Cultivating Gratitude with Kids feat. Elle Rowley, Author of Agnes and the Sheep [episode 36]

I have been looking forward to this episode and this interview for quite some time now. And I’m really excited to bring the topic of gratitude to the podcast today. And if you are listening to this, as it goes live in September, we’re all kind of getting into the hang of a new school year. And with that sometimes comes a lot of stress. And the one thing I’ve noticed is sometimes when I get stressed, I kind of slack off on my practice of gratitude of noticing the things around me, sometimes my mind will find itself wandering more into the negative. And it’s kind of funny, I was talking to my coach. And as you all probably know, if you’ve been listening, I am a huge lover of coaching. And I was just kind of talking about all these things that were going wrong in my life. And I was like this and that and that she was like, Hey, let’s look at what we’re grateful for. And then she was like, actually, I’m working on this gratitude journal. And I’m going to send over you to look out for me, she wanted just another set of eyes on it. And I like grammar and looking over things. So I looked over it for her. And I just felt instantly better I was I was like reading it. And in my mind, I was thinking of all the things I’m grateful for. And I’m like, Okay, I need to rewire my mind, I need to remember to be grateful for these things. And we want to teach our children to be able to do that to whether they are our own children or in our classroom. I just think this is such an important topic. So I’m super excited to dive in.

Before we do though, I want to give you just one more quick reminder, as I mentioned, I’m a huge lover of coaching. And so we have a free coaching call happening next week. So if you’re listening to this today, or within the next what, five or six days before, it’s happening on September 28 at 4pm Mountain Time, so that is 3pm Pacific 5pm Central 6pm. Eastern time. I know this is kind of early for our Pacific friends, especially and even our mountain friends, I apologize for that we tried to change around the times for our members to fit different time zones. And also it really just depends on our internal schedules as a team as well. So this one is happening at 4pm. If you can’t make it live, there will be a replay. But if you’re listening before then I would love for you to join us live if you can’t, you can head over to our Facebook page, there will be a recent posts where you can get reminders like get notification on Facebook when we go live. If you are on our email list, make sure to also subscribe to text messages. So you can get a text when we go live too, you will if you can, you’ll want to make it live because then you can have the opportunity to be coached, you can join we have a link where you can join if you want to actually come on camera and be one of the people who is coached by Chrissy which is phenomenal, like such an amazing opportunity. I would love for you to do that. The only way to do that is if you join us live so don’t forget even as setting a reminder in your phone for that time so you don’t miss it. But if you’re listening after or if you’re not able to make it live we will link to the replay of the Facebook live in the show notes. And we will also be airing the replay as an episode on the podcast so if you don’t have time to sit and watch you’ll be able to listen to the coaching right here on Wife Teacher Mommy the podcast so make sure to hit subscribe on this podcast feed if you’re not driving, stop do it right now. So you don’t miss it because this coaching is going to be incredible and even if you make it live you’ll want to re listen on the podcast because I love listening to coaching while I’m on the go just like listening to a podcast.

Okay, so enough about that. Let’s get into do today’s episode. So I met Elle, who we’re speaking with today, Elle Rowley, she is phenomenal. I met her at a conference a few months ago it was at Jody Moore. She’s also life coach. She did a conference for business owners. And Elle was actually one of the speakers there. And she was incredible. And I was like, Oh, my goodness, I love her. But I didn’t think you’d actually get to like, talk with her or meet her. But then my mom and my sister and I went out to lunch, we went to a place called Meters, which is a sandwich shop here in Utah. And my mom was getting up to get a drink. Actually, no, she was getting up to get napkins because I had gotten chocolate from my chocolate chip cookie all over my face. And I was she was like on the end of the bench. You know when is easier for that person to get out. She’s like, Oh, just grab him for you quick. And she ran into her and she’s like, You need to meet my daughter. Go mom, right helping me meet someone who is like I want to meet her. So then we got to chatting. She is so awesome. I’m so excited to bring her on the podcast today. She is a business owner. She created the company Solly Baby. It is a baby carrier company. Some of you might be familiar with it. And then she also is a homeschool mom. She recently turned a barn on her property into a one room schoolhouse. So she does a lot of teaching in that way as well as teaching with her own children. And also she is a children’s book author. Her first book just launched I think it was last month or beginning of this month. It is a great book. It’s called Agnes and the Sheep. My children are loving it. So we’re going to be talking a bit about her book, how it teaches gratitude and how you can cultivate gratitude with your students or your own children on the podcast. So before we dive into the interview, let me just read her official bio for you quick.

So Elle Rowley is a writer, investor and family owned businesses and founder of the award winning baby carrier company Solly Baby, she lives in Bonsall, California with her husband and four children on a small three acre farm with a barn that they have turned into a one room schoolhouse for the community. And I think that’s pretty cool. That is awesome. Okay, so let’s dive into the interview. Hi, Elle, thank you so much for joining us on the show today.

Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.

I am so excited to have you here. And you are just so awesome. I met Elle recently, at a conference in Salt Lake City, Jody Moore’s Impact 2.0. She gave an awesome talk. And I ran into her at Kneaders because she was refilling her drink. And I had chocolate all over my face from a chocolate chip cookie. I do not remember that. I think I checked No, my mom was getting up to get the napkins. And then she was like, Oh, you need to meet my daughter. Hopefully she doesn’t see the chocolate all over my face for the chocolate chip cookie.

I’m a huge proponent of chocolate chip cookies. So if anything, I just felt proud of you like you’re eating a chocolate chip cookie.

So fun. But then we learned I learned that you were writing this book and you are homeschooling. Right? You’re homeschooling? Yeah. Yeah. And you’re doing all kinds of cool stuff with that, too. I would love to hear about that. So anyways, my kids and I, we love your new book, Agnes and the Sheep. Thank you. So before we dive in, can you tell us a little bit about your homeschooling journey?

Yeah, I’d be happy to. So my oldest is 13. She just started eighth grade and my youngest is five. And my husband and I had when back in that pair when Lucy my oldest was starting kindergarten, we just knew that she was going to have a different learning style than just traditional public school. And that was my experience, my husband’s experience. We both have different learning styles that just weren’t a great fit. And also just we have so much excitement about life and the world and all the things that we want to teach our kids that even you know, as she was going into that kindergarten year, we knew that we were going to be doing something different. And honestly, every year since then, we’ve done something different. It has changed and evolved for each kid each semester even as we have different resources available to us different options. And so I I use the word home based more than homeschooled because I rarely am actually the one that’s teaching my kids and subjects like right now I don’t have any kids at home. Because they’re all at different co-ops or like my oldest I actually have overalls on right now because we just got back from the farm day. She’s still over there where we were picking lines for a Georgics farming class that we’re doing with the middle schoolers and then the my 11 year old he’s that we have a barn in the backyard that we made into a school house and we have a higher teacher there and she teaches two days a week. And so he’s doing Language Arts is really Anna Green Gables and working on projects there. And then my eight year old and five year olds are at a farm down the street at friend’s house. As the as a co op there, and they’re doing nature and learning in Spanish and every day, it’s just something, something different. But I think it really does come from this deep love and excitement and curiosity that my husband and I have for the world, which I think so many homeschool families can relate to. It’s just like, there’s so much so many opportunities, so many things that we can do. And that is really driven our homeschool journey.

I love that how you said it’s kind of like home based school because you do all these things. And it’s kind of like a lot of people think homeschooling, it’s like, they don’t get the social opportunities or whatever. But really, it’s a lot different sometimes then a lot of people think I mean, it’s different for every family. But there are co ops, there are Farm Days, all these fun things. So I love that. And I realized I forgot at the very beginning, I was just excited to jump in with you. I need to have you introduce yourself as well. So can you tell our listeners a little bit more about you as well, in addition to homeschooling?

I’d love to so my name is Elle Rowley, you kind of established that. But I started a business called Solly Baby Baby Carrier Company about 12 years ago now. And I have done that for the last decade and loved it. But I actually studied English literature in college and communications and I love writing. So all the way through, I have been excited to eventually write books. And we sold the majority share of Solly Baby last fall, and almost a year ago now. And that really opened up this amazing window for me to be able to pursue writing. And that is what I’ve done for the last year is just started this children’s book series. And it really I just feel like there was such divine intervention and how it all lined up and came together. I’m just really, really grateful. And it’s been an amazing, it’s really been since before we sold the business that it’s been almost two years now since the inception of Agnes Agnes series. So it’s been amazing.

I love that, and you did mention, it’s a series. So this was like the first book in a series. So why did you choose gratitude to be the first? Oh my goodness, what’s the word I’m looking for? In support? Like moral behind the story, like what made you be like, Okay, this is what we’re starting with?

Well, I mean, it’s kind of everything, right? Gratitude is just kind of a crowning virtue, I think. And really, a driving factor in writing this children’s book series is feeling like there’s a loss of good children’s literature that really follow this three act structure of storytelling, that it’s so good for kids brain development, it’s good for all of us. But there’s so much poetry and prose, which I love in children’s literature. But I think the three act structure that ends with some type of moral is really teaching them something meaningful, and is really important for our kids. And so that really has inspired this series, I grew up reading Aesop’s Fables and Book of Virtues and Little Red Hen. I mean, those are classics for a reason. And they they really do teach us something. And gratitude for me is really, I just think it, it really encapsulates all good things. And when we’re living in gratitude filled life we’re living a happy one, it’s really hard to not be happy when you’re feeling grateful. So felt important.

So true. And I love that how that’s kind of like, Oh, what was the wording you used? It was so good. The crowning kind of virtue. Yeah, I think that’s what it was. I love that. And your book does a great job at teaching that moral too like, it was obvious. I saw or read too something after where you talked about that is what it was about. But reading the book, it’s like, you know, very clear that that’s the message behind it. And I feel like, like you mentioned, that’s not in every book anymore. So I love that.

Well, did you know that there’s a whole category of children’s literature called a moral children’s lit? I mean, it’s just like, you know, fantasy or romance and there’s a moral and I’m like, Why? Why don’t we meet that? You know?

So can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind this series in general?

So it is inspired by a true story and this first book and actually the second book is as well I don’t know if they all will be because I don’t know how many books our animals are going to write for. Came about naturally as we have this Great Dane. Her name is Tiger Lily. And we also have another Great Dane who has a puppy and her name is Agnes it gets confusing because this book is actually Tiger Lily, based on our seven year old dog and we had sheep here at our we just live on under three acres and kind of a little hobby farm and one day they got in our house while we were at Disneyland, and I had my mom and her husband were in town and we all went to Disneyland for the evening and Kids I had seen the sheep leaning against all the windows, as far as like, looking at our house for a while is getting annoying because they kept pooping on this cement. And they have this whole pasture in the backyard and they kept coming up. But I would not have imagined that they would have gotten into the house. And so our dog, she let them inside. She’s really good with door handles because she’s a Great Dane because she’s at the right height for them. She let herself in while we were gone. And they ate all the houseplants they were after the house plant. So it’s just kind of a classic grass is greener story. And it’s so perfectly to and that the sheep are fine, but they did get diarrhea for a few days. They’re kind of miserable, and it just felt like I don’t know, we’re like the sheep just an our dog or like you literally just wrote a story. This is just such an iconic kind of grass is greener tails. So when DK our publisher based out of London when they approach us as like, they didn’t approach me about this book, they approached me about a lift the flat board but called Carrying Baby that I had made for Solly Baby about how different animals carry their babies. And that’s what the call was about. And I said, you know, I have this other idea about our dog and she’s not a sheep that we had and, and they just latched right on to it. And so really what’s developed from there is Agnes being this kind of guide, she’s kind of a grandmotherly figure who still makes mistakes, but she really guides all the farm animals in their adventures and mishaps and always had some wise counsel for them. They don’t listen to you, but.

I love that and it was just such a sweet book. Oh my, my son, my youngest, he just wants to read it all the time. He’s like, Can we meet Agnes and the Sheep? I love the illustrations in the book too. Like the story, the illustrations are beautiful. And the families are based on your family too, right?

Yeah, um, a lot of like, I have to, it just felt so unfair to not mention Claire Gray, our Illustrator, she lives on a farm. She has three little kids and she lives on a farm in the south of London and Winchester. And they’re tenant farmers, her husband’s a veterinarian. He’s like a real James Harriet, a vet who has this is the tenant farmers while they have sheep and cows and all the things and it was just so meant to be that we got connected with her through Solly Baby, actually. And I just think she nailed it. I’m like you, you have painted the scene. You just created this whole world for Agnes that is beyond what I could have imagined. That has been so fun to work with her that but I love hearing when it is resonating with other families and especially kids, there’s no better stamp of approval.

Yeah, she did a great job with those illustrations. And you did a great job with writing and it’s like they just go together, they almost do seem like they were done by the same person just because it brings you into this world, you know? Oh, good to hear. Thank you.

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Okay, so let’s kind of talk about because we’re talking to teachers and homeschool parents, so how can we as educators, whether we’re in the traditional classroom or homeschool, cultivate gratitude in the children that we teach, whether they be our own children or those in a classroom?

I mean, there’s nothing that makes a bigger impact than walking the walk. And I actually I was just thinking about this coming home from our friend’s farm down the street. Howard’s working with the middle schoolers today picking lines for the like neighborhood grocery store. And my friend that it’s her farm. She has four little boys, her name is Lexi. And she is just the most grateful person that I’ve ever been around. It’s just like all morning. She’s just grateful for everything, amazed by everything, like she lives in a state of gratitude. And it is so deeply inspiring. And like she could sit here and we could talk about it all day, but her just living that and really just encapsulating that and everything that she does, she embodies it, and my kids will even comment on it about her, you know, and my oldest, she’s always like, I want to be more like Lexi. And she can’t always pinpoint it. But I think that that really is at the heart of it is just being grateful and vocalizing that. I think that is the second part of it. It’s easy when we’re around kids and in the classroom. And you know, so many things going on to maybe not take the moment to recognize it, you know, but we’re out in this field today out on this farm, and it started raining. It’s like, oh, my gosh, what a blessing that it’s raining. We’ve been in this drought here in California for so long. It’s like, just stopping to say it out loud. I don’t know, I think those are the two pieces for me.

I love that. Yeah, just being that example. And you know, taking the moment to do it out loud modeling for them. That’s what we do when we’re teaching is we model things with learning, but we can also do that with things like gratitude. So love that. Yes. And how can teachers and parents utilize your book Agnes and the Sheep to teach their children gratitude? Do you have any fun ideas of what they could do with that?

Oh, yeah. So we actually on our website for the book, Claire and I designed a little activity enrichment packet. So there, you know, discussion questions about gratitude about the book, just kind of book club questions, as well as finding all the cozy things from Agnes’ world and they just a lot of little fun pages to engage with the book a little bit more. And hopefully to bring out more of that gratitude, the conversation around gratitude as well, and some crafts. So I think those are, that’s what I’m doing at home with my family. And that’s what I would suggest.

Awesome. And I will make sure to get the link to that and put it in the show notes for all of you. So okay, so we have lots of teachers and teachers who are also moms homeschool moms listening, and they might wonder how to write a book themselves. I know a lot of teachers are also maybe they’ve got an English or they love writing. And they’re like, Wow, that just sounds so cool. But it’s a little bit daunting. So for those who are listening, who may have like a story in their heart, and they want to write their own book, what tips do you have for them on getting started?

Oh, I love this question. Just do it. Because here’s the thing. Nobody, I mean, unless this book becomes the New York Times bestseller, I mean, who knows. But that’s not what I’m you know, counting on or I’m not trying to feed my family on this book. It is like an experience to, to write it to be a part of it to be able to share this, to me this, these are heirlooms for my kids and I love having it to share with our family and friends as well. And anything beyond that just feels like the cherry on top. But I would just say to look at it as an heirloom, something that you are creating to share with other people. It’s a part of you that you get to put out there in the world. And, you know, self publish, write publishers, write illustrators, if you’re not, you know, going to illustrate it yourself. Instagram is a great place to find other artists. Claire had never done a children’s book before this was her first Wow, their books? Well, you cannot tell it’s so good. I was like, No, you can do this, Claire, you’ve got this, you know, and obviously she did. But as far as reaching out to publishers or literary agents, those are kind of the two approaches that you can take to get it published to a traditional publishing house and it literary agent. There’s many websites online that if you just look it up like literary agents directory or something, and you can get information on a ton that you can just start sending your manuscript out to or you could also do the same thing with a publishing house and you don’t need to have illustrations you don’t need to have you know, any of the artwork. Usually they’ll want to choose it for you. So that wouldn’t be a necessary piece to submitting your manuscript. But I would just say don’t wait for it to happen. Just write a book and Carrying Baby was my first one and I sent it out to I think it was print ninja or something that You know, printed it for me and I, you know, printed a few 100 copies, and then a few 100 more and put them online. And I don’t know, I just say go for it.

So it was that one self published. So that was totally self published. And I feel just as proud of that one. Yeah, why not? Yeah. I love that any more good stories?

Absolutely. I need to look up that Carrying Baby one, too. That sounds like such a great one. Okay, do you have any other final thoughts you would like to share with our listeners?

If I were to say anything, it would just be a big thank you to all of our moms and dads and teachers out there doing such a good job with all these kids. I know, that’s such a general broad statement. But I think as school starts I don’t know if you have felt that. But I’m just so grateful for all the people in my kids lives who are making such a big difference. And I feel like we are just in this amazing time, where everyone is so much more aware of the examples that we’re setting and how we can influence and impact these kids and what we can all the good things that we can share with them and teach them so I don’t know. I just love this time of year. It’s overwhelming. And at the same time, I just think it’s it’s really inspiring to see so many good people working hard for our kids.

It’s so true, like the beginning of the year. I mean, yes, I’m feeling it too. There’s like all the new activities. And even where I realized I’m like, Oh, I scheduled that before I had this activity and my calendar or whatever it is, like all those little juggling things as you’re figuring out the new school year. But yeah, it really is incredible to see all the people and the new teachers and who are impacting kids and how much they’re doing. And I love talking about just like as a teacher, the legacy you’re leaving on so many children. It’s really incredible. When you think about it, whether you are teaching your own children, or you’re teaching in a classroom or homeschool Co Op or whatever, you’re just making such a big difference. Love that. So where can our audience find Agnes and the Sheep if they’d like to purchase a copy?

Well, you can find it at almost any bookseller. Maybe call them but definitely Amazon if you buy it there. Please leave bear with you. Yeah, they’re at booksellers everywhere.

Awesome. Think probably just google and find it, too. Yeah. Okay, where can our audience connect with you online?

I have my personal Instagram. It’s just at@ellerowley.

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today. It was so fun to have you.

Thank you for having me as delightful. You’re so fun to talk to.