Personal Philosophy
In my work I live by certain standards and unwavering beliefs…
Resilience is THE foundational life skill.
Adversity is an opportunity for growth… and building resilience as early as toddlerhood sets humans up for a lifetime of success. Facing uncomfortable situations cannot and SHOULD NOT be avoided. Not allowing children to sit with uncomfortable feelings and removing any opportunities for boredom, failure, anger, or sadness is doing a disservice to children’s cognitive functioning.
Empowering caregivers and educators to embody their authority through boundaries and consistency, while maintaining their role as their children’s safe space for connection and love.
Children lack impulse control until around age 4 and even then it takes practice to consistently use those skills. In this critical period when a child lacks the control to make good and healthy decisions, it is the role of adults in their life to help them regulate themselves. By establishing these boundaries and upholding them, children will learn that emotions/situations are not too big or scary to deal with… and most importantly that YOU are not afraid of their emotions and are in control.
EVERY little thing matters, from infancy, toddlerhood, childhood and on…
We have to take into consideration 2 factors… certain behaviors are developmentally appropriate and bad behaviors do not equal bad children. Often caregivers feel they are losing control and that is NEVER the case. Children will behave in whatever way that has been reinforced and often when we feel a child is “out of control” it is a manifestation of an adults inability to handle the hard parts of creating positive habits… the tantrums, the crying, the begging, the hitting, the “i hate you’s”.
Foundational literacy, math, and social-emotional skills learned as young as 3 years old impact a child for the rest of their life
In the early years, the foundational skills children are learning set them up for a lifetime of success. Mastery of foundational skills as young as kindergarten being proven to increase elementary school performance, college attendance rates, healthy behaviors, and career outcomes. This is the exact reason I am an advocate for mastery of early education skills, because it sets children up to fulfill their full potential throughout their lifetime.