Exploring Loneliness & Community with Elio
As a child, I was fascinated by the idea of tossing a message in a bottle into the ocean and wondering if someone,…
MorePosts tagged: Imagination
Exploring Spirituality with How to Train Your Dragon
My children loved the previous How to Train Your Dragon movies and shows. They were curious whether the live action…
MoreCultivating Contemplative Skills
Media reports of a mental health crisis among young people have appeared regularly in the last two years. Psychologists…
MoreRainbow Spirituality
One of my favorite Taylor Swift songs is “You Need to Calm Down”. It’s a bouncy pop tune with a powerful message:…
MoreCelebrating May Day with Have You Ever Seen a Flower?
As a child, my siblings and I would mark May Day by gathering dandelions and other wildflowers into green plastic…
MoreMinecraft Spirituality
It can be thrilling to see an imaginary world from a book or game come to life before our eyes. Before A Minecraft…
MoreDog Man Spirituality
Dog Man and his arch-nemesis Petey the Cat are stuck in a cycle of fighting with each other until Petey creates a…
MoreWondering with Wonder Walkers
Research suggests that curiosity is both an innate human trait and a learned skill. The desire to learn more about our…
MoreA New Year’s Meditation
New Year’s Day is traditionally a time to look back on the past year and forward into the future. It’s an…
MoreTeaching Kids the Science of Gifting
My children delight in finding gifts to give extended family members. When their great aunt adored camel figurines,…
MoreLearning about Relationships with The Wild Robot
Based on an award-winning children’s book by Peter Brown, Dreamwork’s The Wild Robot is a beautifully animated…
MoreBuilding Connections through Magical Gifts
As children head back to school, anxieties about relationships rise. Some wonder whether friends from last year will…
MoreExploring Cicada Symphony with Kids
Every year, cicadas awaken from a long dormant period and dig their way out of the ground. The noisy clicking of the…
MoreCommunity-Building with Our Pool
Growing up in Oklahoma and Texas, summers were hot. My siblings and I loved nothing more than to head to our local…
MoreHow Nature Journals Increase Kids’ Well-Being
Last week, I saw a young child watching a bumble bee move from flower to flower on a large bush. “Shhh,” she told…
MoreEncouraging Future-Mindedness
“I’m going to be a programmer when I grow up,” said my 10-year-old daughter. She had just checked out several…
MoreExploring Identity with Inside Out 2
The transition from childhood to adolescence brings a host of new emotions to the fore: anxiety, envy, embarrassment,…
MoreImagining Wellbeing with IF
Studies show that around 65% of children develop imaginary friends (IFs) before they are seven. These sometimes quite…
MoreKids’ Imaginations
When my children were young, we played all kinds of imaginative games. Sometimes we took our cues from stories we had…
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.…
MoreWhen Kids See Life as a Quest
My son jumped excitedly from foot to foot as he waited impatiently for the clock to strike midnight. Our local…
MoreValentine Spirituality
Every year, my kids’ school does a Valentine fundraiser. Parents and grandparents can purchase pink and red…
MoreGuided Meditation: Housing Insecurity
Before the pandemic, churches in my city would take turns providing overnight accommodations for persons without…
MoreGuided Meditation: Healthcare Access
When I was growing up, money was tight. My mom took my siblings and me to the city health clinic for our childhood…
MoreGuided Meditation: Immigration
A few years ago, our family collected household items to help Afghan refugees relocating to our hometown. A local…
MoreDreaming about Racial Equity with Kids
During the Black Lives Matter protests of 2021, my home city (Richmond, VA) struggled with the legacy of several…
MoreGuided Meditation: Food Insecurity
“Mom, I’m hungry, and there’s nothing to eat!” my 10 year old wailed while staring into a well-stocked…
MoreManaging Fears with Migration
When my daughter was little, she watched a movie where the mother died. Afterward, she would become upset every time…
MoreDreaming with Wonka
When my eldest was two, she asked if there would be “little meats” for Christmas. I was puzzled and tried…
MoreWinter Solstice Stories
For the Northern Hemisphere, winter officially begins on December 21st with the marking of the winter solstice. It’s…
MoreEncouraging Creative Thinking
While hanging out with a babysitter one evening, my children decided to create their own tabletop game. They drew a…
MoreEl Día de Los Muertos
Hobgoblins, witches, and ghosts are staples of Halloween, celebrated with glee by children throughout North America.…
MoreMovement Meditation: Justice
Children long to make a difference in the world around them. From their earnest commitment to fairness as preschoolers…
MoreBarbie Spirituality
Outside the movie theater, two young girls are pointing at all the people wearing pink. A group of women observe,…
MoreExploring The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess
Fairy tales can play a powerful role in children’s lives. Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen has morphed into…
MoreExploring Spirituality with The Little Mermaid
Children have long loved Ariel, the star of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, because of her determination to live her…
MoreExploring Fears with Bright Star
Fears are a part of childhood. Whether it’s worries about monsters under the bed, big dogs, loud noises, or parents…
MoreConnecting with Nature through Apple and Magnolia
One summer, my kids and I planted a small garden. While our cucumbers and zucchini did well, our tomato plants…
MoreSuper Mario Spirituality
The Super Mario Bros. Movie begins with the Nintendo game’s familiar theme music, a siren call to multiple…
MoreEaster as Spring Celebration
Eggs hidden on windowsills or in the grass. Baskets filled with chocolate bunnies and jelly beans. Pots of tulips,…
MoreExploring A Million Views
My daughter loves creating videos. Lego movies inspire stop-action Lego shorts. Super Bowl halftime shows prompt…
MoreHelping Children Appreciate Diversity
Cleaning out my daughter’s closet, I found a shadow box she constructed in 1st grade. She and a friend set out to…
MoreExploring People Are Wild with Children
“Do they bite?” asked Marcus* when we spotted a family of mule deer during a camping trip. Our group was excited…
MoreCelebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Reading books about Martin Luther King, Jr. was more than an annual event when my children were young. We had several,…
MoreFamily Solstice Celebrations
When my children were young, a family friend invited us to a winter solstice party. There were sparklers and glow…
MoreMeditation On Light
The winter months can be hard. Short days and long nights leave us longing for more sunlight. Cold temperatures chill…
MoreSpiritual Exploration with the Webb Telescope
A friend's 5 year old daughter recently visited our local science museum, where she was mesmerized by the Webb…
MoreExploring Power & Perseverance with Minions: The Rise of Gru
The new Minions movie has much of the silliness you expect from the Despicable Me franchise. We watch as young Gru…
MoreExploring Lightyear with Children
As long time fans of Toy Story, my children were excited to learn Buzz’s backstory. They watched as Buzz and Alesha…
MoreExploring Magic Candies with Children
Imagine a bag of candies with the power to bring your sofa to life and give voice to falling leaves. Would you want to…
MoreCelebrating Self-Discovery
As the regular school year draws to a close, many extracurricular programs also pause for the summer. Teachers and…
MoreImaginative Play & Spirituality
“Do you have a minute?” asked my daughter’s preschool teacher. “Of course,” I replied, “Is something…
MoreTaking Flight with The Year We Learned to Fly
Cultural and spiritual heritages are often passed on to new generations through stories and teachings by elders.…
MoreCaring for the Earth Together
Blowing dandelion seeds, chasing fireflies, and watching caterpillars munch on milkweed - these were some of my…
MoreHelping Children Set Meaningful Goals
Purpose is an important aspect of a healthy spiritual life. Children have hopes and dreams. They want to make a…
MoreSpiritual Storytelling with The Last Cuentista
For a book lover like me, one bedtime story often turned into two or three as I tucked my young children in. But I…
MoreSpiritual Play with Bluey
My sisters and I often engaged in imaginative play when we were growing up. We came up with various pretend situations,…
MoreReimagining Spiritual Education
Most of the time, we think of the global pandemic as a terrible time for children and learning. School closures, fights…
MorePlay & Spirituality
Play is a central part of children’s lives and their spiritual journeys. When they use their bodies to explore the…
MoreDo Threats of Punishment Serve a Spiritual Purpose?
To Elf or not to Elf? Every December, parents on my social media feeds wrestle with this Christmas conundrum. More than…
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…
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…
MoreUsing Landscape Images in Spiritual Reflection
My youngest child loves Van Gogh’s Starry Night. In fifth grade, he picked out a t-shirt that had Albert Einstein’s…
MoreEarth Day Spirituality
Nature plays a significant role in spirituality for people of all ages. During the pandemic, many families have found…
MoreChildren’s Invisible Companions
Some children develop imaginary friends to keep them company. Others describe spiritual experiences that feature…
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