Just as we do at the Meeting House, Jennifer Freed believes that social and emotional skills are critical to a child’s ability to succeed in school, build healthy relationships, and develop a strong sense of self-esteem. Unfortunately, these skills take a backseat in our traditional education system. In 1999, Jennifer and a colleague founded AHA! -- which stands for attitude, harmony, and achievement -- as a way to empower teens to create “peaceful and connected communities” and as a means of closing the achievement gap.

At the Meeting House, making friends and building a community that is caring and respectful are at center of all that we do. Together with our students and art teacher Vin Buchan, we create a space full of attachment and warmth, where love is the guiding principle and all are encouraged to have fun, develop and maintain attachments to friends, and express themselves in a safe and stimulating environment.

It's been a while since our last update but things have been super busy and we are having a great time in TMH Juniors.  We are so excited to have made two new friends in 2017...welcome to Sophie and Christian!

From social interactions, to the workplace, to our political systems, we live in a world that is changing rapidly and it’s becoming more and more clear that to thrive we need an updated toolkit. At the Meeting House we believe that social-emotional skills are the new fundamentals, and we feel fortunate to have the opportunity to start working with children on these invaluable skills at an early age. Only by developing and relying on our emotional intelligence are we able to confront the constant updates, innovations, and evolutions that characterize our world today. And only if we collectively strengthen our social-emotional skills as communities and societies, will we be able to look past our differences, approach one another with empathy, and work together to solve the biggest challenges of our times with ingenuity and flexibility.

At a recent meeting filled with many of the best minds in child psychiatry, psychology and education, an esteemed colleague revisited the model of child-centered practice in these fields. While everyone nodded knowingly, I left the meeting wondering: why is this model so hard to find? A large and growing body of data shows that student outcomes are almost always better when professionals work together. How can we model collaboration for our children who visit The Meeting House each week, and encourage parents to do the same at home?

How have your first few days of 2017 gone? If they’ve been a little less smooth than you’d hoped, you’re not alone. Many families struggle with the transition back to school after a week or two off. During school breaks, structure tends to go out the window. The temptation is to relax and enjoy, stay up late and sleep in, eat whatever we want, and let school-week rules slide. If that’s how you spent your holidays, don’t be hard on yourself. We all need a break from routine once in awhile, and less structure can create space for precious moments of family bonding and fun. If this week has been a tough one in your house, take notes on what’s gone wrong -- that way, when the next break comes around, you’ll know what to look out for, and what to avoid.

I started writing my new series, The Kindness Club, because I was having a really bad day. One of those days when you just want to stay under the covers for awhile. But on that day, I had a number of commitments that required me to leave my house. So I did, feeling really crabby about it. And then something happened -- I witnessed a supreme kindness. It wasn’t a kindness to me, not directly anyway. But just seeing it changed how I was feeling. It made me happy.

What a wonderful afternoon we had with everyone yesterday. There was such excitement and joy in all of the kids as soon as they walked in the doors and it lasted the whole afternoon. It was so fun to hear the kids chatting about their week and holiday plans without any prompting from me or Sondra.

The holiday season is a special time for all of us, and it’s particularly magical for kids. Who doesn’t remember that feeling of growing excitement with each passing week in December? And while family, friends, gratitude, and generosity are the true magic of the holiday season, that moment of pure wonder and happiness in a child’s eyes when unwrapping a special gift is hard to beat. We’re all in search of the perfect gift, so our team has given us a head start this season. We’re sharing their recommendations for fantastic gifts for every child on your list, from toddlers to pre-teens, book lovers to thrill seekers.

We were so happy to see everyone after last week’s Thanksgiving break. The kids were so excited to see each other and we took the time to share Thanksgiving stories.

With Thanksgiving approaching, we’re entering the season of light and love. That celebratory time of year that’s filled with family, food, and traditions. It’s a time of reconnecting with the rituals and relationships that ground us. We had an inspiring opportunity to speak with educator, and macrobiotic chef, Elizabeth Gollan, about the importance of food and rituals as a means of connection and comfort for children, and how we can integrate the warmth and sweetness of the season into our everyday lives, all year long.

As we near the culmination of this emotionally charged fall, many of us are feeling anxious and uncertain, not only about how the election results will impact us, but also about how to talk about these issues with our children. In an insightful recent interview, Scott Baytosh, Head of Alexandria Country Day School, shared his suggestions for helping children navigate difficult political topics and develop objective political views. We were fortunate enough to set up our own interview with him to discuss strategies for talking about the election with kids. We talked about what these election lessons really teach us about the importance of social-emotional learning and Emotional Intelligence for children, and frankly adults of all ages.

Explaining things to our children that we cannot quite make sense of ourselves always poses an unusual challenge. The newsworthy events of this presidential election have presented this challenge to parents and educators day in and day out for over a year. So, how can we talk to our children about it?

It was so great seeing everyone today and hearing all about their Halloween fun. The kids were talking with one another about their adventures during snack and hangout time and we loved seeing them interact with each other. We brought out a bunch of new games today during hangout and the kids couldn’t get enough of them! We choose games that are low stress but still allow kids to think, work together and regroup after a long school day.

It was another great week at TMH Juniors! We happily welcomed a new member this week and we are so excited! We continue to use snack and hangout as a time for our kids to unwind after a long day of school and catch up on things from the previous week. With each week that goes by more friendships are developing and conversations are becoming more meaningful.  

This month, the Meeting House joins schools and organizations around the country in promoting National Bullying Prevention Awareness and drawing attention to this important issue. Especially as put-downs, exclusion, and distrust dominate in the media and public sphere these days, it seems all the more important to be discussing bullying with our kids and practicing ways to combat it. I believe our Meeting House community is an ideal space to do that, as our core values -- respect, diversity, inclusion, friendship, and community -- form a strong counterforce to the culture of bullying.

We had another great afternoon at TMH Juniors yesterday!  We are noticing that friendships are developing and the kids are genuinely excited to catch up on what has happened at home and at school during the week. 

“Children are children, no matter where they are from.” This is one of the beliefs that guides the work of Dr. Fadi Haddad, a member of our advisory board. Aside from being an expert in children’s mental health, Dr. Haddad has a passion for travel. In July he was able to bring his work and his passion together on a trip to Bulgaria, where he volunteered his time and expertise with World Wide Orphans, an organization that provides resources for orphanages. In honor of World Mental Health Day, we wanted to share some of his experiences, as well as a few of the universal insights into children’s behavior and health that he gained from his trip.

Week number two at TMH Juniors was another great one! The kids were all very excited to see each other and spent much of snack and hangout talking about their school day and fun things they had done on their days off from school.

Welcome to Meeting House Juniors!  I'm thrilled to report that our first class was a huge success.  It was so nice to welcome back our returning members Stella and Gerry and to welcome our new friends, Avery, Jack and Lucy, to our group.  We are also excited to have a new high school volunteer, Sarah, joining us each week. The kids did a terrific job cooperating and playing together this afternoon and Sondra and I are looking forward to a wonderful year of Fun, Friendship and Community in our Juniors program.