05/06/2026
A healthy childhood is deeply human.
Sources / researchers worth exploring:
• Peter Gray — free play + self-directed learning
• Dr. Stuart Brown — play research
• Dr. Gabor Maté — attachment + stress
• Dr. Gordon Neufeld — attachment theory
• The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
• Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff
• Montessori + Waldorf developmental models
• Harvard Center on the Developing Child
• American Academy of Pediatrics reports on play and development
Childhood was never supposed to feel like constant performance.
05/01/2026
i didn’t have the words for it back then
i just knew i felt different there
lighter
safer
like i could exhale
home wasn’t steady
it wasn’t calm
it wasn’t always a place i could just be a kid
but my waldorf school was
it held me in a way i didn’t even understand at the time
through rhythm and stories and songs and seasons
through mayday dances and flower crowns and soft places to land
it gave me a childhood that felt… intact
even when other parts of my life weren’t
and now, all these years later
as pieces of my childhood resurface in ways i didn’t expect
i’m realizing why this matters so much to me
why i built acorn school
why i will protect it so fiercely
because children deserve a place
where childhood feels safe
where magic isn’t rushed
where they are held gently in the middle of their becoming
acorn isn’t just a program to me
it’s something i needed
and something i get to give
04/28/2026
from arizona to australia to japan… and this little phonics curriculum is already making its way into homes around the world 🌎
if you want your child to begin reading in a gentle, playful way that actually honors childhood, comment “phonics” and i’ll send you the link ✨
