Tips & Tools

  • 5 Simple Ways to Show Appreciation for Teachers (Anytime, Not Just the First Week of May!)

    The first week of May is Teacher Appreciation week. It’s a great reminder to take a moment and show support for educators. They have such a profound impact on our kids and our world! Ask any teacher and they will tell you that simple, heartfelt gestures go a long way. Here are several ways to…

  • An Easy Way to Reduce Stress and Strengthen Relationships in Your Family

    Want to play? What? Too busy doing important things to play? It turns out (check out this research), play is extremely important – for just about everyone and everything, but especially for learning and developing children. But why? Stress: It turns out play reduces stress (and therefore) facilitates learning. We know stress lowers the amount…

  • The Surprising Benefits of Play in the Classroom

    “Play is a strategy for learning at any age. While older students and their teachers might have more curricular demands than younger students, playful learning still has an important role to play…” – Project Zero Researcher Mara Krechevsky, Harvard Graduate School of Education After years of pandemic disruption, are we feeling pressure to catch students…

  • Developing Firmness Tools for Educators

    When we can respond to students in ways that are both connected and firm, both adults and students benefit. But how do we do that? Children need compassion and boundaries, connection and high expectations – at the same time. But most of us did not grow up with this model or learn it in our…

  • Developing Firmness Tools for Parents

    Kind compassion and grounded firmness are critical to effective parenting. If we can do both, our parenting takes on a strong even keel, so that in stormy times or calm, we know we are getting where we want to go with our children in a way that has direction and purpose. Both parents and kids…

  • The Great Reset for Families

    Priya Parker, the author of The Art of Gathering, encourages us to enter into 2022 with conscious intention and in community. Recently, she discussed her ideas for a concept called “the great reset” on Brené Brown’s podcast. Parker calls upon us to recognize the gift of our times: “We are in a moment of creation. And that…

  • The Great Reset

    Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering, encourages us to enter into 2022 with conscious intention and in community. Recently, she discussed what she calls “the great reset” on Brené Brown’s podcast. What is the Great Reset? Parker describes it this way: “We are in a moment of creation. And that is something that few generations…

  • Teachers Can Harness the Power of Ritual and Routine

    At this time of year, with heightened excitement and a looming break from school, the agreements you co-created with your class at the beginning of the school year and the everyday routines you have been establishing are things to lean on. Depend on that structure now, because it comforts them and helps them feel safe.…

  • Routines, Rituals & Traditions in Families

    Routines provide consistency and predictability. They help our kids feel safe, and we as adults feel more organized and less chaotic. Specifics of routines tend to be unique to each family. Rituals and tradition provide comfort for kids and more than that, tend to be the foundation of our childhood memories as we grow. They…

  • Practice and Teach Kindness

    Educators are being encouraged to practice self-care more than ever before. This is not the solution to the many challenges and systems issues facing educators. However, it is helpful to practice those things that we can control, and that can improve our own mental and physical well-being. One of those things is to practice kindness…