Category Archives for Parenting

Montessori Basics for Every Family

If you’re interested in learning Montessori basics for implementing some of the most important principles of Montessori education in your home, it really boils down to a set of beliefs about WHAT education should be and HOW it should be done. As a Montessori school principal (and mom!) I outline my favorite Montessori basics that will help you understand the core teachings.

Culture of Consent Part 4: Honor Her Mind

A big part of consent culture is having the dignity and self-confidence to say what we think. We want to raise our girls to know that they are just fine the way they are and are empowered to follow their own mind and their own instincts. That requires them to have self-confidence.

Consent Part 3: Body Acceptance

When it looks to you, as a young girl, that making your face smoother, brighter, and more tan is not just fun but required for leaving the house, something about the acceptability of your body is called into question.

Consent Part 2: Her Body Belongs to Her

Beyond protecting them from danger, I believe that our girls need to deeply know that their body and their life belong to them. Not only does her body belong to her, but other people’s opinions about her body, her clothes, her appearance, etc etc etc are irrelevant. Let’s face it, as a girl, she will get a million messages that her appearance is the first thing that people notice and the major thing that is important.

Our Favorite 11 Toys to Build Counting and Sorting Skills

Counting and sorting skills are important building blocks for early math skills. These build an foundation for learning and skill building before pre-school. 

These toys reinforce these skills and invite your child to explore sorting into categories, recognizing and creating patterns, and one to one correspondence. These build the foundations for addition, subtraction, and a general number sense that carries her successfully into pre-school and Kindergarten.

10 Busy Books to Keep your Pre-Reader Occupied

For kids who need continual support (in the form of you reading every direction), that activity book you are walking them through isn’t actually developing your child’s independence. These 10 ideas for busy books to keep your pre-reader busy and engaged will help develop their ability to work on their own, as well as sustain effort and increase their stamina for written work. It might even give mom a chance to thumb through her newspaper over the breakfast table!

22 Gifts for the Feminist Mom Smashing the Patriarchy between Carpool and Bedtime

Every mom is a world-changer. These gifts recognize your feminist mom for the bad-ass activist and world-changer she is—whether she’s working at home wrangling the kids, marching in the streets for justice, or crushing it at the office.

8 Toys and Games that Build Problem Solving in Early Childhood

These are my favorite toys and games that teach problem solving. As a parent and an educator, these are also the toys that have multiple levels of challenge and engagement so your child can play with these for years and years as their cognitive skills grow.