Gratitude is a powerful emotion that plays a big part in your kids’ emotional growth and overall well-being! Encouraging kids to express and practice gratitude promotes a...
Learning Through Making
It’s not just arts and crafts. “Making” describes the ways hands-on, creative expression gives kids opportunities to explore, create, learn, and try something new.You can...
Learning Math with Music
Music is one of the first ways kids experience math. Without thinking, our bodies react to music: we rock our babies, clap along, and even look toward the source of the...
Managing Meltdowns
Meltdowns happen, it’s a fact of life with kids. And while they can be emotionally draining - for you and for them - with the right approach, you all can handle the hard...
Because They’re Hungry Now
Try these healthy, energizing snacks to help get your kids from pick up time to dinnertime!You can download this resource HERE.Nut Butter, Strawberry, & Banana...
Supporting Risky Play
Risky play is an important part of growth and development, and instrumental in lifelong learning.You can download this resource HERE.When kids engage in risky play, they...
Play Builds Confidence
When kids play, they use their bodies, brains, and emotions. Because play is joyful, it positively affects kids’ physical and mental health, which in turn helps build their...
Free Play is Playful Learning
When kids are allowed to play in whatever way they want - when they can choose the materials and the actions and activities - they are free to express themselves in the way...
Learning Through Guided Play
Guided play combines play that is kid-led with gentle instruction or suggestions from adults. It allows kids to be in control of the way they are playing, while adults help...
Self-Love & Young Kids
Self-love means appreciating yourself and treating yourself with kindness and understanding. Self-love means accepting yourself for who you are.You can download this...
Tips for Communicating with Babies & Kids
Communicating with your kids goes beyond developing language skills. It helps them feel safe and secure in their relationships, which is the foundation for learning and...
Brain Food
Food is fuel for your kids' brains! The foods kids eat - and the nutrients in the food - are important to your kids’ cognitive skills and brain development. Consider...
Curiosity is Important
Curiosity drives kids to try new things, and to continue to do so.
3 Things Parents and Caregivers Can Do to Strengthen Social Connections
Parents and caregivers play an important role in shaping the experience of social connection. Recognizing that strong, secure attachments are protective and a good...
3 Vital Components of Social Connections
Social connections are the interactions, relationships, roles, and sense of connection that humans experience. Social connection is dynamic - it changes over time - and...
I is For Independent Play
There are big benefits to independent play, which exercises imagination, creativity, persistence, patience, problem-solving skills, and much more. Here’s how to get started...
Nurture Their Thinking Skills: Part 2
Kids are eager to figure out how things work. They’re like little scientists, constantly doing experiments, like throwing a ball on the ground to see if it will bounce, and...
Nurture Their Thinking Skills: Part 1
Kids are eager to figure out how things work. They’re like little scientists, constantly doing experiments, like throwing a ball on the ground to see if it will bounce, and...
How to Encourage Your Baby to Roll Over
Sometimes, kids can’t answer right away when we ask, “What are you doing?” Because sometimes, they don’t know yet! Sometimes, they’re just busy doing.
4 Simple Rules for Healthy Interactions & Relationships
Kids learn about relationships and how to interact with others from the adults in their lives – adults are their most powerful models. Use these four simple rules to...
Why Developmental Milestones are Important
As they grow, your kids will experience physical, cognitive, and social-emotional milestones. Reaching their developmental milestones is important because these offer clues...
The Importance of Independent Play
Sometimes, kids can’t answer right away when we ask, “What are you doing?” Because sometimes, they don’t know yet! Sometimes, they’re just busy doing.
Foundations for Developing Self-Identity & Relationships
Relationships that are tied to family, culture, and community help kids develop a sense of belonging, and once kids have a sense of their own identity, they can also...
Foundations for Emotional Intelligence
Self-confidence and self-awareness are key signs of emotional intelligence – the ability to perceive, interpret, demonstrate, control, evaluate, and use emotions to...
Get Ready to Write
Your kids’ first attempt at the writing process is called emergent writing, and it begins when they’re as young as 2 years old! When kids create drawings and symbolic...
Kid-Friendly Healthy Recipes
Whether it’s time for breakfast or snack time, toast is a hearty, healthy, warm, and fun choice. These kid-friendly recipes will be fun for you to make and eat together!You...
4 First Steps to Becoming an Active Family
Though it can be difficult to squeeze an extra activity into an already busy schedule, making time to move together is important because active parents raise active kids....
5 Essentials to Meaningful Play
Memories of joyful and meaningful play experiences can bind families together emotionally, even long after the kids have grown up. These five essential elements of play...
Emotional Expression Through Music
One of the many, many benefits of music is that it offers a safe and dependable place to feel our feelings. When we are afraid, sad, or really happy, we can invite music in...
Language Skills & Reading with Under-Threes
Why should reading and sharing stories with your babies and toddlers find a place in your day-to-day routine?
The Benefits of Letting Kids Choose What to Read
Let your kids choose to read books that are interesting to them, even if it’s not something you would have read when you were little. Here’s why:
Making Connections: Physical Activity & Mental Health
Child development takes place simultaneously across every domain; the domains all support one another. That means all the elements of your kids’ health are connected – their...
Social Communities Strengthen Families
Parents have a lot on their minds. We are literally influencing the architecture of our kids’ developing brains, so it’s no wonder we pour our physical, mental, and...
Relaxation Techniques for Kids
Taking a few minutes to engage in simple, everyday relaxation techniques can help sustain your energy throughout your day. Even kids can relax and focus if you use movement,...
Foundations for Early Learning Skills
Kids learn and strengthen their learning by doing. Look for these signs as your kids learn to foster curiosity, demonstrate self regulation, and show an understanding of...
Self-Help Skills for Kindergarten Readiness
Many people focus on the basics of letter and number recognition or reading skills when they think of kindergarten readiness, but being “ready” for kindergarten is a lot...