08/20/2026
We’ve been keeping a little secret, and we are SO excited to finally share it! 💙🎶🦅
We are partnering even more with Mindful Musicians and Centrally Rooted to bring the Mindful Musicians curriculum to all of our Little Eagles!
Our Preschool and Pre-K teams got the first look this morning, and wow… the timing of this training could not have been more perfect.
This year, our Holy Family community is focusing on:
“What you have received as a gift, give as a gift.” — 1 Peter 4:10
We talked this morning about the gifts we each bring into our classrooms. The gift to teach. To connect. To bring joy. To notice when a child needs a little more. And sometimes, to share our gifts with a teammate who may need them too.
We have been given the incredible gift of teaching and caring for these Little Eagles, and we don’t take that lightly.
As we prepare our classrooms and our hearts to welcome our students next week, this was such a good reminder of the why behind what we do.
Today was just the beginning! We can’t wait to get these tools into the hands of our entire Early Childhood team this fall and, most importantly, into the lives of our Little Eagles. 💛🎶
This is a room full of educators showing me their Fist to Five at the end of our Mindful Musicians presentation this morning. ❤️
Fist to Five is one of the simplest tools in the curriculum: a quick, visual way to ask, “Where are you right now?” A fist can mean “I’m really struggling,” while five fingers can mean “I’m feeling great.”
No complicated lesson. No special training. Just a shared language that gives children — and adults — a way to check in with themselves and communicate what’s happening inside.
And today, while these educators were experiencing Mindful Musicians for themselves, I got an unexpected opportunity to model exactly why tools like this matter.
Standing in front of the room, my heart started pounding.
And then I lost my train of thought.
So I stopped.
I took a drink of water. I took a long breath.
And then I looked at the teachers and said:
“Did you notice what I just did?”
Because this is the work.
Our children don’t need adults who never become overwhelmed.
They need adults who can show them what it looks like to recognize what is happening inside themselves, use a tool, regulate, and begin again.
Regulation isn’t never becoming activated. It’s knowing how to come home.
That is one of the reasons I created Mindful Musicians.
Later in the presentation, I shared something much more personal.
My daughter’s father died by su***de.
And I have spent years wondering what might be different in our world if children grew up regularly being asked:
Where are you right now?
What are you feeling?
What does your body need?
Who can you tell when you’re struggling?
What do you believe about yourself?
What if a child who had been living at a “zero” for days, weeks, or months had the language to recognize it — and a community where saying it out loud felt safe?
I know a music and mindfulness curriculum cannot solve every struggle our children will face.
But I believe deeply that giving children tools for self-awareness, emotional regulation, connection, coping, and self-worth matters.
Today, I watched educators experience those tools themselves.
We sang. We moved. We used rhythm and chants. We practiced mindfulness. We checked in with our own nervous systems. And we talked about what happens in the brain when we give ourselves opportunities to pause, move, breathe, connect, and make music together.
At the end of the presentation, one teacher told me she had walked into school that morning feeling like she’d been hit by a truck — stressed, depleted, and exhausted.
She told me she was leaving feeling rejuvenated and ready to make a difference for her students.
That stopped me in my tracks.
Because teachers are being asked to carry so much.
And the last thing I want Mindful Musicians to become is one more thing for teachers to carry.
This is not another program that requires hours of training, a whole new skill set, or extensive preparation.
And despite the name, you do not have to be a musician — or a music teacher — to use Mindful Musicians.
Music is our foundation because rhythm, repetition, and melody have an incredible way of helping important language stick.
But what we’re really putting into teachers’ hands is a toolbox.
Think of it almost like an “easy button” for moments teachers are already navigating every single day.
Your class needs a reset?
There’s a tool for that.
Your students need help identifying what they’re feeling?
There’s language for that.
Need a movement break? A catchy phrase children can remember? A song? A poster? A book connection? An art activity? A sing-along video? A simple 15-minute implementation idea?
It’s there when you need it.
You don’t have to become an expert in Mindful Musicians before you can begin using it.
Open it. Find what your students need. Press play. Try an activity. Put up a poster. Use the language.
And begin.
Because Mindful Musicians isn’t about creating perfectly regulated classrooms filled with perfectly regulated children and teachers.
It’s about giving human beings more tools for being human.
And if we want children to learn these skills, we have to support the adults who are showing up every day to teach them.
That’s also why I want educators to know this:
It is not too late to bring Mindful Musicians into your school for this school year.
There isn’t an extensive training period you missed over the summer.
You can start now.
And we’ve worked hard to make the entire Mindful Musicians curriculum available to schools for just $89.
Not $89 per student.
Not $89 per classroom.
$89 for the curriculum.
My hope is simple:
One more child recognizes what they’re feeling.
One more child learns how to pause.
One more child realizes, “I’m not okay, and I know who I can tell.”
One more teacher has something to reach for in the moment instead of feeling like they have to figure it all out themselves.
As educators everywhere head back into classrooms, I want you to know:
The work you are doing matters.
And you don’t have to do it without tools.
Teachers, if this sounds like something that could help you and your students this year, please share this post with your principal or administrator.
Principals and administrators, we’d love to help bring Mindful Musicians into your school.
Today reminded me exactly why I started this work. ❤️
When we give adults practical tools for regulation, they can model those tools for children.
And those children carry them into the world
