Sparkle Stories Blog
A home for Sparkle audio stories, crafts, recipes, and kind words!
Storybox Playlist: When Kids Clash - Stories and Suggestions for Conflict Resolution
Conflict exists everywhere — even within households. Since this is natural and normal, the question is not about how to avoid clashes, but how to address conflicts with integrity. Here are some stories that use tactics and hold context for authentic conflict resolution.
Sparkle Craft: Rainy Boot “Hens and Chicks” Planters
While you could plant your hens and chicks in many different containers — because they're cute and plentiful at our house at this time of year — I think an outgrown pair of rain boots is just adorable with a bevy of hens and chicks sprouting out of the top.
Sparkle Kitchen: Daffodil Tarts
If you're feeling ready for some of the sunshine a bouquet of daffodils can bring, bake up a batch of these “daffodil” lemon tarts. Even if it's still winter where you live, the bright, tangy lemon curd will have you dreaming of spring in no time.
Storybox Playlist: Stories of Freedom and Renewal
This year's Easter and Passover overlap, which means we can enjoy all the powerful imagery that both festivals bring to the beginning of Spring. Here are some stories of transformation, liberation, and renewal.
Magic at the Heart of Sparkle Storytelling
In this season of birds and blossoms and so so many spring fairies, may we all pause to notice the thickness in the air, the wonderful tension of magic as it attracts the impossible to your door.
Friday's Kind Words: It's Perfect!
The stories are the perfect length, they are engaging, they focus on character values, and they are recorded so pleasantly! ~Chelsea
Flower Pot Fairy House: Make Your Own!
If you want to see fairies in your own woods or garden, consider encouraging your imaginative eyesight with one of these tiny, flower pot fairy houses.
Community: What We Are Learning from the Austin Bombings
Over the past 3 weeks, Austin has been on edge as bomb after bomb has killed or injured people around the city. People have been afraid and confused and not sure what to do.
Libby's Adventure Snack: Vegetarian Pemmican
Libby and Dish prepare for Libby’s outing to the city with their Adventure Checklist. All four items — including a Mask of On-and-Off Invisibility and a Shelter Cloak of Safekeeping — serve to provide Libby with everything she needs for the trip.
Storybox Playlist: Making Room for Magic
Here are a few stories that help us expand our relationship with "magic."
Friday's Kind Words: Part of Our Breakfast Routine
My son just got a Sparkle subscription for his birthday and now it’s part of our breakfast routine to listen to another story! ~Elizabeth
Sparkle Craft: Maple Watercolor Notecards
If you're feeling wistful for this late-winter tradition, give this week's craft a try. These watercolor notecards use maple syrup as a base to make the paints swirl into lovely patterns and shapes.
sparkle kitchen: warm kale salad with maple dressing
This warm kale salad with maple dressing is one of our favorite lunches for a yucky winter Saturday afternoon
Storybox Playlist: Stories of Maple Syrup Magic
In the northeastern U.S., there is not more powerful symbol of the coming spring than maple syrup. We trudge through the snow, tree to tree, to tap a little bit of each tree's running sap. The taste is not only sweet, but filled with promise, resilience, and possibility for the season ahead!
Sparkle Weekly Wondering: Dry Gables - Good Neighbors
Today we launch a third Dry Gables collection: “Good Neighbors.”
Friday's Kind Words: Quiet, Settled Space
We love Sparkle Stories! It is something I've been sharing with my seven-year-old son for a few years now and we both enjoy the stories and the quiet, settled space that it helps us create. ~Beth
Exploring the Dry Gables Series - "Get It Done!"
The Enneagram is a complex and meaningful model of human personality. It offers us a road map in helping us to identify who we are at our best and what blocks us from a place of happiness and greater ease. Here we explore it through one of our own Sparkle Stories collections.
Dry Gables: The Stories and How to Use Them
Dry Gables is a unique series of stories centered around the people who live and work in a Victorian era small town in South Dakota. Each of the nine characters embodies a way of being in the world — with unique behaviors, motivations, and fears.
Sparkle Craft: Clothespin Race Cars
Perhaps it's because our family just finished our first season of pinewood derby, but I can readily identify with Jane's deep dive into learning about cars. What makes them go faster? Is aerodynamics important? Or is it all about weight? The research and reading and testing is fascinating.
Sparkle Kitchen: Leek and Sausage Soup
Inspired by the leek sausages that Marta has to leave when she's called to help with the conflict in this story, this soup is hearty and warm, but — between the leeks, spinach, and lemon — also just bright enough to make you think there might be a hope of spring coming soon.
