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In early childhood, Valentine’s Day offers a quiet opportunity to turn our attention toward something essential: love as lived experience. Before hearts become decorations and cards are exchanged, love is first known by young children through relationship, through warmth, rhythm, presence, and care. In LifeWays-inspired homes and programs, Valentine’s Day can be approached not as a single event, but as a gentle seasonal gesture that honors connection within the family or comm

Singing games are one of those simple childhood experiences that carry extraordinary depth. A circle of children, a shared melody, a few gestures or steps and suddenly something ancient and nourishing comes alive. Long before screens and schedules, children learned about the world, one another, and themselves through song and movement. At their heart, singing games invite children into connection. When children sing together, they breathe together, listen together, and move t

By late February, we find ourselves standing at a quiet threshold. Winter is still very much present and the cold air, bare branches, and long nights remind us of that, and yet something subtle has begun to shift. The light lingers a little longer in the afternoon. The sun feels warmer on our faces. Beneath the frozen ground, life is stirring. For young children, this time of year is not about anticipation or explanation. It is about experience. They feel the change not in w

How can parents deepen their own intimate connection with nature, and pass this, heart to heart, to their children? In doing research for my book With Stars in Their Eye: Brain Science and Your Child’s Journey Toward the Self, I discovered a mountain of studies that shows the foundation of all childhood brain development is what I call “The Love Connection.” The sacred love between parent and child is crucial in many ways, as we know. A more subtle, yet profoundly necessary