Nice to meet you!
I entered the field of early childhood education because of how much I love children. Since I was a child myself, I’ve been fascinated by early childhood development, and always found little kids incredibly charming and delightful to be around. I’ve always valued rapport and relationship building in my work with children, but over the past few years, as I’ve learned more about Attachment Theory and the way children’s relationships with adults in their early life affect their ability to have healthy relationships for the rest of their lives, I’ve realized that our relationships with children are quite possibly the most important things we, adults, offer to them.
While I knew that I loved working with children, I was delighted to discover that I also love working closely with parents. The opportunity to share stories about their children at parent-teacher conferences and the chance to offer information about the classroom during Parent Education Nights felt like a great way to support parents, and help them understand their children better. When I moved to a larger school with several classrooms, I realized that I also very much enjoyed sharing what I’d learned about Montessori and Attachment theory with my coworkers, especially when they could put our discussions into action and have an easier time working with children because of the knowledge.
While I know I’ll be back in the classroom one day (and I’m still lucky enough to sub sometimes!), at the moment I’m thrilled to be offering coaching and training to help parents and teachers have the best relationships possible with the children in your lives. Please reach out if you’re curious, I have so much to share with you.
Trainings and Certifications
Much of what I’ve learned about children has been through on-the-job experience working with hundreds of delightful children and their families, first as a babysitter and summer camp counselor in my teens and twenties, then for the past 12 years in classrooms in Iowa and Oregon.
Although I’ve taken countless trainings over the years, the two that have made the biggest impact on how I work with children were the Montessori AMI primary teacher training at Montessori Northwest, here in Portland, Oregon, which I completed with my M.Ed. in Montessori Education from the University of Loyola, Maryland, and the Circle of Security Early Intervention Program. In the past year, as I embarked on the journey to become a full-time parent educator and coach, I completed the Circle of Security facilitator training as well as the Circle for the classroom facilitator training. I also recently added the HeartMath Building Personal Resilience Certification, and the Integrated Attachment Theory Relationship Coach Certification. Please take some time to watch these videos and follow the links to learn about each program, or if you’d prefer, let’s schedule a call and talk!