A child-led Christmas - keeping it authentic

Anja Geelen

November 29, 2017

Christmas is a wonderful opportunity to infuse your setting with life and celebration. The festive season can be a magical time for our children if we choose to ‘let it in’, instead of closing the door to it.

Anja Geelen

November 15, 2017

The Adult

How can the adult-you enjoy Christmas?

Anja Geelen

November 15, 2017

The Adult

At the Heart School we are passionate about creating beautiful and meaningful Christmas memories for young children. When they have long hours in care, and less at home or out in the community, it is really important our settings provide them some of the childhood magic that is the festive season. But what about our adults? Couldn’t they do with some Christmas magic of their own?

Anja Geelen

November 1, 2017

The Child

Would the child-like you approve of celebrating Christmas?

Anja Geelen

November 1, 2017

The Child

One of the best ways of responding to our children with heart is to remember what it is like to be them. Bring the child-you into focus, and you'll understand what is needed from us.

Hi there, we are The Heart School! We help teachers to keep the heart at the heart of their teaching. Learn more…

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Toronto, our workshop is on tonight. Join us to explore how we can keep our heart at the heart of teaching and have a more harmonious environment for our children and ourselves. There's still tickets available. Link in profile. Mika, is very curious too! What about you?

Do you remember the advent calendar, where you got to open one little window a day and find a little treat? In the spirit of this festive season, and in the spirit of The Heart School, we have once again put together our own Heart School Advent Calendar, but not with chocolates for the tastebuds. We have put together a smorgasbord of sweets for the heart. A feast of festive goodness awaits your inbox in the format of a daily advent email to help you get into, and stay in, the festive spirit for the entire festive season. These daily advent emails will remind you what the season is all about and give you ideas to implement, and inspirations to get the head and heart cogs turning. For 24 days you can look forward to food for thought, practical ideas and ‘anniversaries of the heart’ to embrace the mindset and ‘heart set’ to make this a meaningful, magical season. Grow with us this season! It's free, it's fun and it's festive. All you need to do is to sign up, and since we are in the spirit of giving, we will give you our “Christmas with Heart: 24 Ways for 24 Days" handout to get you started with the festive touches. The first email will be sent out on 1st December and the last one on 24th December. We love sprinkling magic. We hope you will join us too. Click on the link in the profile.

Happy Thanks GIVING to our friends around the world. We are grateful to all our teachers and carers who have joined us over the years to make our 'home away from home' a place for the head AND the heart for the children in our care. You are all rockstars. Feel free, and yes it is totally free, to join us for our 24 Days of infusions for the Heart, 1-24 December. It's our gift to you. - Anja, Kimberley and Tessa Follow the link in the profile to sign up.

Our 24 'emails from the heart' are back this year! Don't miss out on these beautiful heart infusing emails straight into your inbox from 1 December to 24 December. Rekindle your child-like love of the season and recharge in time for the festivities. Click on the link below to sign up. The first heart infusion will land in your inbox on Sunday.

We can pledge that the relationships, kindness, emotional safety, unhurried time and play are the essential ingredients for our children. We can profess all the goodness, but how do we manifest all this in our practice? TORONTO… THIS ONE IS FOR YOU! This inspirational 2 hour workshop from THE HEART SCHOOL will show you how to prepare yourself in the head, heart and hand. Learn how to bring your heart into your teaching, while serving kindness, calmness and connection with your children and families. Tickets and more info in the profile link. #toronto #earlychildhood #earlychildhoodeducation #ece #teacher #theheartschool #teaching #teach #daycare #childhood #childcare #kindergarten #kimberleycrisp #preschool #play #journal #teacherjournal #torontochildcare #torontodaycare #earlyyearstoronto #earlylearning #earlylearningtoronto #leslieville #canada #kindergartenteachers

What's the heart got to do with reflection? That's a fair question when we look at the very head-centred processes out there. There doesn't seem to be space for the heart when the topics are surface or only for the quantifiable or the what-everyone-else-is-reviewing. We even have to reflect on the reflection and goal setting processes, and those very head-centric words are thrown about - strategic this, evaluative that. And what those kind of words do is 'throw us'. They take us out of the heart, as we struggle to get our heads around them. We may know their meaning, but lump so many in a sentence and we're lost, and the only way our heart is engaged is the sudden heaviness of it as we feel uninspired, confused and not 'good enough'. This is why our Heart School Reflection Journal is such a gem. It lifts those heavy hearts and reminds us that we CAN still be professional if we drop the jargon and use nourishing words instead. We CAN make genuine improvements in our practice when we select our own interpretation of a beautiful, meaningful statement and explore what it means to US. We can put the heart right at the core of our reflection and our practice and be absolutely 'good enough'. P.S. Orders for our Reflection Journal at early bird price close tonight. Link in profile.