Wiggle Talk - A Podcast For Parents · The Wiggles & iHeart Australia

What Rainy Days Can Teach Kids

·35 min·2 clips

Jessica Braithwaite calls her book a "permission slip" for parents: "We don't expect the weather to be sunny every day."

1. Wiggle Talk, a Wiggles podcast for parents, devotes this episode to the weather, with hosts in a rain hat and a sun hat discussing how the forecast shapes family moods and outdoor play. 2. The guest is Jessica Braithwaite, a Nine News weather presenter in Adelaide and self-described "weather nerd," who recently released the children's book "Whatever the Weather, We're in This Together" with an accompanying lullaby. 3. Her central thesis is that weather and emotions run in parallel, so that "we need all the different types of weather" in the same way we need all the different types of emotions. 4. At home she uses a Galileo thermometer and small seasonal moments, such as a first frost or a dewdrop up close, to teach her kids to "notice the magic in every day," and she dislikes the song "Rain, Rain, Go Away" for treating rain as bad. 5. She says fewer than half of Aussie kids play outside on most days, and she describes touring daycare centres with fake grass and iPads that barred children from going outside in rain, wind or high UV. 6. She lists the benefits of rain, mud and wind play: resilience, problem-solving, microbiome exposure from soil, and spatial awareness and gross motor skills from "leaning into the gusts." 7. For extreme events, she recommends age-appropriate explanations such as "sometimes when it rains too much, the river spills over," so kids learn that grownups have a plan, and she presents warnings in a "friendly heads up" tone rather than a dramatic one. 8. On a 42-degree first week of school, she advises going outside early for backyard water play or the trampoline, skipping the beach, and switching to a movie day in the afternoon, and she keeps head-to-toe rain onesies and $5 gum boots from Binnie's handy. 9. She offers 20-second noticing prompts, such as asking which direction the wind is coming from or what ripples do when a stone hits a puddle, and calls her book a "permission slip" for parents to feel worried or sad, since "we don't expect the weather to be sunny every day." 10. Suited to parents of toddlers and young children, and to fans of The Wiggles.

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