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Teaching Children about the Big Bang
Tate is turning six at the beginning of July, and I can already see him transitioning from the “Absorbent Mind” to the “Reasoning Mind,” as Maria Montessori calls them. He’s asking about how everything in the universe came to be.
It’s time to start talking about the Big Bang! As a Montessori guide, I learned how to tell the First Great Story. I also made these follow-up cards for children to sequence.
I feel comfortable telling the story, but I also wanted to purchase a book to read to Tate, so that he could have something to go back to independently. After scouring Amazon, I decided on this book: … Read More
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Living in a Racist “Liberal” City
Photo Courtesy my partner Matt: Hank + Tank Photography Back in 2000, I moved to rural Louisiana to teach in a school district that was struggling to recruit teachers. On one of my first days there, I went to get my hair cut on the main street.
As I sat in the chair, I started gushing about how excited I was to be in Franklin, Louisiana. The white hair stylist said, “Yeah, Franklin used to be a good town until all the Black people moved in.”
Having lived in more progressive cities growing up, I was shocked by her blatant display of bigotry and racism, and I was horrified that … Read More
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The Benefits of Nature Walks
An “insect hotel“ 
Spring is coming to Austin 
Do you ever scroll past something on Facebook without reading it fully and yet feel like you’ve internalized the concept?
That’s how I feel about the Japanese concept of forests being therapeutic. I don’t think I’ve read a full article about it because the idea feels so easy to comprehend. That’s exactly how I feel about spending time in forests! It feels rejuvenating and grounding and calming all at once.
When I lived in Houston (pre-children), I had the most amazing weekend routine: every Saturday and Sunday, I would run three miles around the Memorial Park trail, and then I … Read More