The Main Ingredient in a RIE Space
Sending care and respect to my families who observe Yom Kippur this weekend. And sending a ‘Happy Fall!’ to everyone. […]
Read moreConfident Child. Confident Parent.
Sending care and respect to my families who observe Yom Kippur this weekend. And sending a ‘Happy Fall!’ to everyone. […]
Read moreThis week, I’m thinking about paradoxes because, truth be told, RIE has a not a few of them…I’m not sure […]
Read moreI came across RIE’s Vision Statement earlier this week, and even though I’ve been teaching RIE for over decade and […]
Read moreAnd you’ll know you’re definitely a weird parent if, like me, you look forward to the day when “weird” is […]
Read moreI’ve been practicing RIE for over twenty years now, so I shouldn’t be surprised anymore, but it still gets me […]
Read moreMy thanks to Keri Khalighi (RIE Mom extraordinaire) for sharing this poem and so much other wisdom and beauty. www.wayoftheelements.com […]
Read moreAugust 11th already? Time is truly flying! My nieces start school next week (kinder and 6th!), and my nephews started […]
Read moreYou know a website I really love? It’s called A Mighty Girl, and while it is billed as ‘the world’s […]
Read moreTrust. There are 7 basic principles of RIE. There’s no particular order or hierarchy to them, and they are all […]
Read moreAs I mentioned in my very first Thread (yes, I joined. No, I have no idea what I’m doing, but […]
Read moreA few weeks ago, I had a dream that I could somehow teach my google spreadsheets to do something automatically […]
Read moreWords are important in the RIE Approach. On so many levels. From speaking respectfully to children, to telling them what […]
Read moreFather’s Day weekend is upon us, and whether your family has one Dad, no Dad, two Dads, or more, I […]
Read moreAfter a week of toddler classes, my mind is on boundaries. Can’t imagine why… 😉 But in all seriousness, boundaries […]
Read moreIt was another one of those Fridays where I had so many ideas bumping around in my head that I […]
Read moreCare Trust Boundaries Balance Partnership Real Relationships I woke up early the other morning and I (engaged in the downright […]
Read moreIn a piece I sent out several weeks ago, I talked about the building blocks of RIE: respect and authenticity. […]
Read moreHappy Mother’s Day, my dear RIE Mommas. I hope today finds you just where you would wish to be, doing […]
Read moreI hope this message finds you well on this gorgeous Spring day. And to my families who observe, I wish […]
Read moreMy first thought was what a gift to say the cover quote to a child…and to really feel that for […]
Read moreNature. Nurture. Narration. I came across that simple alliteration a while ago and it resonated…You can spot a RIE parent […]
Read moreLast week I wrote about slowing down, which is an art…a practice, and it is one of the main elements […]
Read moreSometimes I’m inspired by listening to an interesting podcast. Sometimes Often, I’m inspired by something I witness in class or […]
Read moreIn a recent class, I hovered near a child playing on top of a set of wooden stairs (about 2 […]
Read moreCare is the first lesson of love. Last week I wrote about the magic of the Educaring classes I teach…how […]
Read moreOne lovely things about teaching in the great outdoors is the exposure this unique parenting approach gets…setting up in a […]
Read moreBehaving Requires Thinking This was the subject line of an email I got this morning and I took it as […]
Read moreI don’t have an in-depth RIE in Real Life story this week because, despite my best intentions, I still really […]
Read moreSlow down, and then slow down a little more. Some of Magda Gerber’s most famous words of wisdom. And, like […]
Read moreI love it when research catches up with RIE. I’m already seeing evidence of mainstream culture starting to catch up […]
Read moreFirst off, if you’d rather listen to this newsletter, follow this link. I’m trying something new…let me know what you […]
Read moreFirst off, I’m thinking of all my families who will be celebrating the Lunar New Year this Sunday…I’m wishing you […]
Read moreI wrote this article on Friday the 13th, which is traditionally unlucky…but not to worry, this particular Friday the 13th […]
Read moreHappy New Year! This is the first RIE in Real Life of 2023, and I haven’t seen a baby or […]
Read moreIt’s the last Friday of 2022, oh my. Is it just me or did this year simultaneously crawl and fly […]
Read moreWhatever your traditions are at the end of the calendar year, though, you’ll probably be spending more time in the […]
Read moreIt was cold earlier this week, you guys! I know I have some readers who don’t live in Southern CA, […]
Read moreSlow down, and then slow down a little more. One of Magda Gerber’s classic sayings. And, like all of RIE, […]
Read moreBeing a parent is full of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure…ask anyone on the playground! (I’ve often said that judging […]
Read moreDay/Deck Dreaming
Read moreThat’s one definition of “freedom to explore” Did you know that there are seven basic principles to putting RIE into […]
Read moreAn excerpt fromThe Parents’ Tao te Ching Hello and Happy Friday Saturday, First of all, a belated but sincere happy […]
Read moreSometimes I get an idea for a topic for this newsletter from something I see or hear during my week […]
Read moreMy weekly newsletters are often about a single idea, a story or two about that idea. The idea is that […]
Read moreAs always, I hope this message finds you well. You may have noticed that my weekly newsletter hasn’t hit your […]
Read moreFrom the Parents’ Tao te Ching First, to all those who celebrate, I wish you a happy and healthy new […]
Read moreWhat a difference a week makes. From triple digits last week to almost Fall-like weather this (with some rain thrown […]
Read morePhew, today marked an end to the triple digit temperatures Southern California has been suffering through for the past two […]
Read moreFirst off, a hearty welcome to the newsletter to all the new subscribers! And a heartfelt thank you to Janet […]
Read moreSnack is still on my mind this week because of the sweetest moment I had with one of my RIE […]
Read moreI hope this week has treated you well, and if not, I hope you have treated yourself well. This week, […]
Read moreI knew I had to write about this week’s story the moment it happened. It was so beautiful that I […]
Read moreOver the past week, I’ve had a few new families come to join my classes (side note: I love the […]
Read moreToday’s RIE in Real Life is a love letter to RIE classes. As I was preparing to head home for […]
Read moreThis Friday finds me still in Central Virginia with family, and though it has been over a week since I’ve […]
Read moreThis week’s RIE in Real Life is short and personal, but it resonated with me and I think it will […]
Read moreWait. Yes, wait. That’s the theme of my RIE in Real Life this week…it was one of Magda Gerber’s core […]
Read moreOn this hot and humid (did you catch those clouds in the picture above?) week, my story is less of […]
Read moreWishing you all a very happy Father’s Day. I’m blessed to have had a very special, caring, and involved father […]
Read moreIt seems I’ve outgrown my old method of sending emails out and it’s time to try something new. With my […]
Read moreI had my RIE win all planned out for this week…I planned to write about the gratitude I have for […]
Read more(Beginning in mid-March 2020, when the world shut down, I began a bi-weekly conversation with the parents who had been […]
Read moreEnvironment is on my mind today…and I’m not talking about “the” environment, even though Earth Day just passed and it […]
Read moreA year ago, I barely knew what a webinar was. This week, I hosted one. What a long, strange year […]
Read moreMagda Gerber said that we often underestimate babies and overestimate toddlers. It’s true: since babies are born so dependent on […]
Read moreA while ago, RIE asked its Associates (of whom there are now close to 70, and not just here in […]
Read moreThis week’s RIE win comes from my Mom. A child advocate, educator, and administrator; her passion is all things early […]
Read moreMaybe it is because lately it seems like my life has suddenly sped up, filled up, and is forcing me […]
Read moreThis week’s RIE win comes courtesy of my husband, who is a woodworker, computer programmer, musician, and all-around tinkerer…someone who […]
Read moreToday, I found myself in a small park with a playground. And a LOT of people. By a lot, I […]
Read moreTaking care of difficult feelings. That was the title of the chapter we discussed last week in the Raising Good […]
Read moreFridays and Saturdays are my favorite days of the week…but not for the reason you’re likely thinking. Sure, working a […]
Read moreIn the RIE Win I shared yesterday, I talked about the heart of the Educaring Approach. Yes, the organization calls […]
Read moreKnock, Knock Who’s There? Interrupting Cow Interrupting Cow W… MOO!!! … … Is that a joke in your house right […]
Read moreIn late January I listened to an excellent webinar, put on by Minding the Baby called The Relational Foundations of […]
Read moreMy favorite parenting book is The Parents’ Tao te Ching. If you’ve been in one of my classes or read […]
Read moreAh, what a cozy day it was…big clouds with bright blue sky giving way to gray, drizzling rain and chilly […]
Read moreOne of the exciting things about creating and publicizing my website is that it has brought me back in touch […]
Read moreMy mind is still on the events of Wednesday. Scrolling through Instagram this morning, I found a really excellent post […]
Read moreMy logical brain knew that a simple turning of the calendar page, the passing of an arbitrary marker of time […]
Read more(Beginning in mid-March 2020, when the world shut down, I began a bi-weekly conversation with the parents who had been […]
Read moreHappy New Year! I hope everyone rung in the year safely and joyfully. Here we are…day 1 of a new […]
Read moreEarlier this week, I watched a video entitled Parenting in a Pandemic with Britta Bushnell, a birth educator many of […]
Read moreOne of the core pieces of the Educaring Approach, part of what makes it so special, part of what really […]
Read moreThe other day, I started a conversation with my former student, Kumi, about the word “cooperation.” We were discussing a […]
Read more(Beginning in mid-March 2020, when the world shut down, I began a bi-weekly conversation with the parents who had been […]
Read more(Beginning in mid-March 2020, when the world shut down, I began a bi-weekly conversation with the parents who had been […]
Read moreIf you have no compassion for yourself then you are not capable of developing compassion for others.-Dalai Lama Another beautiful, […]
Read moreChange is on my mind today…the season’s changing (and the weather actually seems to be changing, too), your children are […]
Read more(Beginning in mid-March 2020, when the world shut down, I began a bi-weekly conversation with the parents who had been […]
Read more(Beginning in mid-March 2020, when the world shut down, I began a bi-weekly conversation with the parents who had been […]
Read moreI write to discover what I know.-Flannery O’Connor You can make anything by writing.-C.S. Lewis Those two quotations came to […]
Read more(Beginning in mid-March 2020, when the world shut down, I began a bi-weekly conversation with the parents who had been […]
Read more(Beginning in mid-March 2020, when the world shut down, I began a bi-weekly conversation with the parents who had been […]
Read moreLast night’s all too brief webinar with Dan Siegel was a really excellent cliff’s note version of the book, The […]
Read moreI called my Grandmother today. It was a quick call, prompted because I wasn’t sure if her electronic picture frame […]
Read moreWay back when life was, well the way it was before the way it has been for the last 5 […]
Read moreMy recent piece about trauma was one of my most-responded to articles to date. I expect one of the reasons […]
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