Sparkle Stories Blog

It’s no small thing to create space for rest in the busy month of December. But consider taking a page out of Martin and Sylvia’s book and imagine a few ways to restructure, reframe, or re-evaluate your activities so that you can take just one day for a few hours of restoration.

We recently asked our Sparkle Team and our Sparklers on social media this question: If you could do anything for Mother's Day, what would you do? We got some really fun answers. We hope they inspire your own real Mother's Day celebrations!

What would Mr. Rogers think of children’s entertainment today? As a man who built a culture out of children’s television, how would he feel about today’s shows? Would he compare the children’s television and entertainment of today with that of his time and conclude, as many of us have, that less TV and screen time might be a good idea?

There is an alternative parenting technique that is hardly new. It has been used since our species could speak, and it is not only effective, it is delightful: storytelling. We are wired for it — literally. The neuroscience is conclusive — we use stories to build our realities and make sense of them.

Here are a few tips to get you started in your thinking about Days of Rest during the upcoming festival season.

We wish to honor those children who find situations and encounters a little more intimidating than others. With these stories, we hope to soothe that bring comfort to those children who feel just a little more intensely than others.

There are many models out there for leadership – and it is up to us, the parents, teachers, and healers to find them, talk about them, and then hold them up in front of our children. Our children who will be the leaders of the future.

This week we hear more from Martin and Sylvia’s new friends, the Hadid family – and their honoring of Ramadan.

Wildfires are scary. Flooding is scary. The news is thick with pictures of burning or flooding homes, and next week there are thousands of children who will not start school because their school is either underwater or their home has burned to the ground.

David talks about the power of visual media and imagination.