At some time in a child’s life, someone has had to explain to them that every person is different.  Every child is unique and that’s what makes them special.  These conversations happen every day in classrooms across the country.  It’s important.  We want to raise a generation that celebrates and values each other’s differences. My family has a lot in common. We...

My kids are 8 and 11 years old, so for the past several years the month of October has looked about the same for me. From October 1st until about the 20th, each of my girls spends 80% of her day thinking about what she might be for Halloween. At least twice a week, our dinner conversations revolve around what they want “to be” and how they might best costume...

It’s that time…back to school! Three words. So simple, yet these three words spark very different responses from different people. And I’ve got proof. I asked a dozen of my friends to tell me, in five words or less, what they think when they hear those three words. Some of these friends are stay at home moms and dads, some work from home and some work out of...

Hey Preschool Teachers. Yeah, all of you. Do you know how awesome you are? You are more than goldfish crackers and finger paint. You believe it’s important for kids to play, to make friends, to learn how to interact with others around them. You teach lessons in 3 seconds flat because wait, there’s a thunderstorm that just popped up and now you have to give out hugs....

We here at Core Essential Values are hard at work editing and designing this year’s curriculum. You’ll be able to see it for yourself in just a couple of weeks, but we’re too excited to wait for that! Here’s a list of a few things that are new or different this year in our bigger, better, most inclusive curriculum yet! First, our value word...

22,400 elementary age kids. 60 elementary schools. Those numbers alone sound a little intimidating. But, when you have a mission, those numbers just give you chill bumps. Debbie and Dan Kubish get chill bumps almost daily.   Debbie and Dan lead the children’s ministry at Newspring Church in Wichita, Kansas. They dreamed about partnering with public schools in a...

I’m not really knowledgeable about football, but I know that kicking a punt past the guy who is supposed to catch it is a really good thing…for the kicking team, that is. The phrase “out punting your coverage” is used to describe that exact situation. I use that phrase, too, but usually to describe a couple that I wouldn’t have guessed were...