For many of us it is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. If you really want to do something, why risk being told ”no”? Why endure the hassle of trying to sell your point? Why listen to pessimists who say that what you want to do can’t be done? Why take the time […]
In The Pits?
”If life is a bowl of cherries, why am I in the pits?” Erma Bombeck knew how to see the humor in day-to-day reality. Maintaining a positive and forward-moving life is a challenge to say the least. Life has a way of helping us misplace our senses of humor in a hurry. Some days the […]
How To Use Open-Ended Questions
As adults we are the most significant part of a child’s environment. Whether we are aware of it or not, our words, concerns and emotions are reflected into our children’s world and absorbed at an unconscious level by the child. We need to choose our words carefully and frame our questions even more so. Inadvertently […]
Trillium Montessori Homeschool Summit
Trillium Montessori HOMESCHOOL SUMMIT 2017 is a one-of-a-kind Montessori conference! This 4-day event, January 9 -12, 2017, is packed with workshops, community, and resources… and it is 100% online! This summit has been designed to make the ‘conference experience’ accessible to all. No matter where you live in the world or what your budget is, as long […]
Join Me In Portland, OR
Join me in Portland, Oregon on Friday, January 13, and Saturday, January 14 for an evening talk and all-day workshop. It’s hard to get me to leave Hawaii but the Oregon Montessori Association convinced me to share some workshop aloha in Portland. Would love for you to be there! Ain’t Misbehavin’ Friday, January 13 from […]
The Gifts That Keep On Giving
Do you ever worry about selecting the right gift for the special people in your life? Let’s take a few minutes to consider gifts that are free, yet continue to give. Here are some gifts we can give our children, and anyone we care about, that can only come from the heart. The Present of […]
Do You Teach Values?
”Do you teach values?” a telephone caller asked. Back in the early 90’s parents were upset that values were being taught in school. Controversy brewed and bubbled. Do you teach values? The question caught me off guard. How can you not teach values, I thought, because of the very nature of values? Whether we are […]
Relight the Candle
Five-year-old Tommy walked over to his mother, Judy. ”Write my name for me, Mommy.” ”Tommy, you know how to write your name.” ”But I don’t ‘member,” he said. Tommy’s mother, Judy, phoned me, near tears, about this conversation. Judy’s concern was that Tommy had forgotten something as seemingly simple as the three letters in Tom. […]
Discovering Constellations
Let us give the child a vision of the universe…for all things are part of the universe and are connected to form one whole unity. ~Maria Montessori A vision of the universe begins with looking up at the stars. ”The sky is the ultimate art gallery just above us,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. All we […]
Stuck With a Problem? SOAR
At times we seem to be ensconced in recalcitrant situations. We try to move forward, and our strategy doesn’t work. We resolve to get our two-year-old to stop biting. Our ten-year old forgets to clean his room–every Saturday. Our fourteen-year-old refuses to go to church. Whatever we do to encourage or cajole our children into […]