While working with individual families, this question came up often - should I let my kids use kits or have them work from scratch? I had listened to speakers and read articles that said absolutely no kits. By then, I had stopped living in a black-and-white world. I had learned to take my family, their needs, as well as my own, into consideration when deciding what was good for connection and learning. I had gotten brave enough to say, "I'm the expert in my home." I surely didn't know everything and still don't, but I observed, pondered, and used my good sense. With that in mind, listen to what I'm sharing today about using kits with kids, and then do what's right in your home, with your kids or grands. You will be surprised and enlightened.

Welcome back. If you heard Part 1, you already know that the Traveling Spark Station isn't about content — it's about being present. It's about showing a child that the person standing in front of them finds the world interesting and wants to explore it together.

In Part 2, we're going to explore two areas that might surprise you: math and the arts. I say "surprise you" because math has a reputation for being dry and intimidating, and the arts sometimes get dismissed as less important than "real" subjects. The Traveling Spark Station disagrees with both of those ideas.

Math is everywhere — in the cookies you're counting out, the nails you're hammering, the fractions in a recipe, the shapes on a walk around the block. When you make math real and connect it to something a child already loves, it stops being a subject and starts being a tool. And the arts? Creativity, imagination, and making things with your hands are among the most powerful ways children (and adults) make sense of the world. From crocheting white blood cells to building fairy houses in Yellowstone, you'll see exactly what I mean.

Pack your basket. Let's keep going.

It's spring — that season of newness, freshness, and quiet beginnings. It seemed the perfect time to share a story from Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards' book The Daffodil Principle, because it beautifully illustrates something I've come to believe deeply: that lasting change happens 1% at a time. Not in grand gestures or overnight transformations, but in small, consistent efforts that grow into something magnificent.

Join me as I share portions of a story that illustrate that we make a difference and leave a legacy 1% at a time.

When my daughter, Jodie's, children were young, I lived two blocks away. When I was caring for them in my home, they loved the Spark Station. But I wanted to connect more often, so for several years I would take my Spark Station traveling to their home. I didn't stop there. I took it to Washington and Colorado to connect with my faraway grands. I used it at events with children. I wanted a better connection with all the children in my life. It came to be called the Traveling Spark Station.

This four-part series is for anyone who loves a child but doesn't live with them every day — grandparents, aunts, uncles, family friends, anyone who wants to show up and really connect. The Traveling Spark Station is simply a basket, bag, or box filled with books, supplies, and simple activities built around a single topic. You choose the topic. You pack what you need. And then you go.

Join me as I give you dozens of fun ideas to connect by using The Traveling Spark Station.

When I developed the Spark Station, I thought I was helping parents learn to use a useful tool for connection, learning, and fun. What I spent most of my time doing was helping parents see their children differently — helping them stop seeing their children as burdens, responsibilities, or problems to be solved.

My mission became helping parents adjust their sight and hearts, to see their children with new eyes. When we see differently, we behave differently. When we behave differently, we get new results. Willpower isn't what makes a home a heaven. Seeing our children as people we genuinely like and want to be with does.

The Spark Station is a tool to help you accomplish that. Join me as I share the disaster that taught me the Five Principles of power and how the Spark Station worked in a room with 140 small children. You're going to LOVE this.

Last week, I shared an experiment I did with real families using the Spark Station. I reiterated the five rules that make everything else work and shared real family experiences for three of those rules. Today, we will cover the last two rules. I am also going to address what to do if it isn't working for your family and how to manage the hard days. Join me as I round out all the information so you can begin to find successful family connection with this fun tool.

I want to tell you about an experiment I did years ago. I had been talking to families about the Spark Station and quickly realized that something wasn't clicking for a lot of them. They liked the idea, but it wasn't working the way it should. I could see clearly that these parents were missing the vision of the real power this tool could have in their homes. So, I decided to test what I knew worked with real families — five of them, over two months.

The families were wonderfully different from each other. I talked face-to-face with parents and children, and what I learned from those two months shaped everything I now teach about the Spark Station. What I found was this: the tool itself wasn't the problem. The principles behind it were.

Join me as I share stories and examples from these real families that illustrate how and why the Five Principles of Power work. I want to convince you that these rules work, not just in learning but in family connection and fun.

When I was in fifth grade, I learned to crochet. It wasn't easy to learn. I had never done anything like it before. I felt all thumbs, and it wasn't always easy to conceptualize what it was I was supposed to do. With time, I did learn, and I made a small purse. My teacher coached me through almost every row until it was done. I still have that purse.

The next hurdle was learning to read actual directions. Yikes. It was like reading Greek. I had learned how to crochet, but without a teacher constantly at my elbow or being able to read the directions, I couldn't really use my new skill. To learn to read directions, I had to go back to the beginning and learn to connect the skill with the actual execution of a pattern.

The same is true for the Spark Station. You may have heard me mention it, but hearing about it and actually creating and using one are two different things. During April, I'm going to give you the instructions you need.

Today, let's look at the basics - why it's called the Spark Station, what a Spark Station is, and the rules for success. You're going to LOVE this!