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Pony Up

My natural proclivities tend toward optimism.  During these past three years of pandemic disruptions, though, I’ve had to remind myself more than once of the old joke about “there’s a pony in there somewhere.” As I visit with folks, parents and grandparents, we’re beginning to see the pony. It really is there! Our pony has […]


Childhood Potential Conference

Childhood Potential Conference

I wanted to share a FREE ticket to an online Montessori conference with you. Interested? Go on reading! What is it? The Childhood Potential online Montessori conference: a fourth edition of free, online conference taking place during 5 days starting on May 4th, 2022. What is it about? Almost 50 world-class Montessori speakers and Early […]


BOOK | The 5 Love Languages

5 love languages of children

About three years ago as I was having physical therapy, my therapist mentioned a book that she had been reading and finding so important in helping her create a more loving relationship with her husband and other family members. The book? The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. When I got back home from my […]


Join Me For This Event!

Childhood Potential Conference

I wanted to share a FREE ticket to an online Montessori conference with you. Interested? Go on reading! What is it? The Childhood Potential Online Montessori Conference: a third edition of a free, online conference taking place during the week of November 15th, 2021.  I’ll be speaking on Monday, November 15. What is it about? […]


Learning Games For Your Preschooler

Learning Games for your Preschooler

Are you running out of ways to keep your preschooler engaged? Here are five of my favorite games from the classroom that are easy to start right away. I Spy Game This is a simple game to help children with reading readiness in terms of phonemic awareness, or being able to hear the individual sounds […]


Fill Up Your Love Bucket

Fill up your love bucket

As parents, teachers and school leaders we serve the needs of others. From our “love buckets” we go around filling the needs of the children and the community members we serve. As we serve others we must remember to stop every once and a while to fill up our “love bucket”. We need to take […]


Happy 15th!

Happy 15th Anniversary

Happy Birthday, Kids Talk! Fifteen  years ago today, the first Kids Talk column ran in the Benton County Daily Record. It’s been an amazing journey, from newspaper columns, to blog posts, to online workshops and more. What an extraordinary way to meet remarkable people. Thank you for being a Kids Talk reader! All the best, […]


Practicing Freedom

practicing freedom

Freedom is a tenuous situation at best. The ability to freely do something interconnects with several attributes that include critical thinking and the courage to act or not act, as the case may be. Gullible folks lend themselves to the idea that there is a sucker born every minute, while a proverb tells say a […]


The Sign of A Good Hearted Woman

sign of a good hearted woman

The first time I went into Nina Clare’s kitchen a drawing near her back door surprised me because I recognized it.  It was a drawing of a stylized cat on a piece of slate. The drawing of the cat looks like one that a child of seven or eight might draw.  The cat has only […]


The Missing Element

The missing Element

In his book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, Ken Robinson, Ph.D. tells us that we each need to find that place where the things we love to do intersect with the things we know how to do well. Robinson calls this place of intersecting talent and passion “the Element.” Each person needs […]