Valentine's Day is a special day that captures the hearts {and sweet-teeth} of our children, and is a day that holds so much possibility for dialogue about love, kindness and friendship.

Children of all ages love to receive and create their own handmade Valentines, and inside my latest YouTube video, I'm sharing several {new!} process-art techniques for creating Valentines cards for sharing, and ways to extend these invitations to include beginning writing.

 But how do we extend our children's Valentine's art to also encourage writing?

Begin with mind-mapping exercises (brainstorming), where you create a bubble map of children's ideas about love / kindness / friendship.

Some ideas for brainstorming:

• People we love
• What is Love?
• What does kindness look like / sound like / feel like?
• What does it mean to be a good friend?

These brainstorming moments are a great way to initiate our kids' prior knowledge. This...

Once in a while, you meet a teacher {online or in-person} who absolutely blows you away with what they are doing in their practice. I call these my "teacher-crushes." Folks who educate, inspire, uplift, enlighten, and even entertain us with their amazing work in the field.

As I keep my circle of Insta-teacher-influencers small {limited to those who share a Reggio/Arts/and Play-oriented philosophy}, I get to meet a truly inspiring educator every now and again. These teachers model best practices, are role models for their students and a true inspiration in the field.

I thought I would start a "spotlight series" to share the work of these inspiring educators, and unpack their biggest challenges and struggles. 

We all face similar obstacles: whether we are practicing teachers, homeschoolers, or mothers providing enrichment for our kids.

The feelings of overwhelm, lack of time and resources, and meeting the needs of varying ages and abilities are commonplace issues....