s happening, tech wise. Fascinated, skeptical, optimistic, lost, curious, confident, fearful.

I am no expert. But I believe in the magic that can happen when well intentioned, thoughtful people gather. Experts and beginners. Enthusiasts.

Donc voilà.

I will enable these conversations.

I want to learn from the terrific thinkers x doers out there, parents, educators, tech entrepreneurs, researchers,..

I want (our) children to witness and participate to this effervescence, too.

We’re all in this together.

☎️ This is a call to all the energies out there, if you want to get involved somehow! Share ideas, introduce me to someone. Let’s do this!

Let's talk ☎️

Dear Mathilde, in 2026, please make sure to:

• keep meeting new, exceptional people (methodically inspired by ), learn from them, grow your antennas

• gather people, act as a catalyst, savour these new sparks

• burry that imposteur syndrome deep enough (and for good, how about that)

• trust parents around you, rely more on each other, nurture that village (shoutout to Lena, Flo, , Eamon)

• trust your kids

• dance!!

Bonne année!

Yours,
Mathilde

Let me introduce you to Lydia and . Their energy, their relentless desire to turn ideas into experiments into products, together, is an inspiration.

Lydia’s a math & English tutor, Kevon’s worked at the crossroad of tech and education for years.

She’s the determined, achieving mother passionate about how to get students - including her own kids - cultivate interest in learning ; he’s the creative, tinkerer dad exploring how the latest tech tools can enhance learning possibilities, spicing up what school provides (or else lack of), now empowering 12-16 years old to get out there with their unique projects.

They are the parents of two daughters, 5 years old Avery and 3 years old Audrey.

I got carried away by their eagerness to play with technology, create new tools from scratch, test them for real with their daughters, and ultimately share them to the outside world. Check for yourself:

• FunSheets, a worksheet generator to help kids learn maths, Chinese and English (best suited for Chinese speaking children)

• Chatty Bestie, to improve communication in English and get your kids ready for school interview questions (yes, that’s a thing!) or chat about a topic they love ; in a word: a tool where the parent acts as a facilitator, not a teacher

Lydia and Kevon are the living example of exploring what you enjoy - and vice versa - ; of building the missing piece, too.

Along the conversation, there were things that definitely surprised me, like crafting your five y/o’s resume and prep’ing her for an interview... A real thing in Hong Kong (and well in Paris too, friends told me)

Finally, I related a lot to their eagerness to meet with other parents. They will be gathering up to 6 families from various places in the world for a Summer Worldschooling: a full week of encounters, parent-led workshops and fun! If that sounds like your dream plan (2026: Thailand), and if your kids are between 3 and 6 y/o, reach out to them!

tl;dr

a discussion about

• navigating between creative learning and the school system learning

• children meltdown and the Whole Brain Child

• homeschooling vs “semi-homeschooling”, making time to bond with your kids

• local vs international schools in Hong Kong, homework and the pressure to perform

• knowing what you love and pursue it, teaching girls toughness

• what makes a good partner and teammate : enforcing what you said, being on the same side, (then) talking, taking responsibilities over

• Alpha School, reimagining the teacher’s role

• AI x kids : carefully embracing AI to enhance learning

I would not expose kids under 10 years old to the AI superpower … cause they don’t have the right skills and judgment to know how to use it.(…)  AI is a tool, but you need your craftsmanship, you need your expertise first. - Kevon

If kids don’t have the knowledge of those academic subjects yet, how do they judge whether the things that AI is giving them is correct? - Lydia

AI powering the experience, making recommendations: I am quite fine with this [Alpha school] - Kevon

If you haven’t already, today’s the day to sign up to Kevon’s newsletter✨ :

Kevon Cheung's Newsletter

This is where I explore my curiosities around living fully, raising two girls, and building projects that spark joy.

By Kevon Cheung 🥦

more about my guests

words from them.

Lydia (Instagram)

Lydia is a proud mother of two girls. She likes to call herself a “part-time mum” because she cares deeply about balancing her family responsibilities and professional commitments. When she got married in 2019, she sought a more flexible career path and became a tutor of English and Maths for primary and secondary school students. She loves “play and learn” and makes that her unique tutoring style. She went on to write a unique children’s book, Quacky, that invites young readers to use stickers to personalize their story, becoming the co-author of their own adventure. At home, she works with Kevon to continuously experiment with ways to help our daughters become self-motivated, because that’s where the best learning truly sparks. In her free time, she enjoys a “me-time” yoga session, emerging recharged like a zen warrior ready for the next family quest.

Kevon (KevonCheung.com) | Instagram)

Kevon often jokes that Lydia was “the wife at first sight” love. He is an educator, builder, and a proud GirlDad. He has spent his whole career connecting the dots between technology and education. He started as a software engineer, then operated a kids’ coding school across Asia. During the pandemic, with all that unexpected time at home, Kevon started writing and sharing online. That’s when he taught and coached entrepreneurs on how to “build in public” and build a personal brand. With AI on the rise, he now spends most of his time coaching 12-16 year-old on building and launching creative projects, like books, websites, apps, and podcast series. He believes the best way for these kids to thrive in the future is to build, iterate, improve, and repeat like tiny inventors forging their own paths. His audacious goal is to help 500 curious kids unleash their proud creative projects into the world.

dig deeper

(after fact checking a couple things)

homeschooling in Hong Kong

While precise percentages aren’t available, homeschooling remains a very small minority in Hong Kong - likely representing less than 0.1% of school-age children. The practice operates in a legal gray area with minimal government support, though growing pandemic-era acceptance suggests numbers may be slowly increasing.

The lack of official statistics itself reflects Hong Kong’s ambiguous stance on homeschooling - neither fully prohibited nor officially recognized or supported.

Why Numbers Are Uncertain:

• “Don’t ask, don’t tell” culture - Many families don’t report to authorities

• No mandatory registration - Parents aren’t required to officially register as homeschoolers

• Fear of scrutiny - Families avoid disclosure due to concerns about EDB visits

• Misconception about legality - 50% of survey respondents incorrectly believe homeschooling is illegal

homeschooling in the US

~3.7 million homeschooled students (2024-2025). Approximately 6% of all K-12 students are homeschooled. Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, but regulations vary significantly

• 30 states require annual reporting to authorities

• 21 states do not track homeschoolers

• Regulations range from minimal oversight to detailed curriculum requirements

Homeschooling in the United States has evolved from a fringe alternative to an increasingly mainstream educational choice. The 6% rate represents approximately 3.7 million students and continues growing at triple the pre-pandemic rate. The movement is diverse, spans all demographics, and produces strong academic outcomes. Most significantly, recent data shows this is not temporary pandemic-related behavior but rather a fundamental shift in how American families approach education.

homework rules in France

For Elementary School (École Primaire):

According to the official French government position:

• Teachers CAN give students homework to do at home

• Teachers CANNOT give students written work to do outside of class

• Allowed homework includes:

  • Oral work (reading aloud)

  • Lessons to learn/memorize

  • Research activities

  • Reading assignments

For Secondary School (Collège & Lycée):

• Teachers CAN give written homework

• Students are obligated to complete written and oral assignments given by teachers

In short

France has maintained an official ban on written homework for elementary school since 1956, repeatedly reaffirmed through 2013. However, this regulation exists in a gray area where:

• The legal justification (in-school study time) no longer exists

• All teachers give homework anyway

• The distinction between “written work” and “lessons to learn” has never been clearly defined

• Everyone (teachers, parents, inspectors) agrees some homework is necessary

The result is a system where teachers give homework but must navigate unclear rules, leading to calls for regulatory clarity that may come as soon as 2025.

things we discussed:

• approaching music differently

• how Alpha School works, by founder

• The Anxious Generation, by

• Brave New Words, How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That’s a Good Thing), a book by Salman Khan, founder of Khanmigo and the Khan Academy

• The Whole-Brain Child, a book by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

• The Disengaged Teen, by and

That’s all for today, dear parents 🫶

Enjoy the episode, and I wish you all joyful, peaceful holidays!

See you next year, rested and energised ✨

Yours,

Mathilde

I’ve been awfully quiet the past few weeks ; dealing with a resistant form of procrastination that wouldn’t leave me alone.

And with a mirror right in my face, it’s had much to do with imposteur syndrome and excessive perfectionism.

Amplified by going solo.

I am working on it.

Early August, though, the day I woke up at 4am while still jet-lagged (SF>Paris) to record this conversation, my energy level was through the roof.

I had a million questions prepared and enjoyed every minute of it, I didn’t even notice the day rising behind me. (You will, if you watch the video until the end 😜).

I was excited to talk with an entrepreneur in the parenting space, who had not only built six-figure large communities of parents, but one of the largest media platform for parenting content, and a documentary too. I was just as excited to meet the husband behind this successful mom, thus closing the loop.

When we hung up, after two hours, I felt that deep wave of gratitude and plenitude, walking in the quiet streets of Paris, grabbing warm croissants for our boys and grandma, still asleep. The day had just started yet it felt full already. As we walked through le Marais, I couldn’t help but spoil Kev with the excerpts I had enjoyed most. I didn’t care if he’d stop me (he did not), this was way too exciting.

Here I am, now. Delighted to introduce you to Sam and Simon, the most experienced parents I’ve received on the podcast so far.

Seventeen years of parenting, and counting.

I think you will notice their wisdom.

Is it just a matter of years? After all, there is no shortcut to 17 years of discussions, adjustments, crisis, alignement, healing, acceptance.

Or is it their work, as a teacher? as a mental health advocate? as a founder creating content for parents, gathering parents?

Probably a mix of it all.

Sam and Simon came to this conversation as they are, with no fuss. They interrupt each other, get intense, admit they have no fucking clue when they do… just as you would imagine they’d be at their kitchen counter, at home.

I am grateful and honoured to share this intimate, universal discussion with you.

After my conversation with Sandra and Yotam, I had watched Seen.

It made me feel :

• Empathetic for the error we’ve made as parents and the ones our parents made with us

• Grateful in our capacity to forgive others

• Hopeful one can change (plasticity of the brain)

And quite honestly the monkeys experiment showing how little ones will inevitably choose connexion / love over food struck me!

Then I reached out to Sam.

The rest is history in this episode.

tl;dr

this is a story about

- their evolving roles over the years

- the pain of being successful

- connection above anything else

- the masculine archetype

- the children voice (while parents are in the lead)

- expectations with regards to school and sports

It was never about the sport. It was about the community and connection and being a part of something

- performative kids < curiosity < boredom

It’s just really fascinating for me, I feel like everybody’s working so hard to try and do all the right things to get their kids to be something. And I laugh and think about my parents and I’m like, they did nothing!

- commitment to one another

One of the best piece of advice I’ve ever heard for parenting was about the best thing you can do for your kids is to love their mother

- embodying what we want to pass on to our children

We can’t give those to our children, if we haven’t gone on the journey of giving that to ourselves

- healing from our own trauma

So trauma isn’t just what happens to you. Trauma can be what didn’t happen

- the need to go through hard stuff, together as a couple

- the messy middle of navigating tech at home

One parent is consistent, the other isn’t. One parent can handle children’ feelings, the other less so.

- their own recipe for tech use at home

• Making sure they’re being loved and listened to

But if we are not in love with our children, not just, I love my children, but in love with our children, they are looking for an adult or someone to be in love with them. In that like, I see you and I think you’re amazing. And so if they are desperate for that, they will be vulnerable

• Educating our kids about the risks

I actually think all-or-nothing approaches, this is my opinion, is not healthy. We have to learn to live in the messy middle of it. And I’m like, if you want this, then you have to sit and have this conversation with me. Like, that’s the agreement

• Helping them fill their life with exciting, IRL things to do

It’s not just how much time my kids are spending online, it’s what else? The online stuff is the opportunity cost. Like that time is coming at an opportunity cost of other things that they’re not doing, and therefore those skills are not being built

more about my guests

“Both Simon and I are kind of helpers to a degree and have always kind of worked and lived in service to other people.” - Sam

| linkedIn

Sam Jockel is an award-winning entrepreneur and content producer known for founding ParentTV, an innovative parenting platform, and building ALDI Mum and School Mum, online communities with over 650,000 members.

Recognized by the World Summit Awards Globally winning the Learning and Education category for the Quality Education SDG, she has also taken on the role of producer tackling the tricky topic of parenting in modern times with the documentary Seen.

Simon Jockel

Simon is a primary school teacher and the Blackall region lead at Outback Futures, a not-for-profit providing mental health and wellbeing services for kids, youth, adults, families and communities.

dig deeper

The Social Dilemma:

Embrace Kids:

Circle of Security, an 8-week program:

Enjoy this episode!

Until next time 🌺

Mathilde

They’ve been together since high school, the dinosaur kind, you know, that species no one thought it would still exist nowadays -turns out it does ( , we’re not alone 🙌 20 years this October 😱🤩)

Natasha and Latham served 10+ years in the Navy, she as a Flight Test Engineer and he was a Test Pilot and Naval Aviator. High technical, high risk jobs. They both transitioned to (the Silicon Valley type of) tech a couple years ago, and now live in Bozeman, Montana, with their two children: Camden (9) and Addie (7).

A year and a half ago, they started an incredible family journey, unschooling their son, first, now their daughter too, and… making space for dreams to exist. Yes, altogether, they are building an airplane!

If you hang out on Substack and are interested in extra-ordinary education paths, you might have heard about already. I have been reading his newsletter for months, and was thrilled to uncover the complete picture of what their life could be, with the help of his wife Natasha.

Thank you both for entrusting me with this conversation, I so much enjoyed our time together - and listening to it again (and again)!

Listen here, or on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Pocket Casts or YouTube :)

tl;dr

this is a story about

- team work

having each other’s back

Natasha not only brings an income, she’s the family coach too, for the children (personally, martial art classes..) and for Latham, worrying about his own mental health and professional ambition.

Latham is the home educator, mastering dedication, patience, creativity and determination, overcoming doubts, pursuing obsessions.

- adversity

turning life challenges into a family adventure

It started at as a sacrifice and it’s kind of become a new passion - Latham

I t's been remarkable, I think, for both of them. Watching both of them grow together has been really, really great. They push each other, like the two of them will push each other for better or for worse. I think it's for better - Natasha

- resilience

the power of iteration

, going from a very “well-trained mind classical curriculum” to completely student-led and project-led (anything in the morning, assignments in the afternoon), and then now breaking the day into 2-hour chunks [which is funny is how Maria Montessori splits the day, too]

, going from metrics and bucket lists of to dos to… “no need for KPIs for me to know he’s learning”.

- dreams

I want both of my kids to believe that they can do completely unreasonable things and not be surprised when somebody wants to support them or help them or do things - Latham

They deserve to be able to dream way bigger than, I don't know, than I ever felt like I could - Latham

If you're willing to put in the work for something, you can achieve it - Natasha

- togetherness

building the relation

 I think that the reason that it works so well for him is because he and I are doing it together - Latham

The relationship that I have with my kids now is far and away the best thing I've ever done. - Latham

- identity

the challenge of finding oneself as a parent

What do I look like when this is all done?

Am I maintaining enough of myself where I'm gonna know who I still am when I'm not full-time parent and their full-time teacher?

The biggest challenge for me has been continuing to find myself, I think, in that.

-Latham

OK now, make sure to Latham’s journey here 👇😎

Building the Plane

Building a better education, and the airplane that inspired it all.

By Latham Turner

more about my guests

words from them

Natasha

Natasha is Latham’s wife of 17 years (and counting) and working mom to their 2 kids. With foundations in mechanical engineering, she started her career as a Flight Test engineer for the Navy, spending 11 years executing high risk tests on fighter aircraft. When Latham separated from the Navy, she also made a career transition, moving into tech as a Technical Program Manager where she’s been for the last 8 years. When she finds some free time, you can find her working on her photography, trying a new recipe, or training jiu jitsu. While she never saw homeschooling as a part of her family’s plan, mom life has taught her that plans change as soon as you make them and she’s seen how remarkable it can be.

💌 nperis@gmail.com

Latham

In 2024, Latham Turner decided to take over his son's education. After careers as a Naval Aviator, Test Pilot, technology leader, and early stage investor, taking over his son's education felt like a pause, a necessary sacrifice. What he found instead was a new purpose. Six months into home education, when his son asked if they could build an airplane for school, he realized he was onto something special. He now spends his time educating his children while trying to design educations to unleash the next 1,000 childhood geniuses.

LinkedIn and 💌 lhturner06@gmail.com

dig deeper

references that came out from our discussion:

• a school for kids who love maths: Proof School, in the Bay Area

• greek mythology, for kids : the National Geographics “Greeking Out” podcast:

• Latham’s favorite book about education : The Extended Mind, by Annie Murphy Paul

 That book has single handedly changed the way that I think about how to create a great opportunity for them to learn and be in the world. I think I've read that book five times already.

• GoNoodle videos, a free digital platform that uses short, interactive videos and activities to get children moving, primarily targeting ages 4–10 and designed for use in homes and K–5 classrooms

• ’s Socratic Experience (online) school, an innovative online K–12 school rooted in Socratic dialogue and personalized learning. The model combines classical education with self-directed inquiry, guiding students through challenging texts, structured essays, and intellectual problem-solving while supporting personal projects and one-on-one mentoring.

• and of course, Latham’s newsletter, that I encourage you to discover through this beautiful piece and manifesto:

  Building the Plane

  An Education of His Own

  I took over my son’s education in January of this year. I took it over because I saw my brown-eyed lanky boy (my boy who felt everything so intensely it filled me with awe) smiling less and hurting more, and because I was tired of my boy failing to meet his potential in a system that didn’t really want to help. What I wanted was to make everyone care as…

  Read more

  2 years ago · 169 likes · 67 comments · Latham Turner

Enjoy this discussion!!

Bisous,

Mathilde

I hope you’re doing great 😊

I’ve made the -big- decision to not overthink these newsletters, for falling into the ‘perfect one’ mindset makes me… not share anything at all. Not even the one gem I wanted to share in the first place.

Today I’d love to share this recent TED talk from the founder of the Let Grow initiative [When Adults Step Back, Kids Step Up] ; you might know her already? I think you should absolutely watch this. Believe me, it will raise questions 🙃

Think about it:

we are spending way more time with our kids than our parents spent with us, usually helping them do things that they could do on their own.

Ouch.

Question for you, now 😎👉

would you let your kid go [enter a familiar spot] on his/her own?

* * *

Yeah cause it’s usually easy to buy the theory (personally, I am sold!), but actually playing cool as we let them go for the first time is a whole other story.

As you can imagine, this triggered a very passionate conversation between and I, especially since our eldest (who is 6.5 y/o now):

• vividly remembers that one -and only- time staying at home on his own for 10 minutes as one of us was running an errand ; ask him, he is damn proud of this moment ‘surviving’ without us

• regularly asks us whether he could go to school on his own : 1.3km (0.8 miles), the whole time on the sidewalk, still: crossing a road, a bridge and two more roads in the end.

Kev (his dad) walked the streets on his own very early on, at around this age, 6. A few years later, at about 10, he was walking his little brother (aged 5) to school. The deep, natural confidence he has in himself, and that I admire so much, most certainly has roots in this big chunk of responsibilities he was given in his early childhood. He wrote a beautiful piece here: Kids Protection Gone Too Far.

👆 ‘Old Enough’ : a Japanese TV show - now on Netflix - featuring children aged 3 to 6, running errands on their own

OK, back to our kids, our decision. Haha, less easy, uh!

Kev and I ended up with this idea : a checklist of “the things you must master before running your first errand”, that we would draft, pin on the wall? A quest game for them, and a reminder for ourselves, that if everything is checked, then it is time to let go. (Not to add more bullet points 😛)

Things such as :

• knowing your name and family name

• knowing your address

• knowing mom or dad’s phone number without hesitation

• …

And a few basic rules such as:

• safely cross a road

• enter a store to ask for help

• …

Now about the trend: look at what a child aged 8 is allowed to walk on his own, vs his mother, grand-father and great grand-father.

Also, about abduction (cause this is always the next question):

If for some reason you WANTED them to be snatched off the street by a stranger, statistically, how long would you have to keep them outside?

…

750 000 years

More about the risk of being kidnapped by a stranger.

Did you know?

Florida just became the 11^th state where Let Grow helped pass a Reasonable Childhood Independence law. It clarifies that “neglect” is when you put your child in obvious, serious danger – not anytime you take your eyes off them.

What’s your take on this?

What is it like in your country / culture?

What have you tried with your child(ren)?

Cheers,

Mathilde

I hope you’ve had a lovely summertime, filled with slow-down moments, fewer phone distractions, deep connections.

🌼 🌸 🌺

Today is our children’s second day back to school! Our youngest returned to his well-known 3-6 teacher, but his best friend moved to Singapore. Ouch. Our eldest stepped up to class 6-12 and now finds himself being the young one, a whole new world. Fortunately, his bestie is moving up as well.

Yesterday, as we picked them up, they jumped around, thrilled. I am grateful they’re loving school (although at times they want to ‘destroy it’ 🙄🤷🏻‍♀️).

🌸 🌺 🌼

I am excited to share with you a conversation I had with Carina and recently. They’re the parents of two children aged 4.5 and 3. They’re back in Hong Kong after two years in London and stand out for giving their kids a fair amount of freedom.

I’ve been following Franco’s writing on Substack for quite some time now. He has a very unique way to question society through personal questions, to present unexpected yet thoughtful challenges like the 1 Thing 10 Years, to ask profound questions in the interview series he’s running. When I saw he was launching What’s Dad, I knew the time had come to have a conversation!

Here we are. Enjoy.

tl;dr

• standing against the stream in Hong Kong by giving their children unusual levels of freedom, like letting them go barefoot or resolve their own conflicts

• intentionally limiting extracurricular activities, from the usual 7-8 to just one or two, prioritising free play and family time instead

• picking up schools, based on happiness and strong teacher-student bonds, rather than academic pressure

• share about sibling rivalry, balancing love between two kids, and the challenges of returning to Hong Kong after living in London

• exploring the influence of their own education, the impact of their parents and inspiring teachers, and how they hope to pass on self-confidence, self-acceptance, adaptability and strong family connections to their children.

more about my guests

Carina

Parent • Interior Designer • Student of Motherhood

I'm navigating the wonderful chaos of raising little humans — sometimes gracefully, often learning through the stumbles. Each day brings new lessons, but the greatest reward is the laughter we share along the way.

My designer's eye can't help but find beauty in life's details: the poetry of everyday spaces, the stories architecture whispers, the quiet dialogue of art.

I've come to see that both parenting and design thrive on patience, creativity, and finding joy in the imperfect.

Franco

Hello, I am Franco, a dad with two kids from Hong Kong.

I love playing football, hiking, and reading the same books over and over again. I like to think about how to devote my time to what really matters over long term - my marriage, friendship, and health. Good things in life come naturally as they compound.

I grew up in a family that practiced Nichiren Buddhism (a branch originated in Japan in the 1920s). As I encountered more philosophies and got older, I keep noticing how the Stoics rhymes with Buddhists: understand our emotions, define what's within our control, avoid being drowned by our desires, face our worst fears, let go. My practice these days is to take what works and resonates with me and just run with them in my daily life.

I write on Substack, and made a guide for other dads called "What's Dad":

Franco's Newsletter

This is a mountain hut deep inside my soul. I'm glad you have found it.

By Franco Wong

about next episode…

have you ever dreamt of building something crazy as a child? a skyrocket, a.. plane?! well, stay tuned for a rather unconventional parenting journey, with Natasha and Latham, who have turned life challenges into a unique, inspiring, demanding, beautiful family adventure.

Until next time!

Mathilde

A few weeks ago, I spotted this AI ‘after dark’ exhibition called “Adventures in AI” - supported by Anthropic, Claude’s parent. I bought a ticket without thinking much. I am not sure what got me, adventures or AI. I was altogether pumped to spend time with myself (I am of very good company!), excited to dig into the eye of the storm, and trying not to expect much, as most previous exhibitions I went to disappointed me for being so flat and boring.

Turns out my old time buddy joined me last minute. We landed there at 6pm when the doors opened, and left got kicked out at 10pm, in high spirits. I had not played x felt amazed at an exhibition for ages.

I think we need more of this. Adults, children, all of us.

👆 Max and I playing with a freaking impenetrable mirror

👆 Max and I brainstorming with a friendly philosopher from the Santa Cruz University whether it is OK to use AI to write a love letter? Is it?
Fun fact: he told us ‘philosophy’ is not a very popular word in schools and universities in the US, they’d rather use ‘ideas’ to describe these moments of questioning oneself. Interesting 🙃

👆 my scrunchie is a donut. You have four hours.

👆 music grouping exploration was extremely exciting: see that map made of thousands of dots? each of them is a song or music, and they’re gathered in nods of similar genres. Such an unusual way to explore music, I’d love to have his at home!

👆 me voice-prompting (in french, had to see if it worked with other languages too!) “Il était une fois, dans une forêt d’ananas, un immense oiseau bleu” ; and then it appeared on the screen, that immense blue bird in a pineapple forest. I also printed a ticket as a souvenir. Artistic co-creation 🪄

👆 should I admit I got completely addicted here? “Think like a computer” was the most thrilling (and frustrating!) part of the exhibition. Do you play that game with your children : think about something, and with only yes or no questions, I will find what it is? That is the game. Except animals only. For each submission, the machine gives you a % of how close you are to spotting the right animal. Simple, right? It is FREAKING IMPOSSIBLE to think in vectors like machines do. If you don’t believe me, make a guess with what you know above, I’ll see you in the notes to share the answer 😎

👆 another hilarious one : humans against the machine. See Pictionary game? This time against the machine. Four human participants: one draws, three must guess. The machine plays too: if it guesses right, humans lose. So fun!

***

AI doesn’t always have to be heavy. Understanding technology is often more persistant, stickier, through play. I found this exhibition to be a very smart, whole-body, immersive experience to connect with and to question AI.

Play makes you feel alive, connected, energised. It was such a singular moment, shared with a good friend, too.

If you are in San Francisco, run for it! Shows continues until September 14th! 🚀👇

check it out if you're in SF!

what’s up with your podcast

After a few weeks crossing the desert of faith in June, the engine slowly started in July and I am grateful I got to hear (and record, don’t you worry 🔴😎) the journeys of three enthralling couples this past month!

I can feel the momentum is back, and this, believe me, is an immense source of joy, excitement - and fear to lose it, too!

🎙️ Don’t miss the next episode, coming out this Thursday, with Carina and , two marvellous parents I came across here, on Substack.

discussion with people around the world… and the need for IRL, too!

Digital-wise, you know, I have Substack ❤️

On my last evening in San Francisco, I think I found my physical crowd.

I got kindly invited to join ’s community dinner, where , and Michael Li gathered club builders to celebrates wins, hang out with one another, dance, and share their own progress and next launches. If you are thinking about gathering people physically, regularly, around a specific theme, check out what they’re building.

AI x children

🐣 baby grok

heard about Baby Grok, Elon’s recent move on AI? what does it say about how interesting our children’ attention is? what is this new model built for exactly? what use cases?

👥 meet Chat-GPT’s new ‘study mode’

get help with homework or test prep… you can now dig into a problem, step by step instead of just getting the answer. OpenAI built this study mode with college students in mind, to answer the recurring question (who said fear) :

how do we ensure [Chat-GPT] is used to support real learning, and doesn’t just offer solutions without helping students make sense of them?

study mode is available to logged in users on Free, Plus, Pro, Team, with availability in ChatGPT Edu coming in the next few weeks.

next for me 👉 investigate what’s cooking up at the SCALE Initiative at Stanford University’s Accelerator for Learning⁠, where experts study and share how AI tools influence learning outcomes in areas like K-12 education (an initiative supported by OpenAI)

📚 also, too many inspiring talks made me do a tiny bit of shopping. oops.

See ya on Thursday!

Mathilde

Come meet Lindl and Steyn!

I am thrilled to share this third episode with you, where we explore, among many compelling topics, one that probably every parent who’s not living like Captain Fantastic (a great movie, btw) is thinking about, probably every single day : how do you deal with screen time?

For Lindl and Steyn, who’ve been very much inspired by the Taking Children Seriously approach to parenting, aka treating children like whole people (see more below) it goes like this : no screen time limit. Period.

Their kids are 6 and 4 years old, same as ours. Honestly, as much as I love the idea of a non-coercive type of education, duh. It felt off. Like, beyond my limits.

But given how thoughtful, intelligent and articulated these two parents are, a discussion was much needed. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

Also available on : Apple Podcast | Youtube

tl;dr

• on their way from a Montessori school to a mix of homeschooling and Montessori tutoring

• crafting their kids education from their own experiences: Lindl was homeschooled, Steyn in a traditional school

• what makes an exceptional tutor : about connexion and trust

• on the importance of teaching kids how to feel and sense to better solve problems “no AI or robot standing in a queue will know what it feels like to wait for something”; also on how to be true to yourself

• asking your kids “how do you feel about [xyz]” and helping them identify their emotions

• the non-coercive approach is about asking yourself : how do you make other people feel?

• unlimited screen time :

  • changing the paradigm, from putting restrictions to crafting the environment where kids can flourish (outside of screens)

  • kids are learning from our own behaviours…

  • dealing with inappropriate content

  • what works: engage with your kids x create a safe environment (curate content - with them!)

  • it’s hard to not operate out of that fear but rather to trust the process ; but one needs to learn by experience

• introducing young kids to AI : from fact-checking using ChatGPT / Sky voice to raising awareness on fake video generation

• with the rise of AIs in our lives, don't know what can be more important in life than how we make other people feel ; it then become easier to raise your kid in a non coercive way

• being able to tell your kids ‘I am sorry’ is paramount

more about my guests

Steyn

viljoen.space | x.com/steynviljoen

I’m a senior product designer living in Cape Town, South Africa. I care deeply about designing tools that feel humane—products that make sense, respect the people using them, and have some staying power in the world.

I’m also a dad to two kids, and raising them has shaped the way I think about everything. We follow the Taking Children Seriously approach at home, which means we treat each other like real people.

I love running, gardening, building things and reading on a wide variety of topics. Some of the ideas that have stuck with me come from David Deutsch, Carl Rogers, and Christopher Alexander. I love systems, slow growth, and things that are built to last.

Here are some keywords that attempt to capture who I'm about: gardening, plants, pots, dad, taking children seriously, philosophy, alexander technique, internal family systems, optimism, taoism, god, critical rationalism, reading, running, startups, making, building, ant farm, bug hotel, quiet afternoon, home, lawn, play, reflect, laugh

Lindl

I’m Lindl, I work in payroll at a small, close-knit accounting firm where we handle clients’ monthly payroll needs with care and precision. I grew up in the small town of Patensie and moved to Cape Town straight after school, where I took a gap year (or two!) and found my feet in the city. It was also where I met my husband, Steyn, about 14–15 years ago. We got married in 2014 and now have two wonderful boys, aged 4 and 6, who keep us on our toes.

I’ve always loved entertaining. Nothing makes me happier than cooking or baking for friends and family and seeing them enjoy what I’ve made. I’m naturally creative and enjoy all things hands-on: arts and crafts, sewing, and making our home a beautiful, welcoming space. I’m more of a practical person than a bookworm. I’d much rather be doing than reading about it!

dig deeper

materials that we discussed in the pod, and more:

• the Taking Children Seriously approach to raising children:

  Children have as much right to control their lives as we adults have to control ours. They are fallible (make mistakes)—but so are we adults. They are not omniscient (they do not know everything) but neither are we adults.

• The Sovereign Child, by Aaron Stupple

• The Beginning of Infinity, by David Deutsch

• humans and robots On Arrival, A Bouquet, by Antoine Valot here’s an excerpt:

  His mind is limited, slow, faulty, but uses a clever hack called imagination, that fills in the gaps with invented facts… and he’s a master at it. A lifetime of reinventing his memories has given him something greater than satisfaction. It’s given him what humans calls bliss.

  Each memory for him is an alternate world, in which he lives an ageless life. There he can sing with a full voice, watch his companion’s body dancing with love and wild abandon. There, he feels free.

  Since my goal is to optimize his well-being, I need to understand bliss. I’ve begun modeling a new mind for myself, to mirror his.

• Michael Ashcraft’s article on Alexander Technique is a great place to start

• pieces from Steyn that really resonated

  • Disobedience

    David Deutsch says it well, “Disobedience is man's original virtue.”

    Fundamentally, without disobedience, we can’t have creativity, and without creativity we can’t make progress.

    It’s a bit sticky: Zero tolerance leads to a static society, but too much of it leads to chaos. Both can cause societal collapse. Or, as the historian Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy explained:

    “Every form of civilization is a wise equilibrium between firm substructure and soaring liberty.”

    Or simply, all civilisations move on a spectrum between absolute obedience and complete anarchy.

  • Screen time : unask the question

    “Should kids have screen time limits?”, is a fundamentally flawed question.

    Mu. Unask the question. Ask a different one.

    Here’s one alternative: How can we connect better with our kids?

notes for myself

• momentum is the most powerful yet fragile ingredient to make any project go from 0 to 1 (and further) ; when it’s here, you’re flying to the moon (April, July), when it’s not (June), it’s damn hard to keep the faith intact - onwards.

• bear with me the countless “mmmh” that I can’t help but make while guests are talking - this is just a nightmare to edit (!). So yeah Mathilde, stop that. And accept silences too.

That’s it for today!

Listen, reach out, and enjoy the week ahead.

Bisous,

Mathilde

Interesting stuff from previous weeks:

hi Barbie, how was your day?

OpenAI recently announced a partnership with Mattel, its first ever with a toymaker. As you know, Mattel makes toys, a LOT of different toys, from Barbie dolls to Polly Pocket to Hot Wheels cars ;

The two expect to announce their first “AI-powered product” later this year, with the goal of enhancing “fan engagement in a safe, thoughtful, and responsible way.”

Well, well, I am certainly intrigued by this first iteration of “safe, thoughtful, and responsible” AI toys.

should robots be our kids’ best friends?

- or the anthropomorphism trap.

In a recent interview (in French) and in the episode below (in English), neuroscientist Dr. Mathilde Cerioli, who studies the intersection of child development and artificial intelligence, reminds us that early and frequent interactions with AI-powered or anthropomorphic technologies (like conversational toys) can distort children’s understanding of attachment and trust, especially at a young age.

Imagine your 4 y/o getting used to playing with an AI toy that sounds just like you (your voice)… just more… perfect : always patient, never angry or tired. How does it feel? What will your child learn about social interactions?

Teenagers brain development is also critical. They are going through a neurologic crisis: their reward system (called limbic system) is incredibly sensitive WHILE their control system, the front part of the brain (the frontal cortex) has yet to develop, until 25 y/o. They’re going through an intense emotional shift as they need to connect with other people than their parents, learn social anxiety, how to adjust… in a world where anything can be recorded - which makes this phase even more stressful.

Getting immediate rewards without thinking of the consequences and not fearing any judgment = no wonder why AI chatbots are so appealing to teenagers.

Parents 👇

• Share with them what we do on our phones ; share them how much we struggle, too ;

• We have to become role models ; think about this, called technoference: 80% of teens report feeling lonely with their parents because of how much they’re on their phones. 80% ;

• Delay as much as you can the use of AI tools for children ;

• When children do ask to use AI, develop literacy ; for instance teach them how to not ask an AI one answer but multiple ones (having a choice!) ;

• Last but not least : what you do outside of any digital world matters as much as what you do when you’re engaging online !! So get out there, connect and play. (Yeah, you too, parent)

At school 👇

We need to fall in love with the learning process, not just the result. Kids do that naturally. Until they understand how the grading system works. AI might be the opportunity to rethink about education.

If school keeps praising for results only (todays’s reward), AI will do - does already - a better job.

So! How do we encourage kids to love the process (again), how do we encourage them to dig into what excites them? Because, and I so much agree, these, are the teachers you will remember your whole life!

AI x school 👇

• connect, first! Show that you care (“tell me about this”: process - instead of just a “good job”: result)

• imagine a new grading system, for instance a role-play discussion panel (yep children could use AI to prep but they’d run the show IRL, on their own)

• bring on AI literacy ; how to prompt (the more you use AI the more you should be able to use it properly ; “show me your prompts”…)

risky play, please

Following this interview, I have been reading The Anxious Generation from . I am finding it particularly helpful to understand the context in which GenZ grew up as teens, and what we could (= absolutely must) do better for the coming generations. One thing that stands out is the absolute need for kids to have outside free play, A LOT of free play. Meaning no adult supervision ;

“keep them as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible” -

Kids naturally seek out risky play: “thrilling and exciting forms of play that involve a risk of physical injury”.

They are in need to “master their fears. As they do so, their fears turn into thrill and triumph”. How would you take that from them, uh? (Mathilde I am talking to you). Usually risky plays fall into six different forms:

• heights (eg climbing)

• high speed (eg swinging, fast slides,..)

• dangerous tools (eg hammers and drills)

• dangerous elements (eg experiment with fire)

• rough-and-tumble play (eg wrestling)

• and the least fun of all : disappearing

Only in such environments will they be able to develop their social and emotional skills, go full speed on the discover mode, an abundance mindset and thus a healthier life.

And nope, free play does not apply online, where small mistakes can have huge consequences:

Children did not evolve to handle the virality, anonymity, instability, and potential for large-scale public shaming of the virtual world.

re-engaging teens : AI x school

In this episode, & , co-author of The Disengaged Teen, discuss about the future of education, especially in schools.

She emphasises on how the teacher’s mission is “damn near impossible”, since they have to, altogether:

• master certain subject

• do class for kids with different grade levels

• manage a classroom dynamic

• be social workers

• be relationship managers

One of these hats could be taken by an AI tutor, but since “we don’t understand AI at all”, there’s inevitably going to have years trying.

The years 2010-2015, or the Great Rewiring - a term used by to describe the transition from the play-based childhood to the phone-based childhood - were a massive uncontrolled experiment where children were the guinea pigs.

Here’s how to avoid taking that path again with AI, according to her:

• Do not use AGI unless you know what you’re using it for, aka there’s a real problem to solve ; don’t get trapped in the FOMO (as a parent, an educator)

• Do give AI to the adults in the school building ; help them figure out how it will help them today ; then give it to school leader to work on ideas to implement

• Any company that wants to work with kids and school should be a benefit corporation (= a type of for-profit corporate entity that, in addition to seeking profit, is legally required to pursue a material positive impact on society and the environment)

• Build AI literacy at school when kids get older = what is this? How is it made? Risks and benefits? Ethics?

• Gouvernement should step in to regulate ; labs are racing to get allegiance of young kids and it’s terrible because these products are not designed for young kids ; AI Labs should create AI product designed for kids, which means not as seductive. Ultimately you want the kids to be fluent in the new technology without being seduced by it.

Open questions

• At a time when AI is entering schools, should schools resist and become the place to retreat? The place to learn how to become as human as possible? The place where you’d be reading the great books and thinking about them, writing long essays,… well, developing specific human faculties?

• Shouldn’t we do anything we can to ensure kids are developing the following muscles : reflection and meaning making?

• Schools are not designed to give kids agency, they’re designed to make kids comply. Hence the importance of asking ourselves this question : is my kid developing agency (rather than grades and behaviours)? This, is probably becoming the next core skill.

• How do I make sure my kids are learning to interact with other human beings? What moments to I engineer, what spaces do I give them?

• Listening and speaking - oracy skills - will be paramount in an AI world ; what can I do to prepare them for this?

will AI damage our brains?

A very interesting answer to this question, by , a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania “I study entrepreneurship & innovation and AI. I am trying to understand what our new AI-haunted era means for work and education”. - thanks for sharing this piece!

The problem is not just cheating, though AI certainly makes that easier. The problem is that even honest attempts to use AI for help can backfire because the default mode of AI is to do the work for you, not with you.

(…)

Ultimately, it is how you use AI, rather than use of AI at all, that determines whether it helps or hurts your brain when learning. Moving away from asking the AI to help you with homework to helping you learn as a tutor is a useful step.

Unfortunately, the default version of most AI models wants to give you the answer, rather than tutor you on a topic, so you might want to use a specialized prompt. While no one has developed the perfect tutor prompt, we have one that has been used in some education studies, and which may be useful to you and you can find more in the Wharton Generative AI Lab prompt library. Feel free to modify it (it is licensed under Creative Commons).

If you are a parent, you can also act as the tutor yourself, prompting the AI “explain the answer to this question in a way I can teach my child, who is in X grade.”

(…) while AI is more creative than most individuals, it lacks the diversity that comes from multiple perspectives.

Always generate your own ideas before turning to AI. Write them down, no matter how rough. Just as group brainstorming works best when people think individually first, you need to capture your unique perspective before AI's suggestions can anchor you. Then use AI to push ideas further: “Combine ideas #3 and #7 in an extreme way,” “Even more extreme,” “Give me 10 more ideas like #42,” “User superheroes as inspiration to make the idea even more interesting.”

(…)

Our fear of AI “damaging our brains” is actually a fear of our own laziness. The technology offers an easy out from the hard work of thinking, and we worry we'll take it. We should worry. But we should also remember that we have a choice.

Your brain is safe. Your thinking, however, is up to you.

That’s all for today!

As always, I am happy to keep chatting in the comments, notes or messages ; don’t be a stranger 😎

Mathilde

unLLMable, or the (human) power of taste

‘s intervention at Sana AI Summit 2025 adresses the big, bold - who said cliché - question : will AI replace us humans? - unwrapping what it feels like to be human. She’s the founder of Sublime, “the knowledge tool that sparks creativity” and a very thoughtful human being.

She makes a point saying we have a language problem with the word Artificial Intelligence, and instead talks about Collective Intelligence.

If you strip LLMs to their pure essence, they’re just a much better way of using statistics to aggregate human intelligence and connect all of the things we’ve done together so we can get more use of them.

The bottleneck to great work is not knowledge, is not information it’s not even intelligence, it’s that intangible quality - call it taste, creativity, judgment, courage, intuition, agency.

Her conclusion:

Will AI replace us? Yes. But fearing that AI will replace us is like fearing that our children will replace us. Yes, they will replace us, because that is why we created them. But also, they depend on us, and they are us, and they can improve us, and free us from becoming machines, so that we can reclaim the things that machines can’t touch.

🤯 a sci-fi novel? a research paper? a mix?

what could our world with AI look like in 2027?

Written by and acclaimed by worldwide AI experts, this scenario is the closest to a forecast on how AI could transform the world in the coming years - it particularly emphasises on the use of AI to speed up AI research, the increasing tensions between the US and China, an ever evolving job market, and even on how we socialise:

10% of Americans, mostly young people, consider an AI “a close friend”

Two possible endings:
[summary by Perplexity]

a "slowdown," where progress is managed more cautiously, and a "race," where competition drives rapid, perhaps reckless, deployment. The authors stress that this is not a recommendation, but an attempt to spark debate and encourage others to consider how we might steer toward positive futures. They highlight the urgent need for broad public discussion, robust safety research, and careful governance to ensure that the rise of superintelligent AI benefits humanity as a whole.

AI tutors to replace academic teachers

Like you, probably, I had heard of the Alpha School in the news : “Alpha School: Using AI To Unleash Students And Transform Teaching”. A recent conversation with friends made me dig into the 2Hour Learning program and its flagship campus in Texas.

In short, here’s how they’re helping kids become ‘self-driven learners’: compress the academics down to 2 hours a day to leave space for real life, passion-driven experiments.

• learn academics with an AI tutor, at their own pace, for 2h a day

• learn motivational and emotional skills with (human) “guides”, to pursue their interests, for the rest of the day

Here’s the thing about an AI tutor : it doesn’t care if the student is white, black or brown ; it doesn’t care if the student is rich or poor ; it doesn’t care if he is in the 15th percentile or the 85th percentile. It is indefinitely patient.
- Mackenzie Price, founder of the 2 Hour Learning

The first school opened in 2014 and they are proudly sharing that their classes score in the the top 1-2% nationally, with students learning twice as fast as in traditional schools. But aside from the results, I find Alpha to be a very interesting approach to education: making sure a child understands the concepts before moving to the next level* (with the individualised AI-powered learning) together with learning real-life social skills: collaboration, public-speaking, leadership,..

Watch this and tell me : would you consider this for your kids? what limits do you see?

*although not AI-powered (yet :)), the montessori approach also makes it so that a child can’t really move forward without having understood the basic, and will thus spend as much time as s.he needs to get the concept right.

towards less coercion

Shoutouts to who recommended me ’s book - The Sovereign Child - and the following discussion he’s having with Tim Ferris and Naval Ravikant: How to Raise a Sovereign Child.

like other groups of human beings, children are people, not pets, prisoners or property. Full people whose lives are their own, not a different kind of person who can be coerced, enslaved or discriminated against. Full, equal humans, not inferior.

(…)

Children have as much right to control their lives as we adults have to control ours. They are fallible (make mistakes)—but so are we adults. They are not omniscient (they do not know everything) but neither are we adults.

Also, as much as I enjoyed this discussion with pretty radical points of view, can someone please, please, please, bring the wives on the pod, too?!

Alright, that’s it for today, friends. Enjoy the weekend!

Yours,

Mathilde

I am delighted to share this second episode with you, where I talk with Sylvana and Eamon about the importance of treating children as whole people, taking their thoughts and feelings seriously from the time they are born. They speak about the benefits of (alternative) school, about learning how to love being alone, about how you instigate and nurture a growth mindset, and why - although crucial to them - they think it’s too early to teach their daughters computer programming. It’s been quite a passionate exchange and I hope it will resonate and spark discussions with you as well!

Who are my guests

grew up between France, Columbia and the US. She’s an energising, articulate and present lady, and I just love talking to her about the many lives we both had before living in Lyon. Sylvana is the “American coach in France”; she’s helping founders and CXOs navigate difficult times by asking them the right questions. She hosts the podcast Life By Intention too (and kindly offered some advice as I got started 🙏).

Eamon is such a friendly person. It is hilarious to hear him talk about what surprises him most in France and about French people. (There’s enough there for a one-man show.). He is a software engineer with a decade at Apple in the Bay, now with GreenGot, a French fintech company and neobank supporting the ecological transition.

I met them both at our children school’s ‘welcome picnic’ two years ago. They had just made the move from Santa Cruz, California to Lyon. I value the move they made as a family, the ‘experimental’ mode in which they are stepping into this new life, their efforts to belong to this new community, Eamon’s dedication to learn French, too.

Without further ado, dear parents, Sylvana and Eamon!

… and follow NewKid on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Youtube and Pocket Casts :)

What we talked about

00:00 intro

01:24 a singular choice you made

treating our children as whole people, taking their thoughts and fears seriously.

10:36 a mainstream idea you agree with

cultural exposure & school exposure, practicing being in a different place and navigate the challenges of being around other humans (aka away from constant protection & shields from their parents)

15:50 why a montessori school

collective, project-base, alternative to the traditional school I didn’t like, learning le savoir-être (the be-how) vs le savoir-faire (know-how) ; considering the student as a whole person, with space and freedom to go at your own rate

23:30 montessori vs waldorf

I later asked Perplexity the main differences and similarities between these two methods ; here’s a summary:

- Montessori emphasizes independence, practical life skills, and early academic learning through hands-on materials and self-directed activity. The teacher acts as a guide, and the environment is carefully prepared for individual exploration.

- Steiner-Waldorf prioritizes imagination, creativity, and group learning, with a strong focus on the arts and delayed academics. Teachers lead through storytelling and rhythm, and classrooms are home-like, filled with natural materials.

Both approaches share a commitment to holistic, child-centered education and hands-on experiences, but their philosophies and classroom practices differ significantly in the balance between structure, creativity, and the timing of academic instruction

25:56 a discipline you wish was taught at school

the how, aka don’t get in the way of curiosity!

32:30 a thing you inherited and wanna pass along

S: you’re never alone when you’re alone, you always have yourself. “Oh, I am such great company!”

E: risk taking, giving a try

40:37 a thing you inherited and wanna stop

S: prepare for motherhood, take care of my own personal baggage

E: be a really present and loving father ; be affectionate ; be a friend so they know they can come to me whenever they need

44:59 one single trait

S: growth mindset, making any obstacle not an obstacle anymore

E: knowing some basic programming concepts to understand how our computers work

51:11 how can tech help

there are some great coding program for kids (Scratch / PBS Kids) but ;

the later the better ;

if you’re gonna use this tool, you should know about its limitations, what it is good for, the implications of these choices, aka how to make an informed choice.

1:03:16 advice to your earlier selves

E: patience

S: refill your own ressources (chips)

1:04:47 recommendations

E: Becoming You, The First 2000 Days of Life (Apple TV)

S: Listen, Five Simple Tools to Meet Your Everyday Parenting Challenges, by Patty Wipfler and Tosha Schore:

I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did recording it! If you’d like to drop a comment on this episode, feel free to do so. I’ll see you soon!

Yours,

Mathilde

No podcast episode this week - have you listened to the first one?! I bet you did. What?! Aight, here you are :

Of course, feel free to follow NewKid on Spotify, or on YouTube (for now) 😎

Every other week, I’ll be sharing things I enjoyed discovering / learning in this parenting journey. OK so what’s up?

parenting x ai

- the uncanny valley, or when anthropomorphism gets cringe

ever heard about the uncanny valley? I had not. Thanks , who raised the point after I told him about the latest Descript avatar feature (check the podcast section below) So I asked Perplexity, this is what it answered:

The term was first introduced by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970, who observed that as a robot's appearance becomes more human-like, people's emotional response becomes more positive-up to a point. However, when the resemblance is very close but not perfect, affinity drops sharply, creating a "valley" of discomfort before rising again if the likeness becomes indistinguishable from a real human

- is perplexity.ai the new google search?

I recently installed Perplexity on my phone and desktop trying to give it a proper trial. During our latest holidays, whenever our kids had a question - what’s the fastest animal in the world? - instead of opening google and stepping out from the conversation with our kids to type down and scroll, Kev would open Perplexity, voice ask, and get a conversation started with the AI assistant. You should have seen their look, once they understood there was a proper interaction going on. I won’t lie, both of us parents are really truly amazed by the technology, too.

Our kids quickly understood that they can ask it to speak french (damn it). Yesterday, I was reading them a story about Galileo and his experiment about two objects of different weights falling at the same speed ; of course we tried it with a toy and a feather (so they did not!) and it got me confused for a sec, we asked Perplexity to explain this for a 5 year old. It blew my mind.

(fyi the fastest animal is the peregrine falcon: up to 320km/h or 200miles/h (!))

(pro tip: while you can use Perplexity for free, you can also receive a Pro plan for free with your Revolut premium account)

- raising more generalist, less expert kids?

Gian’s latest essay is about agency, and how AI is shifting from a world celebrating experts to one celebrating generalists. Maybe generalist people, our time has come.

- screens, social media… and AI

Our Kids Are the Least Flourishing Generation We Know Of (this title…). Believe me, you HAVE to listen to this discussion between Ezra Klein and , a social psychologist who studies morality, the author of #1 NYT Best Seller The Anxious Generation and the Substack (it is so good, go subscribe!). I wish I were in the room with these two, there’s so much I wanted to dig into!

Ezra has a 6-year old child and you can feel he feels for them. Making parents talk about how they are raising their kids, navigating uncertainties and raising existential questions is such a beautiful mission. (I love what I am doing!!)

Are we insecure as parents? So insecure that moral order, as a shared system, has become tabou?

topics that were discussed:

different screens, different impacts:

“A pretty good use of screens”

watching a 90-minute long movie about characters in a moral universe, alongside somebody (ideally you the parent, or a sibling) to make it a social time

“A really really bad use of screens”

iPad time by themselves. Which is the opposite : solitary, amoral, short stories, and create a stimulus <> reward dynamic through touching a screen (in that sense TV - a static screen - isn’t so bad)

(I didn’t see this coming, and it makes sense, put it this way)

(read that stat above again 👆)

what is worth fighting for, as a society:

(since 50% of American teens say they are online almost constantly)

• no smartphones before high school (14 y/o)

• no social media until 16 y/o (like Australia just did)

• phone-free schools

• more more more independent free play outside with friends

“(…) kids need to learn to do hard things. And the technology makes it easy for them to not do hard things”

how about AI:

While for screen time and social media it seems we’re getting there - upheaval from parents and more regulations- what’s up with AI, the ultimate “collapse of all friction”?

Especially regarding relationships. Making AI friends who agree with you and flatter you will only make you less willing to socialise with other kids, for it will necessarily feel more difficult and less rewarding, thus feeding the loop of constantly wanting to hang out with your AI community… Also, Jon mentions this app Famefy, that provides any kid with no social media fame with AI fans. AI fans please.

How do we cultivate healthy attention? How do we help human beings be successful in love and work -if this meant being happy at all- ? Jon is teaching a very intriguing and interesting class called Flourishing, where students learn how to be stronger emotionally ; smarter and more sociable. Shouldn’t we learn this early on in our lives? 👋

lessons learnt from making a podcast

notes to myself and whoever is interested in launching a podcast with no basic recording / editing / publishing knowledge:

• [interview] ask your question, and then please please please, SHUT UP (do not start offering answers) ;

• [edit] in Descript, meet the new Avatar feature : pick up a voice (among a list of 8), choose an avatar image (or upload your own picture!), type a text and let AI do the magic, aka create… this:

• [publish] do NOT look at audience data just yet. It is just you, your man, and your loving parents. More or less ;

• [publish] it takes a little while for an episode to be validated by Apple Podcast (like, up to a week) and thus published.

I look forward to introducing you to Sylvana and Eamon next week, in episode #2!

Have a great weekend ahead!

Yours,

Mathilde

Subscribe now

Bonus : in case it wasn’t clear, here is Y Combinator’s latest request for the next batch of tech startup applications. AI is all over the place, so hey parents, let’s be aware of this, welcome new things, keep questioning, and talk about it!

I am delighted, excited, nervous and relieved to share with you this very first episode of my podcast, NewKid.

episode #1

Going from a vague idea to an actual episode that people can listen to is thrilling. It is far from perfect but I learned - and keep learning - that I’d rather leave perfection at the door (although that bitch keeps knocking: “it’s lame, do better”. Especially transitions, bear with me.)

I am full of gratitude for these two beautiful souls ; for opening up and for making space in their frenetic parents lives to pause and reflect on their parenting journey.

Without further ado, please welcome Sandra and Yotam 🥁💥👇

Watch/listen by clicking above. For now it’s just Youtube and Spotify, for I just realised it takes up to a week to get approved and distributed on some major podcast platforms… ✌️

About my guests

For a bit of context, I first met Yotam back in 2017 in Brisbane ; start-up life, we were expanding our skateboarding subscription box to the Australian market and settled there for close to a year. Yotam is a professional musician turned tech entrepreneur - he saw a glitch in a system and decided to solve it, made it to YC, grew and sold his company and now funds early stage start-ups. I’ve always felt he’s a calm, pragmatic thinker with a deadpan sense of humour.

Through him, we met his other half Sandra. Sandra is a ray of sunshine, like literally. She’s outgoing, curious, empathetic. She’s a joy to be around. I’ve never had the chance to attend her classes, but she must be a terrific person to work with as a student.

So yeah, Yotam introduced us to Sandra and the four of us went out for dinner. That’s probably when Yotam dropped that they never host people first, for if these people turn out to be crazy or too chatty, he and Sandra can still escape at any given time. (They ended up inviting us home, so looks like we passed the test.)

Anyways!

About the episode

In this episode, we discuss about raising a multi-cultural child - Sandra’s from Colombia, Yotam’s from Israel, kiddo’s been born and raised in Australia: the sense of identity, the ability to communicate in multiple languages with the extended family. We talk about discipline. We explore the importance of routines, I love their three-question routine at night -your favorite part of the day; something that made you laugh; something you didn’t like. We dig into what’s most important to nurture, in that case for them equanimity, knowing where you come from and being able to make friends. We also talk a bit about how they see technology serving their 5-year old kid now and as he gets older. About being flexible on things that matter less (short videos while you brush your teeth) and strict about just a few, important things.

I couldn’t wrap this up better than with Sandra’s own words:

“I want our son to have the financial intelligence of Yotam and my social intelligence”

Share

Dig deeper

Resources shared during the podcast:

• Seen, a film about parenting, about knowing where you come from (aka your own childhood) to make more informed decisions as you’re raising your child

Next online screening is happening this coming Sunday, May 4th at 2pm Australia / 6am France 🥱 / 9pm San Francisco

And if you’d like to host the movie in your town, turns out you can!

• MindHeart, about gentle parenting (esp. targeting Latin American parents)

• Parent.tv, about helping parents navigate specific questions along their parenting journey, video content behind a subscription wall (Sandra actually translated their content to Spanish 😎)

• Maggie Dent, about raising boys, and her books From Boys to Men and Mothering Our Boys (that I haven’t read yet but certainly will)

• (bonus: the dino friend we came across last summer)

Thank you for listening!

If you want to share a suggestion, make an intro, send your love, please do so in the comments or by just hitting reply to this email ! And well, if you liked this episode or the mission I am on, why not sharing it with a (parent) friend :)

Share NewKid

See ya next week!

Yours,

Mathilde

In this newsletter, we will be exploring the singular choices we make as parents, in 2025. You can expect to hear from me every week or so from now on, either sharing my latest podcast episode or else my wanders and learnings, just like I am doing today. Bear with me as I get started and ask candid questions -about AI especially. I am hungrily curious to hear from other thoughtful parents so if you feel like it, let’s get discussions started in the comments, notes or more 🎙️!

OK so what happened since you last read me? A few things 🌱

tl;dr

• “better done that perfect” x “just do it, girl” : my mantra the past three weeks to get started with this podcast

• I feel GREAT doing all this: alive, energised, optimistic ⚡️

all by myself

• I got my hands on some basic equipment to get started ; I didn’t do a ton of benchmark tbh, I had warned myself not to fall in the trap of “the perfect setup”. I trusted a podcast friend for the wired headphones, my geek buddy Max for the mic, and well, amazon reviews for an adaptor USB-C to HDMI VGA. All this for under 150€.

• I have set up my recording space - basically moving the furniture around to get the best natural light possible ; and curated a fancy background, of course

  

• I sat down with podcast friends to learn from their initial mistakes and get an idea of how to be up to speed quickly with new tools - thank you and !

• I benchmarked recording & editing tools, mainly Descript and Riverside. I ended up using Descript for it’s a video editor first, while Riverside is primarily a high quality video recording tool, but I digress ; if you wanna dig into the why, ask me :). Anyways, I am blown away by the countless editing features you can play with, even just minutes after getting started, but the most impressive one is certainly to be able to cut your video… from deleting its transcript text! This is nuts.

• I scribbled my favorite questions, again and again and again ; what do I wanna learn from parents? what do I wanna dig into? the hardest’s clearly been cutting through the pile, to have a sense of linearity ; but well, f*** it I know these are just conversation starters!

• I upgraded my note taking skills. If you’re like me, this is what reading a book and taking notes look like:

or worse, this:

so I started exploring voice notes with Tana ; although not extremely easy to grasp at first, their voice to text feature, wether English or French, is quite remarkable! Might worth the $10/mth. I’ll tell y’a.

• and well, probably the most important of all : I recorded my first two episodes 💥 it was fun ! (and serious, too). I am so grateful to these friends for opening up on their parenting journey! I’ll be sharing the first one with you in no time!

mom stuff

#1. them negotiating to watch a cartoon > me negotiating to watch it in english (which they practice at school) or portuguese (which they are familiar with but don’t really understand anymore)

Mom, I have an idea! When we’re in France we watch movies in french, when we’re in another country, we watch it the country’s language - OK maman? And since we’re in France, well…

Kids 1 - Mom 0

#2. riding back home ; the eldest one’s asking

- Mom, how many years before I am 13?
- 7
- do you have a phone when you’re 13?

Duh.

#3. them negotiating to watch a cartoon (bis) > me trying to introduce the idea of an animal documentary instead (?)

I don’t like documentaries, I don’t understand anything; whereas The Creature Cases [a Netflix show for kids], you see, we keep learning new things.

Which I must admit they do. They know species - and their singularities - that I’ve never heard about. Like the common snapping turtle that can razor-bite pretty bad if felt threatened

no time? good. read this.

believe me, I will ONLY share things I’d enthusiastically read, listen or watch again

📚 [book] The Learning Game from Ana Lorena Fabrega (see ) is killing it. She’s opposing the Game of School (learning to fit) with the Learning Game (learning to learn). It is an optimistic, practical, action-oriented book, with many intelligent content you can refer to (my booklist doubled with Ana’s reco!) and practice with your kids. Ana was a teacher for a decade, and later joined Synthesis as their Chief Evangelist.

about Synthesis, my understanding

Synthesis started as an experimental school for the children of SpaceX’s employees, around the question: How can we best prepare our children for the unknown of tomorrow? What should they really be learning in school?

Synthesis’s special curriculum is now available to all. They provide “the world’s first superhuman AI math tutor” (kids aged 5 to 11) as well as problems-solving reality-based games that kids (aged 8 to 14) play in teams, thus practicing decision-making, critical thinking and collaboration. That’s the pitch!

🍿 [series] Adolescence. Everyone’s been obsessively talking about this series. It moved me. It moved us. Every single episode is insanely intense. I kept thinking about ‘s book: BoyMom, that somehow moved me too, as a mom of two (privileged, white) boys. The “what do we do now” for me lies around deep, true, vulnerable, available connection with children, ALL THE TIME. For a thoughtful deep-dive into the series, I recommend

📰 [article] ’s post:

“Discussion is to adolescents what cuddles are to infants; necessary for brain development”

How to Be Brave

What you really need to take away from Netflix’s Adolescence

Owen Cooper and Stephen Graham in Adolescence - Netflix…

Read more

a year ago · 37 likes · 4 comments · Jenny Anderson

📰 [article] … and with a dad angle, and his guest Dan Cullen-ShuteWill’s resume:

The New Fatherhood

Adolescence, and the Need for Dads to Do Better

I finished Netflix’s Adolescence last night. I spent the final thirty minutes in bits, and the last 24 hours staggering around in a daze. I’ll be writing more about it, likely next week, and digging into how the show depicts the relationship between fathers and their sons—how men pass trauma down through generations, echoes of pain, now exacerbated by s…

Read more

a year ago · 40 likes · 4 comments · Kevin Maguire

📹 [30” video] {french-speaking-AI-noob, this is for ya} I watched this to better understand how ChatGPT works. You know that already, but ChatGPT’s job is to give you the most plausible answer based on its training, which is very different from truth. The video’s not so recent but it doesn’t matter much, it’s about the mechanics of it; so I enjoyed coming back to the basics. And this guy’s just the best at popularising complex topics. Thanks !

📰 [article] I read a brilliant piece from about the decreasing space for autonomy in our children’s education over the past century

put it simply:

_children public autonomy started decreasing in the 80s (we went from encouraging independence and competence to guarding and monitoring them) to the point parents start wondering if they’re even allowed to let them kid walk alone

_children autonomy at home in some way increased BUT for what seems like very basic actions like eating, time to bed or what to wear

_the expectation that children contribute to home economics decreased ; not a surprise but we could be asking ourselves what roles that plays in our children’s sense of initiative and confidence?

_messages regarding children’s responsibility became increasingly mixed ; aka confusing “here’s how to be responsible <> I will keep my expectations low anyway” (so basically showing you you’re not that responsible)

🎤🎟️ [one-man show] Michael Hirsch’s one-man show Peau Fine is a pure gem, an hour of introspection about “la joie de vivre” as he became a dad ; it is fun, vulnerable, smart, and well documented, you’ll learn a ton about the topic. Like, the three ways to deal with a problem (solve it | don’t give a fuck | blame yourself or others) or that there’s not 1 but 19 different smiles on our faces! If you’re a french-speaking person living in France, catch him on his tour - you will LOVE it! Also, he and his wife are a badass, adorable couple!

I think that’s it for today!

Until next time ✨

Mathilde

I am excited to share with you a new project close to my heart. I am going solo this time, which is both empowering and intimidating.

who (the f * are you)?

I am Mathilde, I am 37 years old. I am the mom of two beautiful humans - my life coaches - soon turning 4 and 6.

Also, I have been a writer of my own wanders for 25ish years, a life partner for 20 years, a multiple-country civilian for 17 years, a tech entrepreneur (same cofounders) for 10 years, a swing dancer for 1 week.

I love learning new languages - lastly Portuguese, solving human drama, motivating people to get started or keep going, organising [enter whatever], swapping homes, a good laugh at the café-théâtre, smiling at people while running, singing this song, dancing on that one, baking tiramisu or Vietnamese soups, playing Peixinho with my boys, hosting friends, disagreeing with friends and laughing about it, swimming in the mediterranean sea, riding our long-tail bike with the music on and the kids singing out loud, realising we’re all being present in the moment, traveling with my three men around the world, moving in to a new country. And a lot more.

People who know me say I am a thoughtful person.

Beyond any particular achievement, two things really make me proud : having surrounded myself with radically loving and ambitious people across the years and the world. And having nourished a sense of adventure, that kept on growing even with my two young kiddos in the picture.

A few years ago, I started writing on Substack about the challenges and surprises of being a mom ; I wanted to share humbly this brand new life I was entering - and that sometimes I wish I knew already. I am excited it resonated with some people.

why (are you doing this)?

The realisations and moments that triggered this NewKid project - in no particular order:

• The sentence “It was better before” really bugs me. We all have this person around us. Maybe you are this person :) Make sure to read Progress. And let’s talk!

• I am slightly overwhelmed by the AI tsunami out there. I tend to have a hard time cutting through the noise of anything hype in general.

• No one holds the crystal ball but AI seems like a true paradigm change, so we, parents, can’t keep ignoring the shift. I want to understand the underlying, profound changes that are ahead of us. If I am, probably others are too?

• Last summer in San Francisco, I came across this prototype magical toy - a cute dino that can converse with your kid - and it scared the shit out of me. I was stuck by how this could go bananas ; couldn’t see the upsides - why?

• That same summer, the stars in our eyes each time a Waymo car was passing by. Months later, kids keep asking Santa about an autonomous car - not right now, darlings.

• I love being critical - a french thing? And I love people with critical thinking. But criticism for the sake of criticism strains me. I only like it when it comes with solutions, with action. Not with scapegoatism nor a more polarised world.

• About that, do we seriously have to chose a side? To be either pro or against [enter name of a technology / personality / country even]? This black or white world feels very much blind and threatening to me.

• But why should the future be scary? ‘Fear is the mind killer’. Maybe embracing optimism is the entrepreneur’s default mode, or maybe the parent’s default mode. Either way an interesting path to consider to find one’s inner peace.

• Deep down, I want to re-enchant parenthood. I love being a parent. It is humbling, it is empowering, it is a tsunami of love.

• I am obsessed with questioning educational methods ; basically anything we inherited or went through ourselves. Not necessarily in rejection, more with the ‘blank page’ mindset. My partner is too. We spend a lot of time scribbling this blank page!

• Do you remember that discussion you wish you had recorded?! When you were so fully present, so engaged, having this revealing ‘aha’ moment of coming together to a life-changing conclusion / revelation. With yourself. Your partner. A friend. And wish you could recall it forever.

• I want to learn from other parents ; what are their choices, prides, challenges, sources of excitement, fears in their kids’ education, I want to open these doors and address their possible disagreements.

• I want to interview both parents together. Some say it takes a village to raise a child. Well it probably takes more than one well intentioned parent. Let’s try with two!

• At times it kinda freaks me out to get out there, ask stupid questions and feel like a noob. Who said anything about hearing my own voice? Man, it will cost me to get out of my comfort zone ; and this is exactly why I should do it.

what (is going on here)?

This NewKid project is a “learn-in-public-get-your-ass-out-there” journey to explore at the intersection of education x parenting x ai.

This is what it will look like:

🎙️a podcast

• ~1h discussions between me and two parents

📰 a newsletter

• sharing my learnings / discoveries in between two discussions

I hope these discussions will bring parents -and anyone interested in the new generation of citizens- questions and tools to navigate the unknowns more peacefully, more intentionally. Through these episodes, I wish to give all parents the confidence to trust their kids, to trust in the future, to collaborate with one another and with the educators, to proactively seek ways of using the superpowers AI provides, instead of being afraid and naturally let others (not necessarily well intentioned people) decide for us.

I am very excited to meet and hear y’all ❤️

Yours,

Mathilde

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