Cooking Together as a Spiritual Practice
Children (and adults) often think first about food when they hear the word ‘Thanksgiving’. Turkey roasted,…
MorePosts tagged: Collaboration
How 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…
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…
MoreKids, Eco-Anxiety & Gardens
Heat domes that elevate temperatures to unsafe levels and spark wildfires. Fierce hurricanes and tropical storms that…
MoreHow Music Helps Kids Connect with Others
We are a music-loving family. All three children eagerly participated in recorder lessons in elementary school and one…
MoreHow Uncertainty Encourages Wonder
My youngest child really disliked surprises when he was a preschooler. He wanted everything to go as expected. If he…
MoreObserving Earth Day as a Family
Earth Day (April 22) marks more than 50 years of organized global attention to the environment. It officially falls on…
MoreHelp Kids Be Relational Thermostats
“He made me feel bad!” wailed my son after telling me how a friend chose a different playmate at recess. “He…
MoreFridge Spirituality
My refrigerator is covered in activity schedules, a recycling calendar, family photos, and children’s art. Anyone…
MoreResolve to Learn Together
People of all ages make personal New Year’s resolutions. Adults resolve to be more patient, develop an exercise…
MoreHoliday ‘Marker Talks’
Many of the children I teach come from households that celebrate multiple religious and cultural holidays. Others have…
MoreImagining a Better World with Wish
“Why do bad things happen?” asks my son. That question is hard enough to answer, but he doesn’t stop there. He…
MoreEncouraging Creative Thinking
While hanging out with a babysitter one evening, my children decided to create their own tabletop game. They drew a…
MoreExploring Teamwork with Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie
Preparing for a family get-together, I gave each child a different job. My youngest collected cups and my third…
MoreReflecting on Our Work with Kids
The start of a new school year means many program leaders are scrambling to build relationships with new children and…
MoreLanguage that Builds Community
“This is a story for Amelia,“ announced the adult leading storytime. “It’s a story for Marcus, and a story for…
MoreBecoming a More Reflective Leader
When I first started organizing an afterschool program for third and fourth graders, my supervisor’s advice to…
MoreExploring A Million Views
My daughter loves creating videos. Lego movies inspire stop-action Lego shorts. Super Bowl halftime shows prompt…
MorePromoting Children’s Voices through ‘Grand Conversations’
One of my pet peeves with curricula for children’s programs is how teacher-directed most of the activities are. The…
MoreExploring Just Help! with Kids
How can children learn to build a better world? According to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the answer is in…
MoreEncouraging Children to Lead
“Mom, I saw some people asking for money by the off ramp. They didn’t have any coats and it’s pretty cold…
MoreChildren, Community Science & Climate Change
Earlier this month, the Pacific Ocean made news because it is shrinking faster than scientists expected. One reason…
MoreHow Gratitude Builds Community
We hear a lot about supply chain ‘issues’ right now. Store shelves are emptier than in pre-pandemic days. Online…
MoreTeaching Spiritual Discourse
One of parents’ greatest fears is that others will indoctrinate their children with ideas that don’t match their…
MoreChild-Led Spiritual Learning
As a child, I often was bored in school even though I loved to learn. I would quickly tune out adult monologues and rip…
MoreProject-Based Spirituality
A few years ago, my children’s school decided to sponsor two Habitat for Humanity home builds. The actual…
MorePublic Learning
The common idea that spirituality is a private matter creates a dilemma for organizations that partner with families…
MorePublic Learning Reflective Process
For teachers and program facilitators who want to be reflective practitioners, Mills College School of Education…
MoreContextual Engagement
Engaging children in spiritual work is a contextual experience. Yet much of our understanding about children’s…
MoreCreate a Virtual Protest
Even as places open for in-person experiences, virtual engagements can continue to be part of children’s and…
MoreUsing Virtual Rooms to Strengthen Community
Over the past year, teachers, therapists, librarians, and others have created virtual rooms with bitmoji to engage…
MoreHelping Families Navigate Multiple Spiritual Traditions
Many children are growing up in families that have ties to multiple spiritual traditions. In a household where one…
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