Story Reenactments
As preschoolers, my children loved Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I would read the story and they would…
MorePosts tagged: Developmental
A NeuroSpicy Movement Meditation
Thoughts of school or preschool can generate anxious or nervous sensations in both neurodivergent and neurotypical…
MoreA NeuroSpicy Spiritual Practice for Easing Separations
Separating from a loved one can be particularly distressing for neurodivergent children. They may feel unsafe or…
MoreExploring Spiritual Concepts through Movement
For more than a century, developmentalists assumed that children were unable to understand spiritual and religious…
MoreBuilding Self-Understanding with Self-Talk
When she was three, my middle daughter loved to play dolls with her friends. They would reenact various everyday…
MoreMemory Games
Almost everything we do with children involves things they need to remember. Spiritual stories have characters and…
MoreProductive Struggle
My middle daughter has a form of dyslexia in which her brain doesn’t easily associate how a letter looks with the…
MoreHow Choice Questions Build Ethical Thinking
“Would you rather wear your blue sweater or your red one?” Questions like this are a parenting staple and kids are…
MorePaying Close Attention to Kids
At my daughter’s sixth birthday party, she invited her friends to decorate pots and plant marigolds. I watched as one…
MoreWhen Kids Need to Calm Down
I watched a mom hurriedly feeding an infant while another child hopped up and down next to the table. “But mommy,”…
MoreAffirming Neurodiversity
I was recently invited to talk with a group of interns working in non-profit settings with kids. One noted that he had…
MoreExploring Identity with Inside Out 2
The transition from childhood to adolescence brings a host of new emotions to the fore: anxiety, envy, embarrassment,…
MoreKids’ Imaginations
When my children were young, we played all kinds of imaginative games. Sometimes we took our cues from stories we had…
MoreCreating Resource-Rich Spiritual Environments
A child’s environment has a huge effect on their lives and, consequently, on their spirituality. The things and…
MoreThe Importance of Play
Play is a major part of childhood. Kids run around outside, hiding from one another, racing, or kicking a soccer ball.…
MoreMore Gratitude, Please
My mother firmly believed that children should write thank you notes for any gifts we received. If we didn’t get them…
MoreThe Science of Gratitude
“Tank you” said my daughter’s two year old friend as I passed out cookies to everyone in our neighborhood…
MoreHow Social Media Works
When my friend’s children want to find a new book to read, they turn to TikTok. The app lets them search for videos…
MoreHelping Young Children Connect Actions with Consequences
As preschoolers, my kids love playing with story blocks. Our set consisted of wooden tiles depicting various…
MoreManaging Misbehavior with Conscious Discipline
I’m watching a group of children prepare to act out a spiritual story. One child insists on taking the lead role, and…
MoreAffirming Gender Diversity
When my children were young, we dressed them in a rainbow of hues. Some people found this frustrating because they…
MoreBuilding a Strong Image of Children
Sometimes when we talk about children, we focus on what kids can’t do: they can’t walk yet, or they can’t reach…
MoreCultivating Virtues
As my eldest child ran off the soccer field after another bruising loss, I prepared to console her and her teammates. I…
MoreGenerational Spirituality
Spirituality isn’t just a social, emotional, or cultural aspect of life. It’s also biological, passed from…
MoreCharacter Rocks
I keep a small stone on my desk with the word ‘breathe’ painted on it. It’s a reminder to slow down, find my…
MoreHow Kids Learn to Remember
What’s your earliest autobiographical memory? If you are like most people, it’s probably a significant event from…
MoreDurable Spiritual Learning
Recently, I watched several young children explore finger labyrinths for the first time. Most would race to see how…
MoreNurturing a Flexible Mindset
“But mom, you don’t understand! Practice ran over and now the internet is down and I can’t get to the language…
MoreCueing Spiritual Language
When my son was learning about lower case letters, he got into an argument with his preschool teacher about the letter…
MorePlease Don’t Praise the Kids
“You’re so smart!” These three words come easily to mind when children do or say something that demonstrates…
MoreNeuroscience and Learning
Have you ever heard (or said) that spirituality is ‘caught, not taught’? While it’s true that good models and…
MoreSpiritual Brain Power
When my eldest child was three, she shocked our neighbor by explaining in detail how a refrigerator works. Amber loved…
MoreEncouraging Active Empathy
My daughter came home talking about a new girl in her class. Since being the new kid can be challenging, I want my…
MoreDo Children Believe in Halloween Ghouls?
When my oldest was four, she insisted on dressing up as Pluggie the Fire Plug for Halloween. A staple at neighborhood…
MoreWhy Children Won’t Ask for Help
“Go ask your teacher for help,” I told my daughter again. For a whole grading period, she had been struggling with…
MoreSocial Emotional Learning at Home
My second child would become easily overwhelmed as a toddler. If we were shopping at the mall, she would start crying…
MoreTrust and Promises
As I left the gym, I overheard a mother tell her young son, “We need to get home right now and get snacks together…
MoreLearning to Forgive
Sibling squabbles were a daily part of life when my children were preschoolers. They erupted when one child would steal…
MoreSpiritual Activities for Public Spaces
Children spend a lot of time in public spaces: shopping at grocery stores, waiting for buses, washing clothes at…
MoreThe Myth of Selfishness
A toddler tantruming when another child plays with one of their toys. Siblings bickering over who got the bigger piece…
MoreHow Spirituality Shapes Imagination
The other day I spread out a play mat for a friend’s four-year-old son and gave him a few hot wheels. He started the…
MoreSelf-Esteem vs. Narcissism
In Wonder Woman 1984, young Diana, Amazon princess of Themyscira, desperately wants to win a competition. She is in the…
MoreRelationships as Roots
Dr. Eugene Roehlkepartain has noticed that when adults say relationships with kids matter, they really mean parents…
MoreChildren’s God Concepts
Regardless of whether your family’s spirituality is tied to religious ideas or a specific religious tradition, your…
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