Halloween Story Circles
“Oooh…the skeletons' bones clattered in the dark night as they rose from the graveyard and began to march. The…
MorePosts tagged: Conversation
Productive Struggle
My middle daughter has a form of dyslexia in which her brain doesn’t easily associate how a letter looks with the…
MoreTalking about the Election with Kids
My two older children were just 6 and 3 when their dad and I signed on as volunteers with a major election campaign.…
MoreWhen Children Shoot Children
A 14-year-old Georgia teen brought a gun to school yesterday, killing two other students and two teachers. Eleven other…
MoreHelping Kids Feel Important
“You never listen to me!” complained my nine-year-old. She was trying to tell me about the antics of some of the…
MoreWhen Children Interrupt
Interruptions are an expected issue when working with children. Sometimes they want to tell us about their new pet or…
MoreLiving Black History Projects
It’s Black History Month once again in the U.S., when teachers and group leaders plan lessons celebrating African…
MoreHoliday ‘Marker Talks’
Many of the children I teach come from households that celebrate multiple religious and cultural holidays. Others have…
MoreTalking about the Israel/Palestine Conflict with Children
After the 9/11 terrorist attack, my four year old asked, “Mommy, were there children on those planes?” I responded…
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…
MoreRihanna Spirituality
Rihanna’s Super Bowl LVII performance is trending on social media. Several reviewers place it in their all-time top…
MoreHoliday Lights Scavenger Hunt
I love holiday lights! Strings of colored bulbs wrapped around trees, icicle lights hanging from rooftops and fences, a…
MoreDeveloping Patience
“How many more days, mom? How many more?” Every December, my kids would be hyper-charged with excitement for the…
MoreTaylor Swift Spirituality
With her latest album sweeping the top 10 slots on Billboard’s Top 100 - a first for any artist - Taylor Swift is…
MoreTeaching Spiritual Discourse
One of parents’ greatest fears is that others will indoctrinate their children with ideas that don’t match their…
MoreVisible Spiritual Thinking
My kids used to love puzzles that involved figuring out an unknown object from a close-up photo. They developed a set…
MoreTalking about Ukraine with I Hate Borsch
Earlier this month, UNESCO added borsch, the national soup of Ukraine, to its list of endangered cultural heritage…
MoreBuilding Rapport
As Covid-19 transmission risks soar again, concerns about the effects of masking and social distancing on relationships…
MoreTalking with Kids about the Uvalde School Shooting
A school terrorized by an active shooter. A classroom of children injured and dead. Teachers killed trying to protect…
MoreSetting Spiritual Goals
A few years ago, I taught a child who struggled with managing his emotions in group settings. He was unhappy about his…
MoreTalking about the War in Ukraine
A refugee toddler’s body washed up face down on a beach. A police officer kneeling on a handcuffed Black man’s…
MoreSpirituality & Black History
February is Black History Month, a time when parents, teachers, and the media share stories of African American civil…
MoreHelping Children Understand Love
I have a love/hate relationship with Valentine’s Day. It's an opportunity to celebrate relationships with friends and…
MoreReimagining Spiritual Education
Most of the time, we think of the global pandemic as a terrible time for children and learning. School closures, fights…
MoreGuiding Questions for Pandemic Programming
Just when we thought it was safe to relax a little, the Omicron variant has swooped in and put pandemic debates in the…
MoreDeveloping Spiritual Persistence
I am often so excited when I begin a new spiritual practice, I expect to see immediate benefits. In my enthusiasm, I…
MoreReflecting on Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
During quarantine, my family watched all of the Marvel movies in chronological order. It was one of the few series…
MoreTalking with Kids Under 10
Talking with children seems simple enough, but effective communication is actually more complicated than we think. Our…
MoreExploring Spiritual Traditions through Objects
One of my grown daughters will only drink grape juice if she has bread to dip in it. It’s a throwback to her…
MoreCollective Spiritual Conversations
Often our interactions with children center around questions like “What did you learn? Or “How did that happen?”…
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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