Last Saturday we had what I think was my favorite parenting book club that I think I've had since I can remember. We read "Mr. Roger's Parenting Resource Book" over a month and then met for one session over coffee on a Saturday afternoon. I had some questions prepared and I really loved the conversation that ensued.  1. How familiar were you with the work of Fred Rogers before you read this book? (warm up question) 2. What were your key learnings from the reading? and then this is where it got interesting: 3. How does your child respond when they are feeling strong emotions like ..read more

 Last week we had our parent conferences. I actually really enjoy conference time and I think it's because of how we've structured it over the years. Before conferences happen, I send home a narrative summary of my observations of each child. It takes me a chunk of life to write these reports, but they serve as a touchstone for both me and parents as to where their children are in their development. The beauty of sending that document home is that it frees me from having to spend most of our precious time together during conferences updating parents on what's happening at school. That mea ..read more

I've been teaching for 20 years now. This year, I don't know what it is about it, but I feel like I've strayed. Wildly. I just went back to the beginning of this blog and saw photos of the beautiful early school, and read some of the posts, and it gave me a sense that I need to Mary Kondo the whole building- on a week with no school take every single thing out of every closet and corner, and decide if it belongs. I'm no hoarder but 20 years of accumulating stuff... but not just Mary Kondo the closets, Mary Kondo myself too. Take out all the parts of myself, put them out on the sidewalk, the ha ..read more

Since the beginning of our school (13 years ago!) we have been conducting bi-annual book clubs for parents. We read a variety of parenting books on a variety of particular subjects and I always learn as much from the book as I do from our gatherings. I appreciate using a brainstorm method, where paper gets passed around a group and different people's ideas get recorded, because it allows for quieter people to get their ideas across, and a better distributed participation from the group. We take turns reading the papers we have passed around which also allows for all voiced to be heard an ..read more

  "Let's talk about when we feel mad with our friends." "Let's talk about when we feel mad with our brothers or sisters at home." "Let's talk about when we feel scared at night." "Let's talk about when our moms and dads are angry at each other." "Let's talk about when we feel like we don't want to come to school." "Let's talk about when we feel lonely." "Let's talk about when someone does something hurtful to us." "Let's talk about when we don't get what we want and we feel disappointed." Perhaps the best way to disarm difficult feelings is by first welcoming them in and making ..read more

 This is a transcript from a parent night given virtually, through Zoom, last night. We had great attendance from our parent community. If you'd like a transcript that includes the community building activities, group discussion questions, beginning ice breaker games, feel free to email me.  Parenting for Self Regulation A famous test was conducted in the psychology department at Stanford in the 70’s. They gathered a bunch of 4 year olds and put them in a room one at a time and gave them one marshmallow and would say “I’m going to leave the room now, and if when I come back you ..read more

It was due time to refresh our much beloved classification card sets. I wanted to change their script to cursive and the task was on my to do list for years. I'm so overjoyed at having finished them, all of them! What better thing to do than share them with anyone who they can be useful to as well. The sets include cards for: Bathroom Kitchen Bedroom Classroom Furniture Clothing Weather Parts of the Body Parts of the Face Instruments Tools Feelings Transportation Vehicles Fruits Vegetables Flags of the World (these include general countries, but also the countries of origin of our School Comm ..read more

I just got an excellent question from a mom in our community letting me know she'd like to address the Protests and Anti-Racism movement happening in the United States right now with her young children and asked if I had any suggestions. Yes! I do! The age 2-6 is a time when children are just beginning the process of self discovery. They make blunt observations about differences they see around them. "Why is that person so fat?" they may say, or "Her hair is different". It's important to understand that these comments are not discriminatory in nature, but are rather mere observations. They ma ..read more

I just got an excellent question from a mom in our community letting me know she'd like to address the Protests and Anti-Racism movement happening in the United States right now with her young children and asked if I had any suggestions. Yes! I do! The age 2-6 is a time when children are just beginning the process of self discovery. They make blunt observations about differences they see around them. "Why is that person so fat?" they may say, or "Her hair is different". It's important to understand that these comments are not discriminatory in nature, but are rather mere observations. They ma ..read more

For administrators or school owners or teachers to whom this could be useful I'd like to share our school's protocols and classroom modifications. They are largely based on the guidelines set by Aruba's Health Department, and I understand that in every place the situation may vary. When sharing this with parents at our school I tried my best to help everyone understand that this is a work in progress, that adjustments may be called for at any time depending on our greater environment as it evolves. I found it so useful to read what other schools in other places were doing, and especially to s ..read more