Donna Shea - Social Educator

10/22/2026

🍂 November Social Group Openings at the Peter Pan Center!

Friendships grow through shared experiences!

At the Peter Pan Center, children build friendship skills through games, creative activities, conversation, and real-life opportunities to practice connecting with others.

And the best part? We coach those skills right inside the moment, when they matter most!

We currently have openings in select age groups on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons.

Come see what Peter Pan is all about!

We're offering complimentary group visits October 27, 28 & 29 for families interested in joining us in November.

Learn more here:
https://conta.cc/4ib3YDc

Located in Boxborough, MA.

Feel free to share with a family who might be looking for a place where their child can connect, grow, and make friends!

Email from Donna Shea Complimentary groups visits October 27, 28 & 29th at the Peter Pan Center. Social Group Openings for November Come visit us during our complimentary trial week! Friendships Grow

10/20/2026

💭 When Everything Feels Like Your Fault

Last week, we talked about the kids who blame everyone else when something goes wrong.

But what about the kids who blame themselves for everything?

The ones who apologize constantly, assume a friend's bad mood is their fault, or turn one little mistake into "I can't do anything right."

In this week's Social Coaching Scoop, we're exploring The Self-Blamers and how we can help kids recognize the difference between taking responsibility and carrying blame that doesn't belong to them.

Because making a mistake doesn't mean you are a mistake. ❤️

📬 Read this week's Scoop:
https://conta.cc/3WsquA0

Email from Donna Shea Some kids blame everyone else. Others blame themselves for everything. Here's how we can help. 📬 Welcome to this week’s Social Coaching Scoop! 📍 657 Hill Road, Boxborough MA 📞

10/15/2026

I love being able to share the good work of people in our Peter Pan community!

Megan Livingstone has tutored my own grandson, along with several children who have attended my Peter Pan groups.

Megan is a former elementary school teacher who brings warmth, patience, and an understanding of how differently children learn. She has a particular interest in supporting neurodivergent learners and helping children feel successful and confident.

If you're looking for some extra academic support for your child, Megan is someone I can happily recommend from personal experience!

Take a look at her information below. 😊

10/13/2026

🔥 We've all met a blamethrower!

The game was unfair. The other kid made them mad. Somebody else is always responsible when things go wrong.

But sometimes, blaming others is a way for kids to protect themselves from disappointment, embarrassment, or uncomfortable feelings.

This week's Social Coaching Scoop explores how we can help children move beyond blame and toward something much more useful: figuring out what they can do next.

Because taking responsibility doesn't mean everything is your fault. ❤️

📬 Read this week's Scoop:
https://conta.cc/4hKdIFw

Email from Donna Shea When everything is somebody else's fault, how do we help kids recognize their own part and move forward? 📬 Welcome to this week’s Social Coaching Scoop! 📍 657 Hill Road, Boxbor

10/06/2026

Sometimes two people disagree simply because they’re working with different information.

This week’s Social Coaching Scoop started with two boys, some branches, a couple of metal shovels—and a conversation with one of my staff members who saw the situation a little differently than I did. 😊

It turned into a great reminder for kids and grown-ups:

“Is there something you know that I don’t?”
A little curiosity can completely change how we understand someone else’s decision.

📬 Read this week’s Social Coaching Scoop: https://conta.cc/4rHaFkC

Email from Donna Shea Sometimes disagreement makes more sense when you find the missing piece. 📬 Welcome to this week’s Social Coaching Scoop! 📍 657 Hill Road, Boxborough MA 📞 978-413-1965 ✉ dshea.

09/29/2026

Sometimes a problem gets a whole lot bigger simply because we keep taking it to people who can’t actually solve it.

This week’s Social Scoop is about a question I ask kids—and myself—pretty regularly:

“Who can actually help you with this?”

Going to the source can help kids build communication, self-advocacy, problem-solving, and relationship repair skills. And sometimes the right first step is getting support before they do that.

A simple question. A pretty useful lifelong skill. 😊

📬 Read this week’s Social Scoop:
https://conta.cc/4d2kweL

Email from Donna Shea Teaching kids when to go to the source—and when getting support first makes sense. 📬 Welcome to this week’s Social Coaching Scoop! 📍 657 Hill Road, Boxborough MA 📞 978-413-196

09/22/2026

Are you a fixer? 🙋‍♀️

When someone we care about is struggling, it can be very tempting to jump right into solutions. But sometimes the most helpful thing we can do is start with one simple question:

“How can I help?”

And then comes the harder part: actually listening to the answer.

That’s this week’s Coaching Corner in the Social Scoop. 🍎

https://conta.cc/3UTI5jH

Email from Donna Shea Sometimes the best way to help is to ask first—and then really listen. 📬 Welcome to this week’s Social Coaching Scoop! 📍 657 Hill Road, Boxborough MA 📞 978-413-1965 ✉ dshea.pe

09/15/2026

Sometimes the apology happens…and the other person is still mad.

That happened during our very first social group of the new school year, after an accidental dirt incident involving a pair of brand-new, very important sneakers. 👟

The dirt could be cleaned. An apology could be offered. But the feelings didn’t disappear quite as quickly.

And that gave us another growing power to work on:

An apology is an attempt to repair what happened. It isn’t a magic button that makes someone feel better.

This week’s Social Coaching Scoop is about what kids can learn to do next—take some space, stay mad for a while, avoid retaliation, and eventually decide whether one hard moment gets to determine the rest of the day.

🌱 You Can Still Be Mad After Someone Says Sorry

👉 Read this week’s Social Coaching Scoop: https://conta.cc/3T6JBOK

Email from Donna Shea An apology can repair what happened—but it doesn’t make feelings disappear. 📬 Welcome to this week’s Social Coaching Scoop! 📍 657 Hill Road, Boxborough MA 📞 978-413-1965 ✉ dsh

09/11/2026

A pretty exciting book-launch update! 📚

Why Can’t My Child Make Friends? reached #1 in two Amazon Free Kindle parenting categories today:

⭐ #1 in School-Age Children
⭐ #1 in Parenting Hyperactive Children & Children with Disabilities
⭐ #2 in Parenting Emotions & Feelings

More than 400 copies have already been downloaded today, and I'm especially happy knowing the book is reaching parents and other adults looking for practical ways to support socially struggling children.

Thank you to everyone who has downloaded and shared it!

The Kindle edition is still FREE through September 13.

09/10/2026

7 things I do when a child is upset about something that seems REALLY small to me:

I remind myself that it isn't small to them.
✅ I don't have to understand the size of the feeling to take it seriously.
I don't start with “It's okay.”
✅ Clearly, it isn't okay yet. I start with, “You look really upset.”
I don't immediately try to fix it.
✅ Sometimes kids need someone to hear the problem before they need someone to solve it.
I ask, “How can I help?”
✅ The answer might be completely different from what I assumed they needed.
I keep my own reaction smaller than theirs.
✅ One overwhelmed person in the conversation is enough.
I help with the part that actually CAN be fixed.
✅ Then we can deal with the feelings about the part that can't.
I don't require them to stop being upset just because the problem has been solved.
✅ Feelings sometimes need a little longer to catch up.

Kids don't need us to agree that something is a big deal.

Sometimes they just need us to understand that it is a big deal to them.

What's something your child has been devastated by that seemed incredibly small to you?