Exploring Diverse Holidays with The House Without Lights
Holiday lights are a staple of many winter traditions. Solstice candles, Hanukkah menorahs, colorful Christmas strings,…
MorePosts tagged: Diversity
Exploring Diversity with The Only Way to Make Bread
Bread is a diet staple. It comes in many forms, from rye loaves and buttermilk biscuits to focaccia and tortillas.…
MorePracticing Humility
Psychologists suggest that true humility is not about making oneself smaller to please others, but being able to share…
MoreGender Identity & The Dress in the Window
“Paint my fingers and toes, too, mommy!” pleaded my four year old son. “I want to be sparkly like the girls!”…
MoreExploring ‘Freedom’ with Kids on Juneteenth
Every June 19th, the U.S. celebrates Juneteenth. It’s a national holiday commemorating the ending of slavery as a…
MorePassover Explorations
Looking through photos, I found several of my family celebrating Passover with friends who are Jewish. They would…
MoreLiving Black History Projects
It’s Black History Month once again in the U.S., when teachers and group leaders plan lessons celebrating African…
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…
MoreHanukkah Story Activities
Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, is an eight day celebration that recalls how a small band of ancient Jews…
MoreEl Día de Los Muertos
Hobgoblins, witches, and ghosts are staples of Halloween, celebrated with glee by children throughout North America.…
MoreSeeing Differences through Eyes that Speak to the Stars
Children are often curious about differences. They wonder why someone has red hair instead of brown like them, or…
MoreExploring Diversity & Community with Luli and the Language of Tea
Children from several nations gather in a playroom while their parents learn English as a Second Language next door.…
MoreAffirming Gender Diversity
When my children were young, we dressed them in a rainbow of hues. Some people found this frustrating because they…
MoreExploring Elemental with Kids
A few days ago, one of my children wanted breakfast for dinner, while another preferred Indian. The first argued that…
MoreCelebrating Juneteenth with Young Children
The United States’ newest federal holiday, Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of African Americans from slavery.…
MoreCelebrating AANHPI Heritage Month
Just a few weeks after cherry blossoms peak in the U.S. capital, Americans begin a month-long celebration of Asian…
MoreUsing Books as Spiritual Mirrors & Windows
As a preschooler, my daughter loved Don and Audrey Wood’s The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big…
MoreBabies & Racial Bias
My nine month old daughter cowered in my arms. She clearly didn’t want to interact with the person who had just…
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…
MoreUsing Room Decorations to Support Spiritual Learning
The walls of my son’s pre-K classroom were covered with posters and children’s artwork. It was like walking into a…
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,…
MoreCelebrating Native American Heritage
When I was growing up, November was a month filled with images of ‘pilgrims’ and ‘Indians’ sharing a…
MoreEncouraging Authenticity
Authenticity is trending as a value. Parents and children want to speak their truth and advocate for what they believe…
MoreDiwali Spirituality
As fall crops are harvested and days grow shorter, many cultures and religions acknowledge the season with celebrations…
MoreExploring Community Justice with Unfadeable
In Unfadeable, Bella Fades is a fierce tween girl who loves her community and wants to see it thrive. Her strong belief…
MoreReading Small Town Pride With Kids
Small Town Pride stars a tween working to understand himself, change his community and gain autonomy over his own…
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…
MoreIdentity Discussions with Alice Austen Lived Here
Sam and TJ have learned a lot about ‘Dead Straight Cisgender White Men’ in history. So when they have to research a…
MoreGay Pride Spirituality
It’s Gay Pride Month, and families of all sorts are celebrating diversity. Colorful rainbow flags attract…
MoreBeing Gender Inclusive
I started transgressing gender norms with my children when they were babies. I dressed them in colors and styles…
MoreExploring Ellen Outside the Lines
In their latest book, author A.J. Sass creates a neurodivergent main character (Ellen) who is negotiating changes in…
MoreSpiritual Reflection with Turning Red
Pixar’s newest release is a coming-of-age story about a Chinese Canadian girl accepting both her changing body and…
MoreCelebrating Black History Year-Round
With the calendar shift from February to March, we’ve gone from remembering Black history to lifting up women and…
MoreBooks Celebrating Black Identity
Children’s spiritual well-being depends, in part, on strong self-esteem. They need to see themselves as individuals…
MoreSpirituality & Black History
February is Black History Month, a time when parents, teachers, and the media share stories of African American civil…
MoreReading Fauja Singh Keeps Going
Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on the 3rd Monday in January reminds us that society needs strong leaders:…
MorePlay & Spirituality
Play is a central part of children’s lives and their spiritual journeys. When they use their bodies to explore the…
MoreEnvironmental Justice for Preschoolers
As global leaders gather in Glasgow to discuss climate change, one message is clear: environmental justice isn’t just…
MoreReading The Proudest Blue
Wearing hijab is a spiritual statement for Muslim girls and women. It is a sign of faith and a practice of…
MoreTeaching Tough Topics
Ruth Wills doesn’t believe in shying away from tough topics with children. A few years ago, she developed a method…
MoreChapter Books about Refugees & Asylum Seekers
Older children often wonder about the reasons refugees and asylum seekers have left their homelands. They are able to…
MorePicture Books about Refugees
With stories about refugees and immigrants frequently in the news, children are certain to wonder about why they’ve…
MoreGender and Sexual Diversity Inclusion
My daughter returned from her third grade ‘Meet the Teacher’ with news she’d heard through friends: a boy in her…
MoreContextual Engagement
Engaging children in spiritual work is a contextual experience. Yet much of our understanding about children’s…
MoreIdentity Portraits
Valuing who we are and respecting others’ identities are crucial to spiritual wellbeing. Every child wants to be seen…
MoreCritical Race Theory
When the University of North Carolina declined to tenure Nikole Hannah-Jones after recruiting her for a chair in…
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…
MoreRace & Gender Bias in Children’s Media
Children consume a lot of media. They watch videos, play animated games, and have favorite streaming television shows.…
MoreClass Bias in Religious Resources
Pandemic business closures, safer-at-home orders, and the move to virtual schooling have hit all families hard, but…
MoreHelping Children Identify as Spiritual People
When parents name a child, they do so with high hopes that the name will somehow influence who that child becomes. If…
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