Nikki Bush

She has developed seven educational games including board games for well-known brands such as Barney and Thomas.

Nikki is a regular guest on radio and TV and is often quoted in the media. She writes a weekly column called Parenting Matters© which is used in school newsletters around the country.

Nikki is married and has two sons aged 16 and 11. They live in Johannesburg.

CHILDREN LIVING IN THE RED ZONE?©

Children of all ages are suffering from burnout and it's starting as early as preschool. What are we doing? Are our children living in the Red Zone called overload? If your child has no time for play dates with friends and you no longer have time to play games with each other, then you are living in the Red Zone. Get out, as quickly as you can!

Nikki Bush, creative parenting expert and author of Future-proof Your Child (Penguin), will discuss the current epidemic being witnessed by parents, educators and healthcare practitioners alike. She will put the following factors into perspective by exploring 10 common parenting traps:

• extra-mural activities
• play dates
• downtime / potter time
• supervised & structured activities vs free play
• marketing to children
• choices
• on-screen activities & overexposure
• creativity
• sleep
• inappropriate information
• resourcefulness, resilience and creativity
• cellular disturbances / inflammation
• parental stress
• a warp-speed world

This interactive presentation is filled with anecdotes and personal insights. It is designed to help parents and educators to understand the forces at play and the demands on young children today, and to encourage them to reclaim childhood and their sanity by resetting to zero.

It was a privilege to have Nikki Bush present the above-mentioned talk to our teachers in the Pre Preparatory. We found her presentation to be informative, well researched and relevant to how we are all caught up in the demands of society.
Red Zone, we are all faced with this phenomenon, but she shared some invaluable tools on how to deal with this effectively. Glynis Courtney,Head HeronBridge Pre Preparatory

I found the Red Zone talk by Nikki Bush to be very enlightening. It highlighted for me the fact that we live in a society that places so many demands on us, and the fact that this will not change. We need to learn ways to deal with this. Nikki's talk equipped me with the tools to take that "Time Out", so as to ensure we don't get caught up in this Red Zone. Kirsty James, mum of 2

I have been the principal of a community pre-school for the past 32 years. I have also presented the S.T.E.P. parenting course for 12 years, and I am passionate about young children, parenting and family life. Your new talk, Living in the Red Zone really ticks all the boxes and is so very relevant in our lives today.

We have such a wide variety of choices these days so our focus is often scattered, and many of us feel we are on a treadmill and don't do anything wholeheartedly . I do believe in a "value based life" and I really like your terminology of re-setting to zero. We must remember that "zero" is just a choice away and always available to us right now.

Thank you for sharing your time, talents and wisdom with us. It was wonderful to have so many teachers from the local schools surrounding us and to know that these ideas will have such a ripple effect on our wider community.
With love honour and respect

Anne Hean, Principal, Assumption Preschool, KZN

BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
©Nikki Bush 2010

Our children – particularly tweens and teens – are strongly attracted to social media and new technology. They're wired for it, we aren't. They can't get enough of it and we are paralysed by our fear of something we don't know, can't even see and don't yet fully understand.

Parents need to get beyond the hype and scary stories to truly get to grips with this major, and irreversible shift taking place in the world as a result of the invention of the internet and the rise of interactive social media. Everything is changing and our tweens and teens are at the centre of it all. We need to take conscious, positive steps to understand this new look world, and our children, so that we remain connected and relevant.

Through this interactive, conversational presentation, creative parenting expert and author of Future-proof Your Child, Nikki Bush will help you gain perspective and grasp the bigger picture. In turn this will help you to bridge the digital divide between yourself and your child, helping you to maintain your emotional connection with each other.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
This presentation is suitable for parents of any child who loves a screen (that's all of you!) from 8 year olds playing Moshe Monsters or Club Penguin, to those with tweens on teens who can't live without their cellphones.

FUTURE-PROOF YOUR CHILD™

The world has changed. The future has changed. Childhood is changing. Raising children has never been more challenging – or potentially rewarding.

Nikki Bush, creative parenting expert and author of the bestselling book, Future-proof Your Child, explores what you need to know about tomorrow today, why you need to know this and what you need to do to prepare today's children for a world that doesn't yet exist. This thought provoking multi-media presentation, peppered with personal anecdotes, will introduce you to the X-factors required for success in the world of work in 2020 and beyond, providing many practical ideas to help children to develop them from an early age.

This eye-opening talk is suitable for anyone involved in raising children of any age, from parents to teachers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and even parents to be. And if you are not a parent, but you employ parents, this topic should be on your agenda too:
- Because effective, conscious parenting is connected to productivity in the workplace
- Because parents who work for you are raising the next generation of talent that you may just employ one day
- Because our country and economy will be directly influenced by how we parent this generation of children.

PARENTING ON THE RUN™

Parents today are busy. Being able to parent creatively - on the run - makes your parenting journey easier and much more fun. In this acclaimed talk, creative parenting expert and author, Nikki Bush, introduces the concept of cheating time and turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, helping parents to give away the guilt they so often feel.

Nikki will show you how time spent in the car, doing household chores and activities or waiting for appointments, can be so valuable to both you and your child – it is never a waste of time! This insightful talk is peppered with personal anecdotes and provides dozens of practical and creative ideas to take home and try with your children. Connecting with your child can be so easy, even if you are on the run!

Come and discover:

• Why it's important to connect with your child regardless of how busy you are
• How to cheat time
• How to convert "wasted time" with your children into "quality time"
• Over 50 practical ideas of how to create quality time moments with your children when you are on the run
• How to read your children's needs better

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
All parents of children from 2 - 10 years although the outcomes of this workshop continue to be just as applicable to older children. Join us for some interactive fun.

Regret no children, as it is distracting to other delegates.

Testimonials

Nikki, thank you for playing with us, in a most remarkable way. You really have been an inspiration today – your passion for play, connecting – I think you are a phenomenal woman, might I say! A mother, a wife – I'm surprised you are not a psychologist or an educationalist, because you have it all wrapped up so beautifully. I think what came through most was your plea for us to honour our children and our families, to make time for them by really prioritising, by finding the joy in ourselves and eliciting it in others. It has been a remarkable hour and we really are so delighted that you've come via Pietermaritzburg to Durban because we don't often have the opportunity to have somebody with your passion, your expertise and your very, very practical ideas, and speaking from the heart about your own children really resonated so with us – it wasn't just the theory out there. Thank you for your very high, high touch! Flick Wright, headmistress, The Wykeham Collegiate, Pietermaritzburg, Parenting on the Run, August 2008
"I can't believe that I don't have to feel guilty about being busy anymore!" Audrey Stanley
"If parents put into practice just a handful of these ideas they would reinforce what we are teaching at pre-school and we would be referring fewer children for therapy. We need to get this message out to more parents". Glynnis Courtney, Head of HeronBridge Pre-Prep and chairlady of the ISASA pre-school committee 2006.
"Many thanks for the fantastic Parenting on the Run workshop. Your practical suggestions have worked brilliantly for us. I have two very busy little boys (4 and 2) who are easily bored and distracted, but they are putty in my hands with my newfound "box of tricks"! " Kathleen Bartels

CONNECTING WITH CHILDREN THROUGH THE NOISE AND CLUTTER©

Today's children are born with a mouse in one hand and your wallet in the other. This presentation has been designed to help parents better understand how the noise of technology and the clutter of consumerism influence the way children are developing. It will touch on:
• Characteristics of the new kids on the block
• The disappearance of childhood
• The importance of imagination, creativity and play
• Television, computers and electronic games
• The most "wired" generation in history
• The rise of the child consumer
• The power of branding
• How to balance the noise & clutter in your child's life

With knowledge and insight, parents can connect with today's children despite the noise and clutter.